Research News

ECRC joins Explore & More to shed light on how kids learn

Student works with a child at a table in the Early Childhood Research Center.

Margaret Foley, a master’s student and teacher at the Fisher-Price Endowed Early Childhood Research Center, and Ethan Glasgow, 3, try a playful experiment in perception by noticing the change in a toy’s appearance when it is behind a blue screen.

By MICHELLE KEARNS

Published March 6, 2020

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“Kids learn best by doing, touching, feeling, experimenting. ”
Amelia Schrader, senior manager of learning and education
Explore & More, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Children’s Museum

Children’s thoughts about bending the rules, telling the truth and the futures they imagine can be mysterious to the grownups in their lives. A new series of playful research-based experiments will reveal answers and shed light on how kids learn.

“Living Lab to Living Room,” a new collaboration between UB’s Fisher-Price Endowed Early Childhood Research Center (ECRC) and Buffalo’s Explore & More, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Children’s Museum, will share knowledge with families curious to know more.

Student researchers from Graduate School of Education will be on hand on Saturdays, beginning March 7 through April 18 — except on April 4 — to share a series of play experiments with visitors to Explore & More Children’s Museum, newly relocated and opened at the city’s Canalside waterfront. Drop-in sessions for children ages 3 to 11 will help parents and caregivers observe their kids’ learning and leave with ideas to practice at home.

“We want to share child development knowledge with parents and caregivers in the community,” says X. Christine Wang, ECRC director, associate professor of learning and instruction, and leader of the “Living Lab to Living Room” project. The main goal, Wang says, is to take child development research out of the academic setting and bring the knowledge to “living room” learning.

The project is the first of its kind for the North Campus-based ECRC. Wang received a GSE faculty-in-residence fellowship to develop the project with her students. Fisher-Price sponsored a research assistant to help with the project work.

Wang says she’s very excited about the project, which reaches several important groups: parents and children, graduate students in GSE’s teacher education program, and the museum staff. All will benefit from the informal learning in the museum’s welcoming setting, she says.

Eight “Living Lab to Living Room” sessions were developed by graduate students based on child development research. In one example for 3- to 5-year-olds, the student researchers will engage children to recognize changes in perspective. The children will be encouraged to notice how a toy looks different as it moves behind a clear blue screen. Parents can practice the concept at home by pointing out how storybook pictures look different when they are upside down.

These kinds of observations are the beginning of learning how to understand the feelings and perspectives of others, Wang says, adding that learning to see what others see is the foundation of empathy.

Learning Lab activities range in approach and age group. A zoo experiment for 3- to 5-year-olds incorporates toy animals to look at a child’s understanding of a sequence of events. A conversation about bending the rules will help 2- to 9-year-olds assess the difference between social norms and moral “right and wrong” transgressions.

The Explore & More Children’s Museum welcomes the opportunity to share child development knowledge with parents and provide tools for parents to practice at home, says Amelia Schrader, the museum’s senior manager of learning and education

“Kids learn best by doing, touching, feeling, experimenting,” Schrader says. “Simple tips are also about empowering parents to learn more on their own: ‘I don’t have a PhD but I can totally help make up games with my kid. I didn’t know that was helping my kid’s brain development.’”

Adds Wang: “We’re hoping this will be the beginning of our endeavor to engage the community.”   

In the future, Wang says she would like to explore developing pop-up sessions with different organizations in the community. Long-term plans include a study that would follow the development of participating local children.