Family Learning and Sense-Making in Astronomy: Talk During Galaxies Workshops Held in Four Rural Libraries

Abstract

Families sense-making talk is a key component of engagement and learning of science in informal learning spaces. In this paper the role of types of talk and prompts during family conversations while engaged in a STEM learning experience at rural libraries are explored. Using a multiple case study approach, 10 families’ interactions (10 hours of video) were examined across workshops held at four rural libraries to determine how families talked about the science and if discussion prompts, which were provided as part of the workshop structure, helped or hindered the families conversations during a galaxy sort activity with images from telescopes.