Discussion forum:STEM and Spatial Skills Reflection

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STEM & Spatial Skills

This Week’s Content

• Lecture on Spatial Skills – a key cognitive skill related to STEM and Touchscreen study • Article on Informal STEM learning – practical recommendations • Two TED Talks about how to improve Science education • Assignments: • iLearn Activity that focuses on informal learning in museums and how to

apply that to working with children • Forum to reflect on the week’s content and the experience of virtual

museums, zoos and aquariums

STEM & Spatial Skills

• Transform & remember visual images • Mentally manipulate structures • Represent shapes, locations, & paths

Overview Spatial Skills

Spatial Skills

(Brosnan, 1998; Carroll, 1993; Casey et al., 2008; Newcombe & Shipley, 2015; Uttal & Cohen, 2012; Wai, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2009) 4

Development of Spatial Skills

Focus on individual spatial entities

Attention towards spatial relations

(Casey et al., 2008; Frick & Newcombe, 2015; Piaget & Inhelder, 1956; Uttal, 2000)

Overview Spatial Skills 5

Individual Differences in Spatial Skills • Emerge prior to kindergarten • Motor skills (Newcombe & Frick, 2010) • Play behaviors (Caldera et al., 1999; Levine et al., 2012; Verdine et al., 2014) • Spatial language (Pruden, Levine, & Huttenlocher, 2011)

Overview Spatial Skills 6

Overview Spatial Skills

Spatial Skills & STEM

• Predict STEM achievement and attainment (Newcombe, 2013; Uttal, Miller, & Newcombe, 2013; Wai, Lubinski, Benbow, 2009)

• Association between math and spatial skills begins in infancy (McCrink & Opfer, 2014; Mix et al., 2016; Verdine et al., 2014)

Overview Spatial Skills

(Uttal et al., 2013)

Spatial Skills & Malleability

• Spatial skills can be trained & improved • Potential route to

improving STEM abilities • Interest in malleability of

children’s spatial skills

Overview Spatial Skills

Malleability in Children • Interventions that include: • Block play

(Casey et al., 2008)

• Spatial language interventions

. (e.g., Polinsky et al., 2017)

• Example: intervention at children’s museum • Highlights potential & value

spatial play

Spatial Play

Overview Spatial Skills

Caldera et al., 1999; Jirout & Newcombe, 2014; Verdine et al., 2014;

Spatial Language

Gentner et al., 2013 Pruden et al., 2011

Jirout & Newcombe, 2014 Levine et al., 2012 Yang & Chen, 2010

Puzzle Play

Block Play

Frequency of spatial play predicts children’s spatial abilities (Jirout & Newcombe, 2015)

Limits of Spatial Play

Overview Spatial Skills

65 pieces for $29.99

12 Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play

Digital Spatial Play

• Engaging with blocks & shape structures through digital media • Takes advantage of

existing environment

13 Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play

Digital Spatial Play

14 Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play

Digital Spatial Play

15 Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play

Real World vs. Media

• Learning the map of Australia using app or puzzle (Eisen & Lillard, 2019)

16 Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play

Real World vs. Media • Learning to complete a Tower of Hanoi task (Huber et al., 2016; Tarasuik et al., 2017)

• Learning the map of Australia using app or puzzle (Eisen & Lillard, 2019)

• Quantity of maternal question asking during physical or digital spatial play (Eisen, Jirout, & Lillard, 2019)

Digital Spatial Play as a Context for Spatial Skill Development

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play

Videogames and Spatial Skills

(Lowery & Knirk, 1982; McClurg & Chaillé, 1987; Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 1994)

• Conducive to spatial skill development § Coordination of perspectives

§ Parallel processing

§ Physical & mental manipulation of 3D objects

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play 18

Affordances of Interactive Digital Spatial Play

• Physically manipulate in ways that might otherwise be impossible • Directly manipulated (Sheehan & Uttal, 2016) • Acting on the world facilitates processing of information

(e.g., embodiment: Aladé et al., 2016; Beilock & Holt, 2007)

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play 19

21 Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play

“Informal education takes place by means of a host of cultural tools,

among which electronic media have become increasingly important.”

Kaveri Subrahmanyam & Patricia Greenfield, 1994

22 Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play

New Question: How can cognitive development occur within the context of digital media?

My Research Project: We investigated how young children play two different spatially-oriented touchscreen games

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences 23

Spatially-Oriented Touchscreen Games

Busy Shapes

RelationShapes

TocaBlocks

Participants • 111 Children • Ages: 3- to 6-year-olds (M = 4.95 years)

§ 28 3-year-olds § 27 4-year-olds § 26 5-year-olds § 30 6-year-olds

• 52 Males, 59 Females • 73% Caucasian • 60.36% have parent with some graduate education or

higher Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods 25

Procedure

Parent Survey

Assessment of Children’s

Spatial Abilities

iPad Games

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods 26

Parent Survey • Part 1: BRIEF-P (Executive Function)

§ In the past 6 months, how often has each of the following behaviors (e.g., overreacts to a small problem; becomes upset with new situations) been a problem?

