Designing digital STEM resources FOR and WITH middle school-aged youth

Sarita PillaiEducation Development Center, Inc.

Overview

Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC)

Portfolio of youth media and technology projects National Science Foundation funded

projects The FunWorks (thefunworks.org) Girls Communicating Career Connections

(gc3.edc.org) Middle School Portal (msteacher2.org)

Process

Preliminary Data on Youth: Literature Review

Guiding Data From Youth and Educators Online Surveys Focus Groups

The Heart of Participatory Design: The Youth Co-Design Team

Product Creation: The Final Product Evaluation: Pilot and Field Testing

Process

Literature Review Research, methodologies, instruments, data Content and Design

Guiding Data From Youth and Educators Online Surveys – breadth of data Focus Groups – depth of data

4-6 participants Focus on “how” vs “what”Contextual information missing from survey

Youth Co-Design Team

Learner-centered design principles 6 - 8 youth, specific populations 12 - 20 weeks, afterschool setting Project-developed curriculum of activities

Team building & trust Orientation to project goals Activities (scaffolded and cummulative) –

information gathering and skill building Youth as consumers AND producers of

content creating new knowledge

Case Study: MSP2

Middle School Portal 2: Math and Science Pathways (MSP2) for middle grades students and teachers

Online Survey 440 middle school youth 617 middle school educators

Youth and Educator Focus Groups 5 middle school youth from Boston, MA 6 middle school educators (NSTA)

Categories of data - Science/math topics, favorite websites, technology use, web design preferences, evaluating online information

The Co-Design Team

The Design Team

9 students, 13-15 years old, 7th/8th grade Recruited through a community

technology center Urban setting – Boston Application process Participation incentive Extensive IRB process – not for the faint

of heart!

Design Team Activities

Pre-assessment of computer/Web knowledge/skills

Identification of relevant and engaging Web elements

Creation of STEM Web site mock-ups Paper Balsamiq

Critique of STEM Web site mock-ups Post-assessment of computer/Web

knowledge/skills

Design Preferences

Clear layout, easy to navigate, ‘original’ content

Use of color, balance between text and images, not childish

Limited introductory information and text, more interactivity, video

Multiple search options, limited search results

Ability to create/add content Dictionary feature

Designs

Designs

Process Challenges

Session scheduling, communication beyond sessions

Effective work in groups, trust and incentives

Memorandums of understanding Design partner vs. mentor Development of, and revisions to, activities The impact of importance - participatory

design

Thank you!

Sarita PillaiEducation Development Center, Inc.

spillai@edc.org http://www.edc.org

The FunWorks (thefunworks.org)Girls Communicating Career Connections

(gc3.edc.org)Middle School Portal (msteacher2.org)