{"id":38,"date":"2025-10-21T13:13:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T13:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/?p=38"},"modified":"2025-11-13T23:35:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T23:35:40","slug":"education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/education\/","title":{"rendered":"Boosting science education capacity in rural preschool settings"},"content":{"rendered":"
Research Impact<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n

Many children, especially those in rural communities, enter kindergarten knowing less about science than about reading or math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preschools typically undertake few science-based learning activities, research shows. Teachers in rural settings, in particular, report having less access to training resources that would support them in teaching scientific concepts with confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To boost science education in rural areas, Nebraska\u2019s Soo-Young Hong leads an interdisciplinary team of Huskers focused on strengthening early childhood educators\u2019 competence and confidence in teaching scientific and engineering concepts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Educators want to support that learning, but they sometimes don\u2019t believe they have the capacity to do that.<\/p>\nSoo-Young Hong<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Exposing young children to high-quality science learning opportunities in early care settings is critical, said Hong, associate professor of child, youth and family studies. Science-based activities help children understand the world around them and develop important lifelong learning skills, such as problem-solving and reasoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEarly childhood educators know children love to ask questions and have all kinds of interests and curiosity about what they see and experience,\u201d Hong said. \u201cEducators want to support that learning, but they sometimes don\u2019t believe they have the capacity to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hong and her team are creating and field-testing professional development material that builds scientific knowledge and boosts teacher confidence in guiding preschool-age children to think like scientists.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teachers will learn to experiment with new ideas and approaches that broaden and enrich children\u2019s learning in ways that are authentic and relevant to their everyday lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Soo-Young Hong, associate professor of child, youth and family studies, discusses videos submitted by educators of science concepts in their classrooms with Nebraska Extension Educators LaDonna Werth and Lisa Poppe, and CYAF graduate students Pragya Pokharel (left) and Fotima Turdlalieva (right). Photo by Liz McCue \/ University Communication and Marketing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once developed, the team will share the material through a website and professional development classes. The website will also encourage teachers to communicate and compare notes with each other and the research team as well as share observations directly with families. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Encouraging teachers to closely observe children\u2019s interactions with science-related materials and environments is a key project component, Hong said. They can use those observations to reflect on, plan and put science teaching into practice.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project, housed in the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools, is a highly collaborative effort involving faculty in education, entomology, biological sciences, engineering and Nebraska Extension. Husker researchers are providing expertise, while extension educators are working with rural preschool teachers statewide to solicit input and feedback into material design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Program resources will be disseminated nationally. The National Science Foundation funds this project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additional Content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Nebraska Today<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Journal article<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Community Impact<\/a>, <\/span>Early Childhood Education<\/a>, <\/span>National Science Foundation<\/a>, <\/span>Nebraska Impact<\/a>, <\/span>Partnerships<\/a>, <\/span>Science Education<\/a>, <\/span>Soo-Young Hong<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many children, particularly those in rural communities, enter kindergarten knowing less about science than about reading or math. Nebraska’s Soo-Young Hong leads a project aimed at strengthening early childhood educators’ competence and confidence in teaching STEM concepts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[106,140,39,177,53,138,139],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-impact","tag-community-impact","tag-early-childhood-education","tag-national-science-foundation","tag-nebraska-impact","tag-partnerships","tag-science-education","tag-soo-young-hong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":486,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions\/486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}