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Health Routines as a Bridge Between Family Bonding and STEM Learning

Wed, April 8, 11:45am to 1:15pm PDT (11:45am to 1:15pm PDT), JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. LIVE, Floor: 3rd Floor, Georgia I

Abstract

Participatory design is a collaborative approach that engages families as equal partners, centering their lived experiences and knowledge in the design of learning environments (Sanders et al., 2018). Everyday community spaces like bus stops, parks, and grocery stores can become playful learning settings through participatory design (Belgrave et al., 2022; Bermudez et al., 2024b). When Latine families are engaged as participatory designers, the process surfaces cultural strengths and home-based practices that support meaningful early learning (Anderson-Coto et al., 2024; Bermudez et al., 2024a).
The Funds of Knowledge (FoK) theory highlights the knowledge and skills minoritized families develop through daily practices (Moll et al., 1992), while the Early Science Framework (ESF; Figure 1) emphasizes how children’s science-related thinking is supported through scientific practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas (Greenfield et al., 2017). This study draws on these two frameworks to examine how Latine families support early science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning through everyday health routines.
We ask: How can participatory design surface the ways Latine families cultivate STEM-rich learning through everyday health practices?
This study is grounded in a research-practice partnership involving a university research team, a grassroots community organization, and a local clinic that primarily serves low-income Latine families in Southern California. Through this collaboration, ten families participated in a series of five, two-hour participatory design sessions aimed at developing a health-themed learning installation for the clinic’s waiting room. Sessions were audio-recorded and transcribed. Data sources included session transcripts, field notes, and family-generated artifacts, all of which underwent an inductive coding process (Table 1; Saldaña, 2016).
The results demonstrate that families described everyday health routines as intentional opportunities to bond. These shared moments became mediating spaces where children engaged in early scientific thinking and practices (Greenfield et al., 2017).
Families emphasized that health-related activities were chosen precisely because they created space for connection. For example, several parents shared that walking through the neighborhood and other familiar spaces offered a moment to be and move together while inviting children to observe their surroundings and track distances—an early form of mathematical thinking and analyzing (Figure 2). Another family described soccer as quality time, where children were invited to make predictions about how hard to kick the ball. Cooking routines also emerged as powerful sites of learning. Children helped wash produce, stir pancake mix, and cut ingredients with tools appropriate for their age—engaging in the scientific practice of using tools. One child captured this experience by drawing herself cooking alongside her mother, highlighting the joy and collaboration at the heart of these moments (Figure 3).
Our study shows that everyday health routines can serve as powerful resources for early STEM learning in formal settings. Building on Bermudez et al. (2024b), who highlighted familismo, cultural games, and food routines as key elements of Latine families’ FoK for early STEM, we extend this work by positioning health practices as central to educational design (McWayne et al., 2021; Melzi et al., 2019).

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