A team of researchers at the University of California, Riverside, Northwestern University, and Georgetown University seem to think so and are gearing up to formally answer that question in a five-year project funded by a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
Rebekah Richert, associate professor of psychology at UC Riverside and principal investigator on the project will team up with Ellen Wartella, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al- Thani Professor of Communication, professor of pyschology and professor of human development and social policy at Northwestern University; and Sandra Calvert, director of the Children's Digital Media Center and professor of psychology at Georgetown University.
In a series of studies with children ages 18 months to six years, the trio will examine how toddlers and preschoolers learn from educational media and how that can support STEM education.
Richert, who's known for her previous research on how children transfer what they see on television and in books to real life, and how they distinguish between fantasy and reality is interested in answering questions like, "How can we promote early STEM learning with high-quality media?" and, "How can we develop better avatars and promote diversity in STEM fields?"
Superheroes and fictional characters that endorse various subject matter and embrace educational material, projecting it onto young audiences isn't a new concept. Nonetheless, the NSF-funded project will look to answer what kind of character could best be used to stimulate STEM learning. Is it a character like Nickelodeon's Dora the Explorer or Sesame Street's Big Bird, or something different all together?
The psychologists will kick things off by conducting a workshop at Northwestern in the spring of 2014 involving experts in science education, computer-game design, and television learning for children to consider how best to direct future research.
Read more about the project and see what Richert had to say on UCR Today.
