Project Profile

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) knowledge and skills are essential for navigating the demands of life and work in the 21st century. Although all young children are curious and highly-motivated explorers and problem-solvers, children from marginalized communities, including Latinx Dual Language Learners (DLLs), face early and persistent opportunity gaps that limit their participation in the types of science experiences that support and sustain their early STEM dispositions, identities, and interests when schools and teachers do not recognize the STEM knowledge and practices of their families. In order to address this issue, formal and informal science learning settings must provide inclusive high-quality science and STEM experiences for young DLLs, their families, and teachers that honor the role of language in science inquiry and learning. This means centering family and community members as children?s STEM advocates and role models; creating and sustaining mutually respectful and responsive home-school-community STEM partnerships; building teachers? capacity to create classroom cultures of inquiry that support English and home language development; and addressing the importance of diverse backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives in STEM education and the workforce.  All of the important adults in children?s lives need to work together to nurture children?s STEM dispositions and confidence in ways that will spark and sustain their interests in pursuing future STEM opportunities. The Supporting Science Inquiry, Interest, and STEM Thinking for Young Dual Language Learners project will build knowledge about STEM learning systems for prekindergarten (PreK) Latinx DLLs through family, teacher, and community supports. The project is designed to increase PreK DLLs? participation in high-quality, language-rich science inquiry that promotes their science/literacy learning and increases their STEM interest and self-confidence. In collaboration with the Connecticut Science Center and the Connecticut Consolidated School District of New Britain, this project led by the Education Development Center will bring innovative technologies and learning experiences that align with the district?s approach of guided play and family engagement as pathways to expanding STEM opportunities for PreK Latinx DLLs. The goals of the project are to: (1) increase DLL families? perceptions of themselves as critical partners in their children?s science learning; (2) build PreK DLL teachers? capacity to provide rich science/literacy experiences and partner with families; (3) increase children?s, families?, and teachers? knowledge of STEM careers; and (4) improve PreK DLLs? science, language, and literacy skills and their interest and self-confidence in doing science. The program includes collaborative parent/teacher workshops, Play Lab drop-in sessions, science/literacy kits and digital resources, coaching and professional learning communities, and STEM community helpers. Using an iterative research design approach, the project team will develop and refine each of the project components with input from families, teachers, and content experts and conduct a quasi-experimental design pilot study to assess how participation in project activities affects parents, teachers, and DLL PreK children. The project will contribute knowledge to the field about how inquiry-based, literacy-rich science increases DLLs? cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes. Research findings will provide an understanding of how families, teachers, and community members can collaborate in ways to enrich DLLs? science inquiry. With its explicit focus on PreK DLLs, this project will broaden participation and provide potential for DLLs? active participation in the STEM workforce of the future. It also has the potential to positively impact parents? and teachers? own sense of themselves as capable of doing, learning, and talking about science and STEM. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.