The overarching goal of this research project is to understand what affordances of rhythmic and embodied communication practices and technologies, seen as part of the broader early childhood ecology, would contribute to children’s multimodal literacy and STEAM identities, and how such an integration could broaden participation in informal STEAM learning opportunities. 

The project focuses on the design of the Urban Griots Playground (UGP) series of technology-driven family workshops that leverage multimodal pedagogies (oral/aural, visual and kinesthetic) to explore how interactive music-based activities, which have shown promise in stimulating literacy behaviors, can be developed and applied to actively engage children around STEAM concepts. The research team aims to receive feedback on how such an embodied approach to STEAM learning can be optimized and applied in a real-life, early childhood learning context, and whether children can use a drum language code for learning across subjects.

CfD Team Members: Pierre-Valery Tchetgen, PhD (PI), Estefania Ciliotta Chehade

External Evaluator: Lok-Wah Li, PhD 

Students: Jane Effenga, Natalie ?