A Talent for Tinkering: Developing Talents in Young Low-Income Children Through Engineering Curriculum

• In Event: 30.068 - Curriculum and Instruction for the Gifted and Talented: Promises and Challenges

Abstract

An engineering curriculum intervention based on gifted education best practices was implemented in grade 1 classrooms to encourage the early development of academic talents. Through a quasi-experimental design, students in treatment (Cohort 1) and comparison (Cohort 2) schools were compared on measures of science content and engineering knowledge. Through multilevel modeling, effects were isolated for the achievement measures with effect sizes favoring treatment students. Emotional engagement in engineering was uniformly high across gender and underrepresented minority status; behavioral engagement was also high, but low-income students reported less behavioral engagement attributable to classroom teacher effects. When given opportunities to engage in a complex curriculum, young low-income children demonstrate advanced achievement in a rigorous academic domain generally reserved for older talented students.

Authors

• Ann E. Robinson, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

• Jill L. Adelson, University of Louisville

• Kristy Kidd, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

• Keila Moreno Navarette, University of Arkansas

• Amanda Maher

• Kathleen Cash, University of Louisville

• Christine M. Cunningham, Museum of Science, Boston