Using Family Prompts to Support Families’ Sensemaking and Science Connections in a Water Quality Workshop

This study addresses the increasing interest in family learning in informal settings by investigating strategies to better engage families in science talk and practices. As part of a larger design-based research study, we examine how scientists and parents use think-pair-share discussion prompts to support families’ understandings about local community water sources and facilitate experimentation with a surface and underground water model. Grounded in sociocultural theory of learning, we focus on parent-child interactions and family sensemaking. We analyzed four water quality workshops with 44 hours of video data from 13 families. We examined how the structure of the family question prompts supported or hindered families’ learning. Through our analysis, we identified three emerging patterns of how the prompts delivered by STEM professionals influenced parent-child conversations and interactions on science content. Our findings suggest that prompts designed to connect science to family experiences can support family sensemaking practices. Also, prediction prompts and other resources (such as learners’ workbooks, pointing and gestures, and a water model) were found to support families’ sensemaking about water sources and water quality.