This study investigated the technologies and tools used to support upper-level elementary students' engineering design and problem-solving activities in a bridge design and building challenge. The study was conducted in an eight-week afterschool program with a total of 36 4th to 6th grade students in small groups of four to six students. Analysis…

Despite generous funding, the current data shows slow-moving demographical changes in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields, and little to no slowing in the decline of STEM-associated career interests in underserved communities (Leeker, Maxey, Cardella & Hynes, 2019). While a considerable amount has been written about the…

This paper argues that the terms through which we interpret and work to develop expansive pedagogical practices are overly constrained by the binary of adult-centered versus child-centered education. Analyzing ethnographic data developed over three years in a making/tinkering afterschool program serving Black, Latinx, and Asian American students…

This study examined professional teacher noticing in the context of written responses 12 pre-service teachers (PSTs) provided in a reflective journal after posing addition and subtraction problems for students in an after-school tutoring program. Professional teacher noticing skills, attending, interpreting, and deciding, were situated within the…

This paper examines the context for developing computational thinking (CT), computational participation (CP), and spatial reasoning among predominantly Black elementary students in grades 5 and 6, who attended a public school in the urban fringe of a large city in the Eastern United States. A case study is presented as the method to examine two…

When it snows, children are permitted to play outside during recess, which causes them to experience a variety of problems with their mittens or gloves. To align instruction with a problem student's experience in every day life, the authors developed and administered a short survey to second graders in an after school program. The authors found…

More and more jobs involve STEM, yet women are still underrepresented in many STEM fields, particularly engineering and computer science (National Science Foundation, 2019). Rural students in particular have historically faced numerous obstacles to entering STEM fields, including low educational aspirations, lack of STEM role models, and lack of…

Teachers have the daunting task of preparing students for a future that they cannot predict. In an age of information where students have the world quite literally at their fingertips, and with the ever-growing momentum of integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), it is not enough that students experience STEM subjects…

Picture this: a PhD chemist, PhD science educator, and a preservice Latina elementary educator walk into an aftercare program for primary and intermediate students from a rural school. These students are identified as low income and at risk and therefore eligible to participate in this school-provided aftercare. While across the state, these same…

Many educators face the challenge of engaging students in science and mathematics, often struggling to bridge the gap between theoretical concepts taught in classrooms and their real-world applications. This disconnect can lead to disinterest and disengagement among students, hindering their learning outcomes. "Cases on Informal Learning for…

Severe flooding was prevalent within the authors' region at the beginning of the school year. Many homes and fields were affected by the amount of rain that fell within a short period of time over multiple days. Their students were concerned about the impact this natural phenomena was having on their local community. Natural phenomena can provide…

This study examined what factors might have a positive impact on students' learning outcomes in mathematical understanding and computational thinking skills. Specifically, whether the proposed instructional design combining computational perspectives and an embodied approach in mathematics learning improves (a) mathematics learning, (b)…

This mixed methods study examined how engagement in robotics and game design influenced students' self-efficacy, STEM attitudes, and computational thinking (CT) skills. Predominantly African-American students engaged in engineering and computer science tasks during informal learning environments. Results revealed students' self-efficacy scores on…

This mixed-method case study investigated digital literacy (DL) development among 32 elementary-level students who created multimodal, contextual, and interactive augmented reality (AR) artifacts in a 20-week after-school program in Northern Taiwan. The instructional design combined situated and spiral learning experiences with AR, implemented…

The goal of this study was to document the characteristics of students' dispositions towards mathematics when they engaged in the exploration of parts of unsolved problems: Graceful Tree Conjecture and Collatz Conjecture. Ten students, Grades 4 and 5, from an after-school program in the Midwest participated in the study. I focused on the…