Thank you for visiting our Ruff Family Science video. This project explores strategies that foster joint media engagement and hands-on science exploration among families with young children with a parent enrolled in an adult education program, addressing parents as both adult learners and as caregivers who can nurture their children’s development in science.  Many of the parents we work with are English language learners. We are particularly interested in discussing the following:

• Many of the programs we work with serve a large percentage of immigrant/refugee families who speak many different languages. How can we best create materials that work for these families to engage in science learning, and still support English language learning?
• Many of the adult and family educators we work with have limited experience teaching science. What types of professional development resources should we develop to help increase educators’ confidence and skills in engaging families in hands-on science exploration?

I love the concept of integrating adult learning with children's learning. Do you know whether the parents continue to do science learning activities with their children after having this shared experience?

I'm excited at how this collaboration leverages a fan favorite show with hands-on investigation for families! I appreciate your discussion prompts above and have a question related to the first one you posed.

Are there opportunities for adult program participants - upon completion of the adult education program cycle - to participate as co-developers of future materials? This could perhaps support the language and cultural specificity you seek while also building a pathway for parents to level up their own teaching and learning abilities and serve as ambassadors for the program?

I'm really glad to know about this project! It connects so well with some of the challenges that I've seen in museum research and practice - in particular, creating learning situations that enable adults to get past the sense of intimidation that comes from feeling like they need to know the answers, rather than being present as learners themselves. I'd love to know if you encountered this particular challenge, and what you've learned about how to help parents balance the two roles you describe (learners/nurturers of their kids' learning). 

Like Julie (above), I'm also interested in how these experiences extend beyond families' use of the media. Although you start by talking about how useful science is in daily life, a lot of the activities that you highlight don't seem to be directed at the ways people encounter science outside of "science learning experiences." Do you have any evidence that parents and kids are able to extend what they learn in these science-defined experience to other experiences that are not so obviously marked out for them in those terms? 

Nurturing an interest in science for 4 - 8 year olds and their parents. What a great project! I really liked video. Nice work on this!

I should add that The GLOBE Program at www.globe.gov provides freely downloadable books and activities in the fundamentals of Earth system science for this age group. Anyone can access Elementary GLOBE at https://www.globe.gov/web/elementary-globe

Might be a good resource for you!

Thank you, Jan! I took a quick look at the Globe.gov site and the materials look intriguing. I especially like the integration of storybooks into the science exploration. Great for learners of all ages. 

Regards,

Mary

Any science program that encourages family engagement-collaboration is a WIN!

I have some more pragmatic questions through:

• How do you recruit family participants?
• What is the retention of these families like?
• Do you find that besides "encouraging" student learning in STEM, do you find that you need to teaching the STEM concepts to the adults too?
• If so, how do you manage this? Separate groups for instruction or all at once?
• When do participants meet and how often do they meet? Are you getting 100% or close to it attendance?
• Do you offer incentives for family participants besides the program?

Thanks!

What an excellent opportunity to bridge the gap across all levels of learning.   Great Program! This is a great program.   I can see this being a great way to implement great science resources to elementary teachers.   how do you disseminate your curriculum?  Is it solely web-based?  I have been collaborating with an elementary school and I am learning that these teachers lack the resources and training.   How do you address this?   

Hi Rebecca: Thank you for your comments and questions. Ruff Family Science uses a research and design process to create an implementation model and prototype resources (digital media, hands-on activities, and supports for educators) that meet the needs of families with a parent enrolled in an adult education program, addressing parents as both adult learners and as caregivers who can nurture their children’s development in science.

We received an exploratory grant from NSF to do this work, so we will not be doing any large-scale dissemination just yet. The resources were made available to the research participants via a temporary website where they could download the teachers’ guides and hands-on activities. Study participants accessed the videos and the game on this temporary site as well. If we receive additional funding, we plan to build out a larger suite of resources that will be available for national dissemination, likely via a website, but we are also thinking about curating the resources within an app. Happy to keep you updated. And, glad to hear you see an audience for these resources! 

Regards,

Mary