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1. AISL NYSCI Summative Evaluation Report: Designing for Narrative and Cultivating Empathy in Museum-Based Settings: Supporting Girls’ Engagement in Engineering Practices

   Peppler, K. ; Keune, A. ; Dahn, M. ( January 2020 , NSF Evaluation Report)

   This report summarizes findings from the summative evaluation of the NSF-AISL funded Narrative Elements Shaping Engineering Engagement design-based research project led by NYSCI. The evaluation examined if and how narrative design elements experimented with by NYSCI and partner teams impacted 7-14-year-old girls’ expressions of empathy and engagement with engineering across different museum activities and settings. Using observation and semi-structured interview methods with 202 girls across three museum settings, the evaluation was designed to: 1) understand whether and how narrative-based elements influence engagement in engineering activities for 7 to 14-year-old girls across three engineering design activities;2) highlight whether and how museum settings influence engagement with engineering practices for 7 to 14-year-old girls; 3) investigate the relationship between engineering practices, narrative practices, and empathy markers for 7 to 14-year-old girls within the designed engineering activities; 4) research how activity designs influence girls’ narrative practices, engineering practices, and empathy markers across activities and museums. To study these related goals involving the intertwined relationship between narrative, engineering, empathy, two conditions (i.e., initially defined as narrative and non-narrative) of three select engineering design activities were observed within one museum, and one activity was implemented across two additional museum sites. 

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2. Using Narrative to Engage Girls in Museum Engineering Design Tasks

   Bennett, D. ; Letourneau, S. ; Liu, C.C.J. ( July 2018 , Visitors Studies Association: Fostering Transparency, Fostering Public Trust)

   In this design-based research study, the New York Hall of Science, in collaboration with the Amazeum (Bentonville, AR), the Tech Museum (San Jose, CA), and the Creativity Labs (Indiana University), are examining how narratives can shape girls’ engagement in museum-based engineering activities. The project involves developing and testing six engineering activities that incorporate elements of narrative.Through iterative activity development, the project team is exploring how design prompts and materials can suggest narratives via characters, settings, or scenarios in a way that invites visitors’ perspective-taking and empathy. In addition, by comparing narrative and non-narrative versions of each activity, the team is gathering evidence about whether and how narratives support girls’ participation in engineering activities, as well as their persistence in creating and iterating solutions. This poster shares the beginning theoretical framework for defining narrative and empathy in museum-based engineering activities, as well as the results from three activities developed and tested by summer 2018. 

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3. Using narratives to evoke empathy and support girls’ engagement in engineering

   Letourneau, S. M. ; Bennett, D. ( January 2020 , Connected science learning)

   null (Ed.)

   Reframing engineering activities to emphasize the needs of others has the potential to strengthen engineering practices like problem scoping, while also providing more inclusive and socially relevant entry points into engineering problems. In this design-based research project, we developed novel strategies for adding narratives to engineering activities to deepen girls’ engagement in engineering practices by evoking empathy for the users of their designs. We describe a set of hands-on engineering activities developed through iterative development and testing with 190 girls (ages 7-14) at the New York Hall of Science. Findings show how elements of narrative (like characters and settings) evoked learners’ empathy, and how learners’ expressions of empathy related to practices like problem scoping and iteration. A set of design principles summarizes critical features of the narrative activities for evoking empathy and supporting the engineering design process. Finally, we offer recommendations for practitioners who would like to use narratives to engage learners in approaching engineering problems from a user-centered perspective. This work has implications for the development of inclusive and engaging engineering activities that appeal to elementary and middle school learners in a wide range of settings. 

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4. Observing empathy in informal engineering activities with girls ages 7-14.

   Letourneau, S.M. ; Bennett, D. ; Liu, C.J. ; Argudo, Y. ; Peppler, K. ; Keune, A. ; Dahn, M. ; & Culp, K.M. ( July 2021 , Annual Conference and Exposition, American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE))

   null (Ed.)

   There is growing evidence that emphasizing the social and personal contexts of engineering can open up the field to people who have been conspicuously underrepresented, particularly women and girls. Recent research and advances in educational policy have advocated for reframing engineering education to prioritize social responsibility, empathy, and care for others as integral aspects of engineering practice. But how do we measure things like empathy in engineering practices of younger children? This paper features work from a three-year design-based research project in which we used narrative elements to frame engineering problems in ways that evoked empathy for others’ needs, and examined the intersections between expressions of empathy and engineering design practices among girls ages 7-14. This paper outlines the theoretical underpinnings of this approach, and our methods for observing empathy and engineering practices in this age group. 

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5. Enacting Identities: Participatory Design as a Context for Youth to Reflect, Project, and Apply their Emerging Identities

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3311927.3323148  

   Coenraad, Merijke ; Palmer, Jen ; Franklin, Diana ; Weintrop, David ( January 2019 , Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children)

   Participatory design is an essential design strategy for creating artifacts and experiences that reflect the voices of the population being designed for and with. The participatory design process can serve not only to research resulting artifacts but also as an empowering activity for those who participate. This paper explores how participatory design can serve as a context for young participants to enact and voice their emerging identities and reveals how different participatory design activities have unique affordances for supporting this identity enactment. Focusing on a group of 12 and 13-year-old African American girls, this paper presents a case study showing how participatory design activities served as venues for the girls to reflect characteristics of their current identities, project future identities, and apply aspects of their identities to shape materials for others. In doing so, we contribute a case study showing how participatory design allows participants to enact their identities, helping researchers gain insight into characteristics of those they are designing with and for. This paper advances our understanding of participatory design as a design approach for youth, especially as it relates to issues of broadening participation, identity, and equity. 

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