Multilingual students, especially Spanish-speaking students, are underrepresented in STEM pathways. One contributing factor is a gap in science literacy, or the skills necessary for science comprehension and the motivation to engage with scientific content, between multilingual learners and peers whose first language is English. Technological tools can be a valuable way to support scientific learning, especially given increasing demands on teachers and decreased time dedicated to science in elementary school. This study will adapt and examine Missions with Monty, an online game-based learning environment that has shown promise in improving reading comprehension and science learning for Spanish-speaking students. Nietfeld and colleagues will work with students in eight schools across five counties in North Carolina to iteratively develop and examine language scaffolds that incorporate culturally-relevant characters and examples, as well as translation options, into the game. The team will conduct a quasi-experimental study to compare three versions of the game with different types of scaffolds on scientific learning and reading comprehension. They will also conduct post-study interviews with participating students. Findings will shed light on the promise of a technological tool for improving scientific learning outcomes for multilingual students whose primary language is Spanish.
How can a game-based learning environment improve 5th grade Spanish-speaking students’ science learning?
