Major
Psychology
Anticipated Graduation Year
2026
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
Engaging in early informal learning opportunities for children provides a unique setting for fostering their engineering learning. Specifically, collaboration (e.g., sharing ideas and helping one another) can support children's learning during tinkering activities. We explore how 39 4- to 10-year-old children (Mean age = 6.63; 19 girls) and their caregivers define and engage in the engineering design process (EDP) during a hands-on puppet making activity at a children’s museum. It is hypothesized that children and caregivers who frame, or communicate, their ideas as group-centered will have the highest engagement in the EDP process over framing ideas as individual-centered and other-centered.
Community Partners
Chicago Children's Museum (CCM) and Palenque LSNA
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
Riley E. George, Graduate Assistant, Department of Psychology; Catherine A. Haden, Professor, Department of Psychology
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
The relation of museum visitors' idea framing approaches and engineering engagement during a community design puppet-making activity
Engaging in early informal learning opportunities for children provides a unique setting for fostering their engineering learning. Specifically, collaboration (e.g., sharing ideas and helping one another) can support children's learning during tinkering activities. We explore how 39 4- to 10-year-old children (Mean age = 6.63; 19 girls) and their caregivers define and engage in the engineering design process (EDP) during a hands-on puppet making activity at a children’s museum. It is hypothesized that children and caregivers who frame, or communicate, their ideas as group-centered will have the highest engagement in the EDP process over framing ideas as individual-centered and other-centered.