Technology

Researchers and educators agree: Children demonstrate a clear readiness to engage in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning early in life. And, just as with language and literacy, STEM education should start early in order to maximize its benefits and effectiveness. So why is STEM not woven more seamlessly into early childhood education? What can we do – in the classroom, in homes, in museums, in research labs, and in the halls of legislating bodies – to ensure that all young children have access to high-quality STEM learning early in life?

This report gives an overview of a principled approach to designing assessment tasks that can generate valid evidence of students’ abilities to think computationally. Principled assessment means designing assessment tasks to measure important knowledge and practices by specifying chains of evidence that can be traced from what students do (observable behaviors) to claims about what they know.

This paper traces the research-design-develop-test cycle of a haptically-enhanced science simulation designed to teach upper-elementary students core ideas about matter, phase change, and the role of intermolecular forces. We describe our focus group work, usability testing, and small-scale pilot testing. We also detail the technical work behind the creation of our simulation.

It is important to start thinking early about how to communicate about your project and prepare to sustain your work and projects following the completion of your project. Using the dissemination section of your proposal as a guide, think about how you want to portray your project and its work. 

The guiding questions below will help you plan your approach and timeline for communicating about your work.