Questions or concerns regarding any of the studies described below may be directed to the CONNECT Research Office, (310) 825 2622.

The Making Science project is continuing its work this year on a new science curriculum to support scientific discourse and reasoning in the electricity & magnetism and geology curricula for Intermediate level students in Rooms 7 & 8 and Room 18. This is the third year of the three-year Making Science study. As part of the research around the unit, researchers will be interviewing students and collecting their in-class science work. Additionally, if their parents have given us permission to do so, children may be videotaped as part of the observation. Since parents have already signed the UES blanket consent form, they are not required to sign any additional forms at this time. The study will be conducted primarily by Dr. William A. Sandoval, a professor from the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, in collaboration with Dr. Noel Enyedy, Director of Research at the UCLA Lab School and CONNECT. If you have any questions about the study please contact Dr. Sandoval at 310-794-5431 or sandoval@gseis.ucla.edu.

The Improving English Literacy Project will be starting in Room 19 in September 2009. Teachers, Mr. Wilson and Ms. Ramirez, will be piloting a new literacy unit that uses methods based on the New Theory of Children’s Thinking Development (Kekang HE, 2002). The goal is to promote pupils’ literacy proficiency in English. These methods have been used previously in about 160 elementary schools in China, Hong Kong and Singapore. In these schools, the results showed that 7-8-year-old children learned to identify more than 2,500 common Chinese characters, read common children’s books and write an article of more than 300 words using a computer in the experimental classes. These methods have now been adapted for use in teaching English literacy. Data collection for the study will involve classroom observations and examining children’s in-class work. We also plan to administer a short (about 30 minute) pre- and post-test at the beginning and end of the unit. As parents have already signed the UCLA Lab School blanket consent form, they are not required to sign any additional forms at this time. Additionally, if in the blanket consent form parents gave us permission to do so, children may be videotaped. This study will be conducted primarily by Marjorie Orellana, a professor from the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA, in collaboration with Guo Ying, a visiting doctoral student at GSE&IS. If you have any questions feel free to contact Dr. Orellana at (310) 206 0102 or orellana@gseis.ucla.edu, or Guo Ying at (310) 500 6079 or guo.ying@ucla.edu.

This research involves teachers only. No students will be involved.

This research focuses on how the philosophies and instructional strategies associated with co-teaching can be used in a general education setting. By examining recent literature on bilingual and inclusive co-teaching models, and interviewing and observing in classrooms that provide such a setting, researchers will synthesize a model for co-teaching in a general education classroom, illuminating personal and professional considerations for collaborating on this level. They will address these focus questions to guide the research: What strategies can co-educators use in a collaborative, self-contained environment? What factors should co-teachers be aware of in such a collaborative relationship? And what are the implications of co-teaching in a general education setting?

PARENTS: Please note that this study falls outside of the UCLA Lab School blanket consent form. As such, additional consent forms for this study are being sent home with Upper level students. Parents must sign and return this form if they would like to participate

Phase 2 (of a study began in 2006) will survey the current class of 6th graders, and three successive 6th grade classes asking the children in the form of written open-ended questions about their off-line and on-line computer activities. Of greatest interest in this Phase 2 study will be answers to questions about how the student connects to the internet, how the student finds sites on the internet, favorite internet games, games students play with others on the internet, use of email, and the use of instant messaging or texting. Both parental consent forms and student assent forms must be signed for students to participate. This study is conducted by Debbie Weissmann, a Ph.D. Student in the department of Information Studies. If you have any questions feel free to contact Debbie at dweissmann@ucla.edu or (310) 722 7750.

PARENTS: Please note that this study falls outside of the UCLA Lab School blanket consent form. As such, additional consent forms for this study are being sent home with Intermediate level students. Parents must sign and return this form if they would like to participate

This study addresses two related research questions: Can the words and phrases (commonly known in he technical jargon as “tags”) that are supplied by children as descriptors for artworks be used to enhance the catalog records that are created for those artworks by museum professionals? In what ways does the participation of children in a museum “tagging” activity influence the nature and extent of children's learning about art in general and about specific artworks in particular? Research on children's experiences of museums has focused on children's attitudes to museums, on the ways in which children behave and learn in museums, and on the ways in which museums can create effective learning environments. Little research has been done, however, on children's use of digital museums. In particular, evaluations of the outcomes of children's tagging activity in museum settings (or, for that matter, in settings of any other kind) are absent from the literature. To put it simply, this project will serve to answer whether collecting tags from children is worthwhile. This study is conducted primarily by Benjamin Lee Handler, a doctoral student at UCLA, in collaboration with Jonathan Furner, a professor in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. If you have any questions feel free to contact Ben Lee Handler at benleehandler@gmail.com or (310) 210 5874.

