Engaging Parents and Their Fifth- and Sixth-Grade Latina Daughters in a Family Science Program

This research study was conducted to pilot an out-of-school family science program for fifth- and sixth-grade Latina girls and their parents. Program goals included encouraging parents in supporting their Latina daughters in science, increasing the girls’ interest in science and increasing the families’ participation in science experiences together. The 41 families participated in a 7-week Saturday program on either rocketry or gardening. Each week, the parent–daughter dyads engaged in hands-on Family Problem-Based Learning activities together and then the parents and daughters met separately in Conversation Groups. To measure the impact of the program, surveys were administered to the parents and daughters separately at four points: pre-, mid-, post- and delayed-post (three months after the program). Parents reported increases over time for several aspects of their support for their daughters in science and also increases in frequency of science experiences with their daughters. The daughters reported increases over time in their science identity and their discussions with their parents about jobs in science. In addition, the examination of video-recordings of a subset of the parent–daughter interactions during the activities revealed that parental and daughter behaviors evolved over the course of the program. Implications for engaging parents in science education are discussed.