Catherine Maltbie

Can playscapes promote early childhood inquiry towards environmentally responsible behaviors? An exploratory study

This paper investigates young children’s exploratory play and inquiry on playscapes: playgrounds specifically designed to connect children with natural environments. Our theoretical framework posits that playscapes combine the benefits of nature and play to promote informal science exploration of natural materials. This, in turn, is expected to lead to environmental science literacy, which in turn is likely to strengthen a child’s ecological identity and lead to environmentally responsible behaviors (ERBs). The following questions are of specific interest: to what extent do children go beyond observations and explorations and use science-specific representations and language during their play on playscapes? What locations on the playscape afford science-specific activities? And how do these activities relate to their play on the playscape? In an attempt to answer these questions, we describe data obtained from a video analysis of preschoolers visiting a playscape. As a means of initial comparison, we also analyzed data obtained from a traditional playground. We examine the intersection of children’s play and inquiry within specific areas of interest at the two sites. The two sites vary in many dimensions, including size, familiarity, and access to natural materials. Nevertheless, our data provide initial support for our hypothesis that natural environments promote explorations and inquiry, fostering ERBs.

Expanding the introduction of microfluidics through a problem-based laboratory course to multiple engineering disciplines at five universities

Microfluidics is a multidisciplinary field that deals with the behavior and precise control of microliter and nanoliter volumes of fluids. While microfluidics has transformed many areas of engineering and applied sciences, minimal effort has been directed at transferring microfluidics research to the undergraduate curricula. Addressing this need, the University of Cincinnati has developed an undergraduate laboratory course to introduce students to microfluidics device development that is currently being expanded to four other universities with the assistance of an NSF CCLI Phase II grant (DUE-0814911). This course has been taught at University of Cincinnati four times, the University of Illinois at Chicago three times previously and the University of Utah, Louisiana State University, and North Carolina State University once. This paper will discuss course evaluation and the issues encountered in offering the course at five diverse educational institutions. Some of the issues included course structure (quarters vs. semesters), student background knowledge (engineering majors), and domain expertise level (graduate or undergraduate). The initial success of the pilot program and expansion to other universities is encouraging as course materials are adapted and more engineering students are introduced to advanced multidisciplinary research topics using microfluidics.