This study examines which specific strategies young children use in their daily interactions with one another to arrive at peaceful, prosocial, and mutually beneficial resolutions to conflict. Conflict resolution strategies are an important part of a child’s repertoire of competent social skills. Documenting these resolution strategies may support the study and development of skills that teachers can easily and effectively teach to optimally support children’s conflict resolution. Data collection will involve classroom observations of children’s natural social behavior and teacher’s responses during children’s conflict situations, and teacher survey and interview data regarding practices teachers use to promote children’s conflict resolution. As parents have already signed the UCLA Lab School blanket consent form, they are not required to sign any additional forms at this time. Additionally, if in the blanket consent form parents gave us permission to do so, children may be videotaped. This study will be conducted primarily by Asha Spivak, a doctoral student at UCLA. If you have any questions feel free to contact Asha Spivak at (802) 760-9581 or aspivak@ucla.edu.

Learning science is not just about acquiring a collection of abstract facts; it is about learning how to be scientific—-how to behave, think, and believe in ways which identify you with the scientific community. Research has suggested that identifying personally with science motivates students, but we don’t currently understand the role of student-teacher interaction in shaping the way students identify with science. Melissa Cook (a graduate student at UCLA) is conducting research at the 6th grade level to answer this question. Data collection will involve observation during science class, interviews with students about their interest in and attitudes towards science. As parents have already signed the UCLA Lab School blanket consent form, they are not required to sign any additional forms in order for children to participate. Additionally, if in the blanket consent form parents gave us permission to do so, children may be videotaped. If you have any questions feel free to contact Melissa Cook at 310-699-2308 or cook.ucla@gmail.com.

PARENTS: Please note that this study falls outside of the UCLA Lab School blanket consent form. As such, additional consent forms for this study are being sent home with Early Childhood and Primary level students. Parents must sign and return this form if they would like to participate

This study explores how altruistic behavior develops in young children. Research with adults has shown a strong preference for outcomes which benefit other people, but it isn't yet fully clear where these preferences come from. It is possible that even very young children are concerned about the welfare of others, but it is also possible that children progressively become more altruistic over time. This study is part of a large cross-cultural project designed to try to understand how altruism develops in children, and to explore how culture influences human altruism and morality. We do this by letting a pair of children play a game in which they can deliver small amounts of goldfish crackers to each other. Based on the choices that children make, we can make inferences about their altruistic preferences. Both parental consent forms and student assent forms must be signed for students to participate. This study is conducted by Bailey House and Dr. Joan Silk, from the UCLA Department of Anthropology. If you have any questions about this research, please contact Bailey House at (413) 883-6658, or bhouse80@ucla.edu.

PARENTS: click here to read some preliminary results from the study “Altruistic Behavior in Children”

PARENTS: Please note that this study falls outside of the UCLA Lab School blanket consent form. As such, additional consent forms for this study are being sent home with Upper level students. Parents must sign and return this form if they would like to participate

Educational researchers have begun to realize that learning does not happen only in school, and that children have many potential resources for learning from different places in their lives (i.e., their “social worlds”). These worlds may include peer circles, online environments, home, athletic teams or music lessons, and community organizations. Yet we do not understand how children make connections between these places and more “formal” learning environments, and how they think of their engagement in these different social worlds. Deborah Fields, a graduate student at UCLA, (working closely with Dr. Noel Enyedy, Director of Research at UCLA Lab School/CONNECT), is conducting a year-long study to learn more about the connections and conflicts between children’s identities in different social worlds, and how these identities might serve as resources for learning in school. She will be recruiting two Upper level students to participate in this study, which will include observations in different spaces (classroom, home, and out-of-school spaces like sports, music, or clubs), some video taping, monthly interviews. Both parental consent forms and student assent forms must be signed for students to participate. If you have any questions about this study, please contact Deborah Fields at (310) 619-4894, or stareyes@gmail.com.

The SPASES project aims to use new sensing technologies to help translate young children's physical actions during pretend play into a simulation that helps them learn concepts of force and motion. As Primary level students in rooms 11 & 12 physically move around the classroom, the computer will track their motion and interactions with select objects and translate their physical activity into a shared display. Imagine something like an education version of the Nintendo Wii game console, where instead of just playing games, the students are engaged in scientific inquiry and modeling. As part of the study, children will be interviewed, and their in-class work will be examined. As parents have already signed the UCLA Lab School blanket consent form, they are not required to sign any additional forms at this time. Additionally, if in the blanket consent form parents gave us permission to do so, children may be videotaped while they are engaged with the lesson. Any questions about this study should be directed to Noel Enyedy, Director of Research at UCLA Lab School/CONNECT, at (310) 825 5467, or enyedy@gseis.ucla.edu.

