As part of a grant from the National Science Foundation, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is conducting regional STEM workshops in partnership with local science museums, entitled NFB STEM2U, for blind youth [youth], grades 3 – 6 and 9-12. During the third regional workshop in Columbus, Ohio, the NFB operated two different programs simultaneously: one program for youth, and a second program for their parents/caregivers. A third program, for COSI (science center) staff, was conducted earlier to prepare the museum staff to assist with the youth program. A separate report will discuss
In this article, the authors review a collaborative project between two developmental psychologists and the staff of Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose. Under the broad agenda of studying the development of scientific literacy, they have been exploring the hypothesis that the guidance of parents is an important bridge between the intentions of the exhibit designer and the experience and knowledge of the child. Their research is guided by a framework inspired by a combination of socio-cultural and information-processing theories of how children learn. In the first section of this article