CTP NEWS

New Media Offers New Ways to Spark STEM Learning

By: Maila Jill Rible 

Since its premiere in the early 1970’s, NOVA has been at the forefront of science storytelling and education. Over the decades, the long-running PBS television series has evolved into a multimedia and multiplatform brand. Recently Dr. Jessica Hammer from Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Transformational Play (CTP) collaborated with NOVA and NORC, a social research nonprofit at the University of Chicago, to explore how to engage with audiences in new and meaningful ways through online streaming platforms.

“From a research perspective, it’s rare that you have the chance to study the impact of different learning mediums, in this case, interactive streaming and broadcast, with the same content teams and learning goals,” said Hammer.

As the director of the CTP and supported by a National Science Foundation CAREER award, Hammer has been studying how to create streaming environments for informal learning. She served as an expert consultant on the development of Building Stuff with NOVA. With support from the U.S. National Science Foundation, NOVA produced a three-part PBS documentary series and a Twitch channel, which invited audiences to engage in STEM learning through interactive livestreams hosted by engineer Dr. Nehemiah Mabry.

“From an informal learning perspective, we saw the potential that interactive learning with streaming can have. And we learned an enormous amount about how to implement it effectively,” Hammer said.

The study explored the impact of the NOVA Building Stuff Twitch channel stream on users. Focused on the essential role engineering plays in shaping the world around us, the livestream included a diverse range of content formats including interviews, gaming sessions, field trips, pre-recorded segments, model building, and interactively designing an escape room. The study also assessed the impact of video content posted asynchronously on the NOVA YouTube channel, including the longform Building Stuff documentary.

Tanya Treptow, a senior research scientist with NORC’s arts and culture practice (Slover Linett at NORC), said livestreaming platforms like Twitch can foster engagement, collaboration, and community-building in engineering and other STEM fields. 

“Our partnership with NOVA focused on investigating whether the design of a livestream affects not only learning outcomes, but also a stronger sense of science identity and belonging for a wide range of people,” Treptow said. “We also explored how audiences engage with NOVA’s traditional documentary content and compared it to the interactive Twitch format to understand key differences in participation and learning.”

The research team found that streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube offer significant opportunities to reach less STEM-affiliated audiences, not only by allowing them to engage with video, but also through building relationships with hosts, guests, and chat moderators.

“I find it particularly interesting that NOVA-affiliated chat participants, such as NOVA team members, partners, and friends, played a pivotal role in shaping the community,” Treptow said. “There was more chat activity on streams that featured a high level of peer support and collective problem-solving. This really highlights the power of community-centered learning.”

Another observation noted by the research team was how much of an impact the host had on participants in encouraging them to engage in deeper STEM problem solving.

“If the host modeled vulnerability, curiosity, and wasn’t afraid to make mistakes, it showed the participants that it’s ok to try and maybe not get things right the first time,” Treptow said. “This made them feel they were safe to explore and think through things on their own or collaboratively.”

Following the study, the research team released a best practices “Livestreaming Guide” to help educators and others design, facilitate, and encourage livestream communities to support informal STEM learning.

The research team said that exploring ways to provide effective live science education is not only important for teaching scientific concepts, but also helps people recognize the everyday science of their own lives.

“One of the most important things that these kinds of mediums can teach is scientific thinking. That there are ways of approaching a problem that you can apply to your own life, but also to understanding some of our public debates that relate to science or engineering topics,” Hammer said. “Informal science learning doesn't just have to be about learning facts and figures, it can be about becoming better citizens of a scientific world.”