Engaging Children in Design Thinking Through Transmedia Narrative (RTP)

This paper presents the implementation of Imaginative Education (IE) pedagogy for creating a transmedia learning environment that engages children in learning about engineering design. IE uses narrative to engage learners\u27 imaginations; helps them master the cognitive tools necessary for progressing to higher levels of understanding; and helps them structure what they learn in meaningful ways. Included in the paper is an introduction to IE pedagogy and the use of transmedia in education; an overview of the online learning environment called Through My Window (TMW) that we have developed for middle school children; and a detailed look at a learning adventure on engineering design called Trapped in Time. Assessment data collected by external evaluators shows that TMW positively impacted student interest in engineering and increased STEM identity. Preliminary results for the Trapped in Time learning adventure indicate improved understanding of engineering design

Developing a Measure to Capture Middle School Students’ Interpretive Understanding of Engineering Design

This research paper describes the development of an assessment instrument for use with middle school students that provides insight into students’ interpretive understanding by looking at early indicators of developing expertise in students’ responses to solution generation, reflection, and concept demonstration tasks. We begin by detailing a synthetic assessment model that served as the theoretical basis for assessing specific thinking skills. We then describe our process of developing test items by working with a Teacher Design Team (TDT) of instructors in our partner school system to set guidelines that would better orient the assessment in that context and working within the framework of standards and disciplinary core ideas enumerated in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). We next specify our process of refining the assessment from 17 items across three separate item pools to a final total of three open-response items. We then provide evidence for the validity and reliability of the assessment instrument from the standards of (1) content, (2) meaningfulness, (3) generalizability, and (4) instructional sensitivity. As part of the discussion from the standards of generalizability and instructional sensitivity, we detail a study carried out in our partner school system in the fall of 2019. The instrument was administered to students in treatment (n= 201) and non-treatment (n = 246) groups, wherein the former participated in a two-to-three-week, NGSS-aligned experimental instructional unit introducing the principles of engineering design that focused on engaging students using the Imaginative Education teaching approach. The latter group were taught using the district’s existing engineering design curriculum. Results from statistical analysis of student responses showed that the interrater reliability of the scoring procedures were good-to-excellent, with intra-class correlation coefficients ranging between .72 and .95. To gauge the instructional sensitivity of the assessment instrument, a series of non-parametric comparative analyses (independent two-group Mann-Whitney tests) were carried out. These found statistically significant differences between treatment and non-treatment student responses related to the outcomes of fluency and elaboration, but not reflection

Adapting a Narrative Curriculum to a Remote Format in the Context of Socially Distanced Middle School Education Resulting from COVID-19

This paper describes the development of two versions of an NGSS-aligned principles of engineering design unit for use in middle schools. By employing a narrative framework that can help students to connect more deeply with the human contexts and consequences of the engineering design process, our goal was to enhance students’ cognitive and emotional engagement in the learning of engineering design concepts. We first detail the design of an initial version of the unit, titled The Survivorama, which used narrative to enrich a primarily traditional, in-person teaching approach. We then describe the adapted version of the unit, titled the Molasses Disaster, and the modifications we made to the stories and transmedia story elements that facilitated the creation of a fully remote version of the unit. To investigate questions related to the effectiveness of the remote curriculum in sustaining student engagement in the remote context, we carried out a mixed-methods study that looked at (1) teachers’ characterizations of the effect of the curriculum on student engagement and (2) student learning outcomes as measured by performance assessment tasks. Qualitative analysis of teacher interviews supported the notion that teachers found both versions of the curriculum to be highly engaging for their students, though with some important caveats regarding younger students and students who were less literate. Quantitative analysis comparing 2019 and 2020 student response data for students in the 2019 nontreatment, 2019 treatment, and 2020 treatment groups found statistically significant differences in the pattern of responses for both problem-solving and conceptual drawing performance assessment tasks. The pattern of responses supported the inference that student engagement was similar for students in both the 2019 in-person context and the 2020 remote context, and that both differed significantly from the 2019 nontreatment group

Designing a Multimedia Learning Environment that Engages Children Through Narrative

This paper examines the use of Imaginative Education for designing an online learning environment for middle school engineering education. In Imaginative Education, cognitive tools associated with the development of linguistic ability are used to engage learners and frame their learning productively. The Through My Window website applies a variety of cognitive tools related to mythic and romantic understanding through the use of an online novel and interactive learning adventures associated with the novel. The focus of this paper is an AI learning adventure on the website titled Rio\u27s Brain. It was found, through embedded assessment within the learning adventure, that learner\u27s ideas advanced during the adventure. It was also found that the adventure supported the development of interpretive knowledge and created a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) wide enough to support a range of learners

Developing Transmedia Engineering Curricula using Cognitive Tools to Impact Learning and the Development of STEM Identity (RTP)

This paper examines the use of Imaginative Education (IE) to create an NGSS-aligned middle school engineering curriculum that supports transfer and the development of STEM identity. In IE, cognitive tools—such as developmentally appropriate narratives, mysteries and fantasies— are used to design learning environments that both engage learners and help them organize knowledge productively. We have combined IE with transmedia storytelling to develop two multi-week engineering units and six shorter engineering lessons. An overview of the curriculum developed to date and a more detailed description of the engineering design unit is presented in this paper. The curriculum is currently being implemented in treatment and non-treatment classrooms in middle schools throughout the Springfield, MA public school system (SPS). In tandem with pilot-year implementation of the curriculum, we have developed an assessment instrument to measure student learning outcomes associated with a transfer variant known as preparation for future learning (PFL). An analysis of the results from the PFL assessment support the position that a curriculum employing IE cognitive tools can facilitate both transfer-in thinking and the capacity of students to “think with” and thereby interpret important engineering concepts