‌From Stories to Solutions is a National Science Foundation-funded project that involves Latine families with young children serving as design partners to create engineering learning activities for community and museum settings and ultimately, advance equity in engineering education in out-of-school settings. This project is a collaboration with our research team at Loyola, educators at Chicago Children’s Museum, and community leaders at Palenque LSNA.

Ciencias en Relatos is a National Science Foundation-funded project which focuses on the ways that Latine families with preschoolers read and tell stories about science which can contribute to culturally sustaining educational practices. We are in collaboration with New York University and the University of California at Santa Cruz.

TALES: Tinkering and Learning Engineering Stories is a museum-based project that investigates how stories can be integrated into informal STEM learning experiences for young children and their families. We are collaborating with long time partners the Chicago Children’s Museum, Northwestern University and a new addition, Roosevelt University.

LabVenture is a project that addresses the challenge of how to increase retention and use of learning from short-duration experiences, taking place in the LabVenture program at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI). This project is funded by the Advanced Informal STEM Learning (AISL) and the Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) programs.

TRAEL: Tinkering Reflection and Engineering Learning is a museum-based project is funded by the National Science Foundation. It is focused on how children can learn about and develop an interest in engineering and science through engagement with their parents.

EEE: Engaging Engineering Experts is a project funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through its STEMeX initiative. It involves community experts providing engineering programs at Evanston Public Library and Chicago Children's Museum.

Past Projects: Our lab has investigated children's learning about engineering and science, and the role of parent-child conversations in a variety of ways; Children's Memory Study, Family Learning in Museums, and Learning with Objects. Past partners in these works include the Shedd Aquarium, Chicago Children's Museum, and The Field Museum.