This study examines the effects of the quality of interaction during shared narration on young children's independent narrative abilities as mediated by the children's attachment relationship with their mothers. Understanding these relationships is important considering the contribution of children's narrative abilities to their later academic success. In the classroom, children will be administered a measure of expressive language ability and video-recorded telling independent narratives and story-stem narratives in which children complete stories prompted by a researcher using small dolls. In the home, parent-child interactions will be video-recorded and questionnaires will be administered to parents. Both parental consent forms and student assent forms must be signed for students to participate. This study will be conducted primarily by Kimberly R. Kelly, a doctoral student at UCLA. If you have any questions about the study, please contact Kimberly Kelly at (978) 821-8708 or reynoldskelly1@gmail.com. (Additional consent)

This study is part of a larger project that began in 2007, entitled “Children's Negotiations Across Cultural, Class, and Linguistic Borders in Dual Language Schools: Assessing the Development of Transcultural Skills and Practices.” The researchers seek to understand better how immigration status and social class background influence children’s daily interactions, friendship choices and attitudes about others. In addition to observation during structured and unstructured time at school, students in the Upper and Intermediate levels will be interviewed, and questionnaires will be administered to children, their teachers and parents. Participants may be audio recorded as part of data collection. Both parental consent forms and student assent forms must be signed for students to participate. The study will be conducted primarily by Elizabeth White, a Ph.D student at UCLA, and Dr. Rashmita Mistry, Assistant Professor of Education. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Dr. Mistry at (310) 825 6569 or mistry@gseis.ucla.edu. (Additional consent)

This study will investigate a classroom delivered mindfulness program to a randomized sample of Primary level students at UES. Pre- and post-assessment measures of children's classroom behavior, and questionnaires completed by parents, teachers and students will be used to evaluate the effects of mindful awareness practices (MAPs). MAPs involves learning to create a sense of physical calm, concentrated attention, and moment-by-moment awareness of one's own thoughts, feelings, and actions. The MAPs training program utilizes a curriculum taught by expert meditation trainer Susan Kaiser Greenland, founder of the InnerKids Foundation. In order to participate in the research, parents need to return the signed consent form and completed questionnaires to the UES Research Office (Room 1088E), as described in the parent information packets sent home with Primary students. The study will be conducted by Lisa Flook, Ph.D., Susan Smalley, Ph.D., Connie Kasari, Ph.D., and Jennifer Kitil, B.A., all from UCLA. If you have any questions, please contact the researchers at (310) 206 7528. (Additional consent)

This study takes the form of an after-school Virtual World and Design Club for Intermediate and Upper level students in the Extended Day Program at UES. Club members will play on Scratch, a visual programming language that allows designers to create games, music videos, interactive art and more, and Whyville, a large-scale virtual world that encourages youth to play casual science games and design parts for their virtual avatar (personal representation). The study of interactions and impressions from these two clubs will provide the research team with preliminary information on what types of features related to technology fluency youth find engaging, and what issues may arise in connection with their use of online worlds. Both parental consent forms and student assent forms must be signed for students to participate. Participants will fill out a short survey on their previous engagement with technology, and will be interviewed about Scratch and Whyville so that researchers may understand their experiences and gather suggestions for improvement. Participants may also be videotaped at their computers. The study will be conducted primarily by Dr. Yasmin Kafai, associate professor of Psychological Studies in Education at UCLA. If you have any questions about the study, please contact Dr. Kafai at kafai@gseis.ucla.edu or (310) 206 8150. (Additional consent)

This project aims to teach Early Childhood students about basic science concepts. Learning sessions, separate from regular instruction, will be programmed to help students remember the information that they learn. In the weeks following the learning sessions, students will be evaluated to gauge how much of the material they are able to retain. Children will also draw the concepts on paper, in order to help them be more reflective as they create representations. As part of the study your child will be interviewed, and we will examine his/her in-class work. As you have already signed the blanket consent form, you do not have to sign any additional forms. Additionally, if in the blanket consent form you gave us permission to do so, your child may be videotaped while they are engaged with lessons. The study will be conducted primarily by Haley Vlach, a Ph.D student at UCLA. She is be working closely with Dr. Noel Enyedy, Director of Research at UES/CONNECT and Dr. Catherine Sandhofer, Assistant Professor of Psychology. If you have any questions about the study please contact Haley Vlach at (310) 206 8286.

