Gradient

Partnership with the Science Museum of Minnesota

Research Questions:

  • What are the different ways that adults interact with their children while engaging in informal engineering learning experiences?
  • What gender differences exist in the way adult females and males interact with their female children during these experiences?
  • How are gender differences affected when learning environments are infused with connections to personal and societal issues (context)?

Activity and Sample: 

Three different informal engineering learning environments

Parents with children aged 3-11

Parents and children engage in the engineering design process and use engineering vocabulary

Frameworks and Instruments: 

Islands of Expertise framework

Adult-Child Interaction Inventory

Selinda Model of Visitor Research