2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on exploring engineering with early childhood learners (English & Moore, 2018; NASEM, 2021). The majority of these studies have focused on observing young children playing with building materials (Bagiati & Evangelou, 2016; Gold et al., 2021) or examining engineering in the pre-school classroom (Cunningham et al.; 2018; Fleer, 2020; Lippard et al., 2019). However, few studies (Ata-Akturk & Olzen, 2020; Authors, Date) have focused on exploring engineering in the home setting, which is a powerful learning environment for early learners that involves the other members of the household. Developing a deeper understanding of the engineering that can take place during engineering activities designed for the home, as well as what activity elements might lead to meaningful engineering engagement, can inform the design of new activities for early childhood engineering as well as broaden our perspectives on what types of engineering practice are possible with young children.

In this paper, we conducted a secondary analysis of video data collected during a design-based research study to address the following research questions: 1) What is the nature of the engineering talk and practice demonstrated by families engaging in engineering activities designed for the home? 2) Did the nature of the engineering change across three rounds of activity testing, as activities were responsively refined as part of the DBR study? If so, in what ways?

We present data from the primary design-based research study that iteratively investigated three different engineering activities for young learners (ages 4 to 5) and their families. Each of the activities included three elements: 1) a rich narrative context, supported by items such as a storybook and plush toys connected to the characters; 2) physical materials used to create design solutions, such as blocks or craft items; and 3) a specific design challenge prompt and extension questions, articulated on a one-page laminated activity guide included with the activity kit. All printed materials included in the activity kits were bilingual for Spanish and English.

Fifteen families, balanced by Spanish- and English-speaking language preferences, were recruited to participate in collaboration with a local community organization that offers interactive programming for 4- and 5-year olds and their caregivers. Using their phones, families recorded themselves during the first time using each activity kit in their homes. Between the first and second rounds of testing, as well as the second and third rounds, video data was analyzed by our bilingual research team and modifications were made to each of the activities in order to potentially deepen and enhance the nature of the engineering talk and practice shared by the families in their videos. After the completion of the DBR mini-cycles, the research team engaged in a retrospective analysis in order to more fully understand the engineering present in the family interactions. Subsequently, a secondary analysis of the video data was conducted. This paper presents two findings from the secondary analysis: 1) that families engaged in a wide range of engineering talk and practice, and 2) that specific engineering practices - such as user-centered design - seemed to increase across the three rounds of testing. These findings make a contribution to the field’s knowledge of early childhood engineering contexts by demonstrating what engineering is possible for early learners within the home environment.