Thank you for taking the time to view our video and for your note, Kathy! The co-design process involved working with families to identify activities in their every day life and/or community and local context through which they engage in science, math and engineering. These initial brainstorming meetings were key.

The guides include sample activities or lessons that were designed and iteratively revised in collaboration with teachers and families. As you can imagine, what resonates with one family may not with another, so something the team has grappled with is how to make sure that other resources in the guide invite teachers and families to adapt/modify activities and/or create their own. The current guides include slideshows of science practices and core ideas and sections meant to inspire other related activities. We are eager to learn what strategies have worked well in other projects.   

In our prior NSF funded work, we conducted an experimental study of the initial version of Nico and Nor and we did find improvements in science teaching and learning. We are currently in the midst of the study to examine the version of the program that includes the home component and the links to math and science. So far, we have seen great engagement across home and school.

Hi Margo! Thank you for your interest and questions.

We certainly agree that teacher PD needs to be a strong and thoughtful component of programs like this one. To address this need, our multi-disciplinary team developed resources that are embedded within the Teacher's Guide.  These include slideshows of science core ideas, descriptions of how the science practices and science talk look in the preschool classroom, and ideas for how to integrate math concepts and engineering practices to support early science learning. As part of the project's co-design process, preschool teachers involved in the development of the program provided us with feedback on early versions of these resources and this feedback was used when creating the final version of the guide. In addition, I also wanted to mention PD that was offered to teachers participating in our field study outside of what is in the Teacher Guide. As part of our prior NSF funded work relating to this program, participating teachers received a full day, in person training that was interactive and provided multiple opportunities for teachers to try out the activities and share their funds of knowledge with one another.  Due to pandemic-related restrictions and other factors, the PD for our current study was altered and is instead comprised of multiple, shorter video-conference trainings. 

The parent supports that are embedded within the Family Guide were developed in a similar way to what I described above. Our team shared early versions of program's activities and accompanying resources with our co-design families, and they provided us with feedback that was used to inform revisions. 

Lastly, the digital apps and simulations do not currently have an embedded assessment component. However, some of the apps have a level menu that allows teachers to access specific content they would like children to focus on. This allows teachers to tailor the learning experience for children based on their needs and to align with curricular goals. Relatedly, I could imagine that observing a child's gameplay on a certain level might be a great opportunity for a teacher to learn about a child's understanding about the content on that level.  

Hope this has provided some helpful clarifications!

Thanks, Melissa! (side note: I am based in Boston and we love going to the museum...maybe we can connect at some point). That's a great question. I'd probably say it's implicitly woven throughout, but there are definitely some explicit design principles that have helped ensure activities are playful. In the classroom, a big focus is to ensure activities include whole group discussions, small group guided experiences and open ended play centers. In our work with families, we have learned that caregivers appreciate both longer project like activities and shorter on the go playful experiences that are easy to implement. I bet you your team has some great suggestions for how to ensure activities are playful. Designing sample activities to include supports/examples and be open ended enough to allow authentic exploration has been something our team has been grappling with. We'd love to hear your thoughts. 

Thank you very much for taking the time to view our video and provide such thoughtful feedback. 

The learning activities for both home and classroom were developed through a co-design process. During this collaborative work we sought to understand teachers’ and families’ current interests and practices in order to build on the local contexts and experiences of children and families in their communities. We aimed to identify everyday routines and activities that resonated with children, families and teachers to design engaging science explorations. Through multiple rounds of user and pilot testing we gathered feedback from teachers and families and refined the activities to reflect the ideas and insights that were surfaced through the process. We gathered the feedback, insights and ideas through brief surveys, interviews, photos and videos shared by teachers and families, and when possible “virtual observations” via zoom platforms, all of which informed the final version of resources and activities. 

Thank you again for our interest in our project. I hope this helps describe our process. 

Thanks for your prompt and comprehensive response!  This sounds like a wonderful learning experience for all stakeholders.  I hope you have the opportunity to replicate this project with other communities.

Thanks, Latrenda! Yes, we'd love to replicate and spread these resources to other communities. We hope that the integration of math and engineering within the science context really helps provide linkages between STEM disciplines and generate wider interest. 

Thanks for sharing your excitement about this work and taking the time to pose these questions, Jackelyn! 

Yes, the Early Science with Nico & Nor® Teacher’s Guide and Family Science Fun Guide are freely available. Families are welcome to use the guide to support children’s learning at home; the guide is designed to invite families to modify the sample activities developed during co-design or get inspired to create new ones that align with their own experiences and context. The classroom activities are in English, while the digital apps developed in this project round are available in Spanish. These are currently only compatible with an iPad and can be downloaded from the App Store. 

We’d love to hear about your experience doing these activities in Spanish with your children and any thoughts you may have about the engineering aspect given your own work!

Thanks for sharing your insightful reflection, Gerald! Hopefully through the work of co-designing the activities with families and getting an understanding of what science, math and engineering looks like for them, those are steps toward mitigating that type of bias. 

If you try out any of the activities from this Family Guide with your grandsons, we'd be excited to hear how you used it.