Making Learning Personally Relevant
Sensemaking Assets Used in Families' Discussions While Using a Pollinator‐Focused Mobile Augmented Reality App
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21392743 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lucy R McClain (0000-0002-6027-4703, College of Health and Human Development, Penn State University University Park Pennsylvania USA, corresponding author), Lillyanna Cowdery‐Faimon (0009-0001-2634-9054, College of Education, Penn State University University Park Pennsylvania USA), Heather Toomey Zimmerman (0000-0001-7402-4126, College of Education, Penn State University University Park Pennsylvania USA), Susan M Land (0000-0002-8754-1664, College of Education, Penn State University University Park Pennsylvania USA) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 110 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 525-542 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Science Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0036-8326 • E-ISSN: 1098-237X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/sce.70023 |
| OpenAlex | W4414819224 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 60 |
This study seeks to better understand the unique sensemaking assets that rural families weave into their outdoor learning experience while using a location‐based mobile app focused on healthy habitats for solitary bees. The project included mobile augmented reality (AR) technologies, which are increasingly used as educational tools at informal learning institutions, including nature centers, to deepen visitors' learning experiences. Guided by the lenses of sociocultural learning theory and an asset‐based perspective, we aim to advance the field's understanding of equitable family science learning, with a focus on rural families and their unique ways of knowing and sharing memories together during a guided mobile program centered around a local science issue in their community. Our qualitative approach analyzed the experiences of nine families (29 individuals; 14 adults, 15 youths) from two rural Appalachian counties by capturing their in‐the‐moment conversations and identifying personally relevant learning moments that contributed to the families' sensemaking around the topic of pollinator habitats. Our analysis of 6.5 h of audiovisual data resulted in 71 sensemaking conversations that exemplify two categories of assets—family experiences (places, people, and shared activities) and rural community connections (localized knowledge of place, ecosystems, and biotic species)—that contributed to the nine families' personally relevant learning experiences. We further identified how these assets facilitated the rural families' sensemaking processes, such as connecting prior observations of natural phenomena to concepts within the app. Recommendations for practitioners and researchers aiming to engage rural family groups with locally relevant science through mobile AR technologies are included
Augmented reality · Citizen science · Educational technology · Focus group · Informal learning · Mobile device · Science education · Sensemaking · Sociocultural evolution · Mobile Learning in Education · Psychological and Educational Research Studies · Reflective Practices in Education
Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology
Funds of knowledge and discourses and hybrid space
Extending the use of soil survey information
“Look It, This is how You Know
Design-Based Research Methods for Studying Learning in Context
Shared scientific thinking in everyday parent‐child activity
A Scaffolding Design Framework for Software to Support Science Inquiry
Case Study Research
Entangled eclecticism
Place‐based learning processes in a family science workshop
Talking about “bioluminescence” and “puppies of the ocean”
Impact of place‐based socioscientific issues instruction on students' contextualization of socioscientific orientations
Determinants of Black families’ access to a community‐based STEM program
Asset‐oriented framing of science and language learning with multilingual learners
“You gotta tell the camera”
The Community in Rural America
Cruzando El Puente
Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth
Facilitating Place-Based Learning in Outdoor Informal Environments with Mobile Computers
Occasioned knowledge exploration in family interaction
Supporting family conversations and children's STEM learning in a children's museum
Rural Science Education
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |