ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************



Dear ASTC Community:

Please consider submitting an abstract on "Designing Environments to Promote Play-based Science Learning" for a special section of Children, Youth, and Environments.  See below for more information.  Thanks!

yours,
david.
.


Call for Abstracts for a Special Section of

Children, Youth, and Environments

http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/

Fall 2011 (Special Section)

 

Designing Environments to Promote Play-based Science Learning

 

Guest Editors

 

Jennifer D. Adams, [log in to unmask]

Assistant Professor of Science Education, Brooklyn College

School of Education, Brooklyn, NY, USA

 

David E. Kanter, [log in to unmask]

Director of SciPlay: the Sara Lee Schupf Family Center for Play, Science, and Technology Learning

New York Hall of Science, Queens, NY, USA

 

 

Introduction and Aims

Although there are many definitions of play, and many professionals agree that play is necessary for healthy childhood development, there is a long history of efforts within the setting of schools to harness children’s intrinsic motivation during play to educative ends. With increasing acknowledgement that much of the science that people learn occurs in out-of-school settings, it is becoming more important to understand the role that designed spaces can perform in fostering science learning in settings outside of school. One such out-of-school setting is the science and technology center where there is an explicit effort to create learning environments that foster both play and science learning. Another is the natural or parks setting wherein activities are designed to support children’s outdoor play from which they also learn science. This special section of the Fall 2011 issue of Children, Youth, and Environments will explore multi-disciplinary perspectives on the role of play in science learning with a special focus on out-of-school spaces designed for children’s playful learning. We encourage manuscript proposals that focus on designs for built spaces or activity designs for natural spaces that promote play-based science learning. Looking at play and place as a dialectic, while such places may be designed for children’s play, it is also children’s agency that shapes these places and transforms them into arenas for play. We encourage manuscript proposals that are diverse in their disciplinary, cultural, and theoretical perspectives.

 

Possible Questions and Topics for Exploration:

How can we apply what we know about children’s play to design activities and spaces (including virtual spaces designed to complement real-world spaces) that maintain children’s sense of play while at the same time promoting specific science learning goals?  How can we apply what we know about designing children’s science instruction to make learning experiences more genuinely playful? In any of these cases, how do we consider cultural contexts when designing play/learning spaces for children? How do children’s cultures change the meaning of and activity in these designed play/learning spaces? How might we leverage children’s natural tendency to design their own games and play-objects, which vary across different cultures, to support children’s play-based science learning? What are the methodological considerations for studying children’s science learning in the context of their active play?

 

Research and theoretical articles might document and/or interrogate play-based science learning with a focus on any of the following contexts:

·      Playgrounds

·      Science and Technology Centers

·      Children’s Museums

·      Naturally Landscaped and Urban Parks

·      Nature Centers

·      Nature Preserves and National Parks

·      Street Environments and Community-based Contexts

·      Combining any of these Real-world with Virtual Environments

 

Expressions of interest

One-page abstracts of your paper ideas should be sent by March 1st 2011 to Jennifer D. Adams [log in to unmask] and David E. Kanter [log in to unmask] and copied to [log in to unmask] A selection of abstract authors will be invited to submit full papers for peer review.  Full papers will be due by June 15th, 2011.  Abstracts should mention how the ideas in the full paper will apply directly to research or practice. As you prepare your abstract, please review the Children, Youth and Environments submission guidelines: http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/CYE_SubmissionGuidelines.htm.

 


________________________________________

David E. Kanter, Ph.D.

Director, SciPlay:
	The Sara Lee Schupf Family Center
	for Play, Science, and Technology Learning

New York Hall of Science
47-01 111th Street
Queens, NY, 11368

nysci.org/SciPlay

[log in to unmask]
718.699.0005 x374 
________________________________________








***********************************************************************
For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.

Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.

The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html.

To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]