NSF awards $2.57M grant to support STEM learning installations in Santa Ana public areas

The National Science Foundation awarded Assistant Professor Andres Bustamante (right) a 4-year, $2.57 million continuing grant to support his research project, “Stimulating STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) in the City: Co-Designing with Latinx Families to Promote Informal STEM Learning.”  

​Bustamante and his research team will partner with the Santa Ana Early Learning Initiative (SAELI) to co-design a series of installations in public urban areas to encourage engagement in informal STEM learning. 

​“The goal of the partnership is to infuse public spaces in Santa Ana  - for example, parks, bus-stops, grocery stores - with playful and engaging informal STEM learning opportunities, thereby leveraging everyday routines such as grocery shopping or waiting for the bus to promote science and math learning and caregiver-child interactions,” Bustamante said.

This project is an extension of a larger initiative, Playful Learning Landscapes, which reimagines public spaces as hubs for play and learning. Previous work from this initiative transformed a bus-stop in West Philadelphia to provide playful learning opportunities to families as they wait for the bus. 

​By using techniques drawn from community-based, participatory design research and partnering with local community members, Bustamante believes that the Santa Ana installations will reflect the goals, values, and cultural capital of the Latinx community. Once in use, the installations will provide opportunities for documenting how the unique assets and needs of a local community can be incorporated into public infrastructure to promote STEM learning experiences and interactions.

“I believe our community partnerships are the biggest strength of this project,” Bustamante said. “SAELI is made up of hundreds of local parents, educators, and community leaders who are incredibly dedicated to providing enrichment opportunities to Santa Ana children ages 0-9. Our SAELI partners will lead the way on where projects installations go and what they look like, maximizing engagement with the installations and ensuring they are centered in local culture, values, and community goals.”  

The research team includes Bustamante, and co-PIs June Ahn, UCI School of Education Associate Professor and faculty director of the Orange County Educational Advancement Network (OCEAN); and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, the Stanley and Debra Lefkowitz Faculty Fellow in Psychology at Temple University, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and director of Temple University’s Infant & Child Laboratory.

Playful Learning Landscape installation, "Urban Thinkscape." The designs are meant to promote caregiver-child interaction and conversation at a bus-stop in Philadelphia. (Photo Credit: Sahar Coston-Hardy).

The research team is also partnering with the Orange County Children and Families Commission, which collects data on Orange County children’s learning and development. This unique dataset will enable the researchers to examine the longitudinal impacts of a cluster of playful learning installations in a single neighborhood on children’s developmental outcomes compared to matched neighborhoods without these installations.

Bustamante’s current research builds upon on his previous experiences with STEM learning installations at El Sol Academy in Santa Ana and in early learning settings in Philadelphia. 

Bustamante and his STEM Learning Lab research team - UCI Research Scientist Kreshnik Begolli, UCI Graduate Student Daniela Alvarez-Vargas, Associate Professor Drew Bailey, and Associate Professor Lindsey Richland, in partnership with teachers – painted the basketball courts at El Sol Academy to emphasize fraction and decimal learning. The result is a new game, Fraction Ball.
​
“Fraction Ball alters the lines of a basketball court to emphasize fraction and decimal learning ​by allowing children to take shots that are worth a fraction of a point,” Bustamante said. “The traditional 3-point arc is converted into a 1-point arc and smaller arcs closer to the basket represent 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 point shots on one end of the court and 1/3 and 2/3 point shots on the opposite end.” ​

Fraction Ball court at El Sol Academy in Santa Ana, CA. (Photo Credit Kenny Lewis).

In 2018—during his time as a postdoctoral scholar at Temple University—Bustamante designed, implemented, and evaluated a life-size board game, “Parkopolis,” which combined evidence-based math and science content with play, physical activity, and gross motor development. A recent Developmental Psychology article explains how Parkopolis successfully promoted caregiver-child interaction, STEM language use, and physical activity. 

​An outdoor version of Parkopolis at a public park in Santa Ana is likely to be one of the installations in the new NSF project.

​Bustamante is optimistic about the impact his research will have on the future of early learning environments.

“In line with the global movement focused on creating child-friendly cities, this project will offer a model for how cities can be re-designed to enhance learning ubiquitously across public spaces, with the cultural capital of local children and families at the center of urban design and revitalization,” Bustamante said.  ​

Parkopolis, the life size board game for math and science learning, tested at the Please Touch Children’s Museum in Philadelphia, PA. (Photo Credit Sahar Coston-Hardy).