In the coming months, the Upper level classes will engage in a science unit on force, motion, and simple machines. As part of the unit, students will collaborate to create educational software games to teach younger students about science. The teams will learn how to use Scratch, a media-rich programming environment to design interactive games that demonstrate aspects of physics. Researchers will be studying the integration of these digital game design activities in the classroom. As you have already signed the blanket consent form, you do not have to sign any additional forms for your child to participate. As part of the study, we will collect student work. Additionally, if in the blanket consent form you gave us permission to do so, your child may be videotaped during classroom discussions and visits by game testers from younger classrooms. At the end of the project, we will interview students in their design teams. Students will also take an online survey that focuses on their depth of technology skills. The study will be conducted by Dr. Yasmin Kafai, Associate Professor of Education, and Debbie Fields, a Ph.D. student at UCLA. If you have any questions about the study, please contact Dr. Kafai at (310) 206 8150.

This project aims to teach students in Rooms 13 and 14 about the way that beehives are organized to efficiently collect nectar and store it in the form of honey. In addition, to help students learn about bees and other science concepts, the students will be taught a variety of techniques to help them be more reflective as they create representations such as drawings and paintings. As part of the study, children will be interviewed, and we will examine their in-class work. As parents have already signed the blanket consent form, they are not required to sign any additional forms. Additionally, if in the blanket consent form parents gave us permission to do so, children may be videotaped while they are engaged with the lesson. The study will be conducted primarily by Joshua Danish, a Ph.D. student at UCLA. He will also be working closely with Dr. Noel Enyedy, Director of Research at UES/CONNECT. If you have any questions about the study please contact Joshua Danish at (310) 430 5548.

This project is aimed at developing an effective school-based intervention program targeting peer acceptance and social engagement with peers for children who are socially anxious, shy, or tentative about playing with friends at school. The study takes the form of an after school group intervention with embedded social activities during the school day. Our goals are to 1) determine if children who participate in a social skills group will improve in their ability to initiate and respond socially on the school playground over the course of the program; 2) determine if teacher and parent ratings of the children’s social skills improve after the intervention; 3) determine the effects of the intervention on the children’s academic engagement, and 4) determine the effect on the children’s connectivity to peers in their classrooms. Both parental consent forms and student assent forms must be signed for students to participate. This study is conducted primarily by Dr. Connie Kasari, a professor from the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. If you have any questions about this research, please contact Jill Locke at jlocke@ucla.edu or Mark Kretzmann at mistermark@ucla.edu.

KATES examines how children's temperament and personality develop at school and relate to scholastic success. We explore how traits such as persistence, sociability, and cheerfulness affect children's academic achievement and patterns of friendship during elementary school. We are also interested in how relationships with teachers and other caregivers promote adaptation to school among children with a range of temperament styles. Research methods include meeting with children at school and interviewing them about themselves and their relationships. We also collect parent information regarding children's relationships and personality traits, including worry and anxiety. Some children who have high anxiety are also offered an intervention, in which they learn to use relaxation and positive thinking strategies to increase confidence and focus at school and at home. Please note that this study falls outside of the UCLA Lab School blanket consent form. As such, parents must sign and return an additional consent form if they would like to participate. Questions about this study may be directed to Dr. Jeffrey Wood, professor of Education at UCLA, at (310) 825 7292, or jwood@gseis.ucla.edu.

This project is a collaborative effort by teachers and researchers to create an interactive multimedia tool that investigates the “how” of teaching and learning in long-term projects. The finished product—which will be web-based or on CD-ROM—will include video of classroom interaction, interviews with teachers and students and examples of student work. Two years’ worth of video has been collected and teachers and researchers have begun analyzing the data and designing a prototype.

Teachers, researchers and graduate students are working as a team to document the implementation of a safe school system created at Corrine A. Seeds University Elementary School (UES). Developed under the leadership of a UES health educator and a UCLA Department of Psychology faculty member, the system has been at UCLA Lab School for almost six years and has attracted interest from educators, parents and the national news media. CONNECT is working with UCLA Lab School and Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) to explore means for using Cool Tools in the district and to follow up with systematic research on the effectiveness of the methods.

As part of UES’s effort to support teacher reflection and professional development, CONNECT has organized a teacher-research group in which teachers develop inquiry questions, learn practical skills to collect relevant information sources and write up their investigations for a variety of practitioner and research audiences.