Using Digital Storytelling During Home Tinkering Activities to Promote Children's Engineering Learning

• In Event: Digital Practices for Promoting Children's STEM Learning in Informal Settings

Abstract

Objective and Theoretical Background
Our study explored ways to potentially support children’s engineering learning during and after an at-home tinkering activity, as these types of hands-on problem-solving activities are gaining popularity in informal settings (Bevan, 2017). Digital storytelling, in which narratives and reflections are combined with video and photos, has become a common practice among children (Robin, 2008). Bruner (1996) suggests that storytelling can help children organize and make meaning of their experiences. Vygostky (1978) also theorized that egocentric speech, in which children talk aloud as they work through a complex activity, can ease cognitive load and promote learning. In the current study, we examined how digital storytelling activities during tinkering and reflection could support children’s engineering talk and memory. We predicted that digital storytelling would encourage children to talk aloud and communicate with others about their tinkering activities, thereby supporting engineering learning.

Methods
Eighty-four families with 5-10 year old children (M = 7.69 years) completed a tinkering activity (created by Chicago Children’s Museum) in their homes via Zoom. They were given thirty minutes to make a ramp to move something important from “here” to “there.” Some families were asked to pretend they were making a digital story for an online audience as they were tinkering, whereas others were asked to work how they normally would. Families reflected together about their tinkering experience immediately after, and some families were asked to reflect as though they were recording a digital story to post online, and others were asked to talk together normally. Two weeks after the tinkering session, children were interviewed about what they remembered about tinkering.
Recordings of families’ tinkering sessions and reflections were transcribed and coded for the frequency of children’s talk about engineering-related concepts and processes. Engineering codes included setting goals, brainstorming, planning, testing, identifying problems, and redesigning. Children’s follow-up interviews were also transcribed and coded to examine how many unique pieces of information children recalled about their engineering design process during tinkering.

Results
We found no differences in children’s engineering talk during tinkering between the digital storytelling conditions. However, children who were in the digital storytelling condition during tinkering (M = 11.10, SD = 9.38) talked significantly more about engineering during reflection than children who were in the no digital storytelling condition (M = 7.65, SD = 4.45), F(1, 77) = 6.21, p = .015. Similarly, children who were in the digital storytelling condition during tinkering (M = 19.95, SD = 13.61) remembered significantly more about their engineering process at follow-up than children who were in the no digital storytelling condition (M = 15.02, SD = 7.79), F(1, 76) = 5.86, p = .018.

Significance
Children who were asked to create digital stories during tinkering talked more about engineering at reflection and remembered more about their engineering activities weeks later. We believe that digital storytelling during learning activities may provide a familiar framework for children to verbalize their thoughts and ideas in a way that is understandable to others, thereby facilitating their informal STEM learning.

Authors

• Lauren Christine Pagano Hush, Northwestern University
  Presenting Author

• Riley George, Loyola University Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• Afnan Amdeen, Loyola University Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• David H. Uttal, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Catherine A. Haden, Loyola University Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author