Storybooks and Science Practices in Family Conversations about Astronomy

• In Event: Storybooks and Equitable STEM Learning in Early Childhood: Moving from Books to Narratives

Abstract

Many studies have demonstrated the importance of storytelling in supporting literacy development and other cognitive developmental achievements. Recent research suggests that storytelling and narrative may also facilitate young children’s engagement in and understanding of science topics. This study asked whether and how pairing a storybook with an astronomy activity contributed to family science engagement.

Thirty-six families participated in family science workshops held at two Family Resource Centers, facilitated by education staff from a children’s museum. Most families were bilingual and had immigrated to the US; home languages included Spanish, Hindi, Tamil, Mandarin, Punjabi, Telugu, and Russian. In two sets of workshops (two sessions each), families participated in Shadow and Moon Phase activities, allowing a comparison between workshops where a relevant storybook preceded the activity with those where no book was read prior to the activity. In one workshop session, parents and preschool-aged children participated in an opening circle time where the facilitator read a storybook relevant to the science activity: Moon Bear’s Shadow (Frank Asch) for the Shadow activity, or Breakfast Moon (Meg Gower) for the Moon Phase activity. In the other workshop session, families were invited to engage with the other activity, after a circle time that involved songs but no relevant book.

Parents and children were invited to be videotaped, one dyad at a time, while engaging with the target activity while other families engaged in group activities set up for the workshop. Coding focused on parents’ and children’s use of science practices, inspired by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Analyses explored whether practices occurred more often, or extended more deeply, in groups where the relevant book preceded the activity. Coding included Science Practice Questions (e.g., explanation-seeking questions), Science Practice Explanations (e.g., evidence-based explanations), and Science Vocabulary, as well as Storybook Connections (explicit/implicit references to storybook). Coders obtained reliability on 20% of videos, then coded each parent and child utterance.

Comparing families who heard the storybook first with those who did not, for the Moon Phase activity, significant differences were found in science practice talk. In families who heard the Breakfast Moon book during the opening circle, parents asked more science practice questions, and both parents and children used more science vocabulary during the activity than those who did not hear the book.

In contrast, for the Shadow activity, there were no differences in science practice talk. The only significant difference was that both parents and children who heard the book made more storybook connections during the activity. One possible reason for the different results is that the Shadow activity included “challenge cards” that may have encouraged all families to connect with a narrative, possibly diluting the impact of the storybook.
These findings suggest that presenting science activities together with a related storybook has potential to increase young children’s engagement with science concepts and practices. This adds to our understanding of how to support ethnically and linguistically diverse young children’s and their parents’ engagement in astronomy and how to position them for later scientific understanding.

Authors

• Maureen A Callanan, University of California - Santa Cruz
  Presenting Author

• Gabriela Anguiano, University of California, Santa Cruz
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jennifer Jipson, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elise M Mahaffey, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author