About this session

Thursday, 11:50 AM - 1:20 PM

Out-of-School Time Tech: Supporting Children’s STEM Engagement through Digital Tools and Conversations

Out-of-school activities that foster exploration and social interactions play a vital role in children’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning (Alexandre et al., 2022; NRC, 2009). In recent years, children’s use of technology (e.g., social media, digital games, video calling) during out-of-school time has increased significantly (Hsin et al., 2014; Mantilla & Edwards, 2019). While some research suggests that technology use can displace meaningful conversations and hinder STEM learning (Kelly et al., 2023), other theories propose that technologies emphasizing content creation, communication, and creativity can support learning (Bers, 2012).

This symposium examines how diverse technology tools—including YouTube videos, digital storytelling, video chat, and artificial intelligence (AI) conversational partners—can enhance the spatial, mathematical, and engineering language of 3- to 10-year-old children in out-of-school settings. The first paper explores the skills taught and spatial/mathematical language used in YouTube videos viewed by young children. The second investigates how digital storytelling in museum tinkering exhibits fosters parent-child conversation and engineering talk. The third paper examines spatial language use in grandparent-grandchild video chat interactions. The fourth considers whether storytelling with human and AI conversational partners promotes children's mathematical vocabulary.

All four papers highlight the affordances of technology-based interactions, acknowledging factors that may impact the effectiveness of these tools for fostering meaningful STEM engagement. Building on SRCD’s goal of communicating, exchanging, and translating developmental science for policy and practice, the session will discuss the real-world implications of children's technology use in out-of-school learning contexts.

Paper #1
Title	Investigating Spatial and Math Language and Skill Development in Educational YouTube Videos for 3-to-5-Year-Olds
Presenting author	Corinne A. Bower, Ph.D., California State University, Los Angeles, United States

Paper #2
Title	When Technology Meets Tinkering: Promoting Museum Engineering Engagement through Digital Storytelling
Presenting author	Dr. Lauren C. Pagano, Ph.D., Northwestern University, United States

Paper #3
Title	Leveraging Multi-Generational Video Chat as a Source of Spatial Language for Young Children
Presenting author	Dr. Jennifer M. Zosh, Ph.D., Penn State University, Brandywine, United States

Paper #4
Title	Teaching Math Vocabulary Through Storytelling: Comparing AI and Human Partners’ Effectiveness
Presenting author	Echo Zexuan Pan, University of Michigan, United States

View all paper details

Session chair
Dr. Lauren C. Pagano, Ph.D., Northwestern University, United States

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