Expanding The Moment: A Collaboration to Highlight the Importance of STEM Education in Early Childhood During NSF's 75th Anniversary and Beyond

Sesame Workshop is an American nonprofit organization with a mission to help children everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. Inspired by the forthcoming 75th Anniversary of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), this project will leverage current research efforts in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and multimedia resources as delivery mechanisms for developing the content knowledge and process skills needed for children's STEM success.

Research has demonstrated that investing in early STEM education can help narrow the gaps in STEM participation that begin to appear by mid-elementary school and last well into adulthood. This project will create engaging multimedia as well as in- and out-of-school experiences focused on encouraging young learners' interest in STEM. This suite of resources will also engage caregivers and educators in children's STEM pursuits.

To achieve the project's objectives, Sesame Workshop will develop and launch virtual field trips (VFTs) to two NSF-funded laboratories--the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Maui, Hawaii and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. The VFTs will feature a range of roles at these sites to help children "see themselves in STEM" and move away from common tropes of "who does STEM." The project will also produce a series of STEM-based, digital preschool and early elementary learning kits.

These kits will include video shorts featuring popular characters from Sesame Street and Mecha Builders, as well as co-viewing guides that encourage engagement around these videos among children, educators, and families. The field trips, videos, and guides will be delivered nationwide throughout 2025 and beyond, with the intent of reaching learners, schools, communities, and organizations from across the U.S.

Sesame Workshop will also conduct a recall study and measurement pilot. The recall study will examine the efficacy of the early elementary learning kit content in supporting children's STEM literacy, particularly their recall of relevant STEM learning. The focus on recall is based on existing research on multimedia learning that shows recall as the foundation of knowledge transfer and the ability to apply learning.

Recruiting from audiences at informal learning sites and/or Sesame partner museums and Educational Play Centers, children ages 5-7 and their caregivers will participate in the two-week study. In parallel with the recall study, Sesame Workshop will also develop and pilot a play-based assessment of children's hands-on STEM knowledge. This activity is in response to the body of research that demonstrates that the current state of assessing young children's learning is not meeting the needs of children, families, teachers, administrators, or school systems.

Sesame Workshop ensure that the experiences and materials created through this grant reach millions of children in both formal and informal learning settings nationwide. Further, by ensuring that most of the proposed outputs are freely available in perpetuity on YouTube and other social media platforms, Sesame Workshop will not only provide children opportunities to explore STEM skills and acquire STEM knowledge with their families, caregivers, and educators but also reinforce this learning as they engage and re-engage with the content.

It will reach and impact children, families, and educators for many years as it is used in productions well beyond its initial dissemination through this project.

This project is co-funded by the NSF Directorate for STEM Education (EDU) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Program and the NSF Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP). The EDU AISL Program seeks to advance new approaches to the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. TIP advances use-inspired and translational research in all fields of science and engineering, giving rise to new industries and engaging all Americans in the pursuit of new, high-wage jobs in STEM.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.