• Part 2: Media Usage & Attitudes (Sheehan et al., 2018) § Parents’ attitudes to children’s media consumption § Earliest age of exposure to smartphones/tablets § Time spent using technology yesterday

• Part 3: Child’s play behaviors (Tougu et al., 2017) • Part 4: Demographics

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods 27

Procedure

Parent Survey

iPad Games

3- & 4-year-olds 5- & 6-year-olds

Test of Spatial Assembly

Children’s Mental

Transformation Task

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods

Assessment of Children’s

Spatial Abilities

3D TOSA 3- & 4-year-old Spatial Test

1 2 3 4 5 6

Trials

Verdine, Golinkoff, et al., 2014 Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods

3D TOSA Scoring 3- & 4-year-old Spatial Test

Verdine, Golinkoff, et al., 2014

• Part 1: In relation to base piece § Vertical Location § Rotation § Translation

• Part 2: In relation to component pieces § Vertical Location § Rotation § Translation

Model

Base

Child’s Version

Component

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods 30

2D Test of Spatial Assembly (TOSA) 3- & 4-year-old Spatial Test

Verdine, Golinkoff, et al., 2014

Trials

1 2 3 4 5 6

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods 31

2D TOSA Scoring 3- & 4-year-old Spatial Test

• All scoring is in relation to the base piece

• Horizontal & Vertical Location • Adjacent Pieces • Relative PositionBase Piece

Verdine, Golinkoff, et al., 2014 Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods

Procedure

Parent Survey

iPad Games

3- & 4-year-olds 5- & 6-year-olds

Test of Spatial Assembly

Children’s Mental

Transformation Task

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods

Assessment of Children’s

Spatial Abilities

Children’s Mental Transformation Task (CMTT) 5- & 6-year-old Spatial Test

Look at these pieces. Look at these pictures. If you put the pieces together, they will make one of the pictures. Point to the picture the pieces make. (Ehrlich, Levine, & Goldin-Meadow, 2006) Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods

Procedure

Parent Survey

iPad Games

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods

Assessment of Children’s

Spatial Abilities

iPad Games • Free & publicly available on IOS/Google Play • Played both Busy Shapes (5mins), RelationShapes (7mins),

Toca Blocks (7 min)

• Shown demo & example • Screen capture videos are recorded • Scored on highest level reached & average time per level

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods

Busy Shapes

• Goal: sort the shapes

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual DIfferences Current Study Methods 37

RelationShapes • Goal: make sides the same

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Moderating Factors Current Study Methods 38

RelationShapes

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods 39

Touchscreen Game Performance

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods

Busy Shapes Performance

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods 41

0.0000

5.0000

10.0000

15.0000

20.0000

25.0000

30.0000

35.0000

40.0000

Number of Levels

Younger Children Older Children

8.5

9.5

10.5

11.5

Time per level (seconds)

Younger Children Older Children

RelationShapes Perfomance

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods 42

Number of Levels

Younger Children Older Children

Time per Level (seconds)

Younger Children Older Children

Age Related Differences

3 Year Old 5 Year Old

Questions

1. Connection between children’s prior media experiences and touchscreen performance?

2. Effect of age on touchscreen performance?

3. Association between spatial abilities and touchscreen performance?

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods Results 44

Question 1: Children’s prior media experiences and their

performance on spatially-oriented touchscreen games

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods Results

Media & Touchscreen Performance

1. Age of exposure?

2. Frequency of tablet play?

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods Results 46

Question 2: Is there an effect of age on touchscreen game performance?

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods Results 47

Age and Touchscreen Performance

• Busy Shapes

• Relationshapes

Question 3: Is there a link between spatial abilities and

touchscreen game performance?

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods Results 49

Overall Performance on Spatial Assessments

TOSA: M = 61%, SD = 17.59,

Range: 29-103

CMTT: M = 67%, SD = .13,

Range: 38%-91%

5- & 6-year-olds3- & 4-year-olds

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Individual Differences Current Study Methods Results

Spatial Skills and Touchscreen Performance

• For 3 & 4 year olds the higher the spatial skills the better children did on the touchscreen games • 3 year olds with higher spatial skills performed more like 5 year olds • It didn’t matter for 5 & 6 year olds

Toca Blocks

• Coded screen recordings of children’s TocaBlocks play for three categories of play behaviors, and each category had two subcodes: • Perspective Changes: adjusting the screen to change the environment

where play is occurring • Exploratory: change in scenery/environment that seems to lack intention • Strategic: precise changes in scenery/environment

• Blocks Play: engaging with the blocks or other objects in the digital environment • Exploratory: testing/figuring out what the blocks can do • Construction: building or creating a pattern

• Avatar Play: direct interaction with the characters on the screen • Exploration: using avatar to move through environment • Manipulation: using avatar to make changes to environment (e.g., destroying blocks)

Toca Blocks Open Ended Exploration

Toca Blocks Findings

• No association with children’s spatial skills and the way they play Toca Blocks • Use the Avatar to explore more when they are older

What does this all mean?

• That different spatial games require different spatial abilities • That spatial abilities relate to how children play digital games

• BUT what we don’t know is if children play digital games that promote spatial skills would they improve their spatial skills and STEM abilities…..

• STAY TUNED!

Thank You!

• Naomi Polinsky • Dr. David Uttal, & Dr. Ellen

Wartella • Jose Sotelo, Camille Msall,

Meriem Sadoun and all of the RA’s at the Project on Children’s Thinking • Institute for Innovations in

Developmental Science at Northwestern University

Overview Spatial Skills Digital Spatial Play Moderating Factors Current Study Methods Results Discussion 57