Proposed Study of Children’s Land Approach Implementation

This year, Drs. Nicole Mancevice (Principal Investigator) and Lab School’s Vice Principal Renata Gusmão-Garcia Williams will collaborate to study UCLA Lab School’s implementation of Children’s Land in Early Childhood classrooms. Children’s Land is a nature-based curriculum approach that the school plans to implement during the 2023-2024 academic year. Given that this is the school’s first year implementing Children’s Land, the research will focus on documenting and mapping how the approach is incorporated within the school context and curricula as well as initial reflections related to program outcomes. The research will include: teacher interviews; classroom observations, photographs, and audio recordings; and collecting planning and classroom documents regarding the Children’s Land approach implementation. Any questions about the project can be directed to Dr. Nicole Mancevice at nmancevice@labschool.ucla.edu.

The Impact of Math Circle Curriculum on Student Learning: A Pilot Study

For the 2023-2024 school year, Dr. Glezier from the Department of Mathematics will be offering the UCLA Olga Radko Endowed Math Circle (ORMC) curriculum to Grades 3-6 students at the Lab School as an afterschool enrichment program as part of a research project. The math curriculum intervention consists of three 8-week sessions hosted at the Lab School for the 2023-2024 school year.

The main goal of the research project is to see how the ORMC intervention impacts elementary school students’ math achievement. All students in intermediate and upper classes will take two math tests as pre-tests and the post-tests, not related to the ORMC curriculum, to evaluate the effect of the intervention. The students in the research intervention (math circles classes) will also be asked to complete a short survey at the end of each 8-week session. Those students whose parents sign them up for the Math Circles enrichment classes will be chosen to participate through a random sample and the study will include 50 students: 25 intermediate and 25 upper students. Dr. Wang will be conducting the research study of the math intervention.  The research project begins the week of Sept 25 and will conitnue through May 30, 2024.

Moments that Matter: A Qualitative Study to Understand How Young Children Make Sense of Reading Instruction

Dr. Nicole Mancevice PI

This study explored what young children think about reading instruction. The goal was to understand how students make sense of the multiple literacy learning contexts that they engage in throughout the day. What activities, materials, and features of the classroom learning environment are important to them? The methods of data collection will include classroom observation, teacher interviews, and photo-based student interviews. The photo-based interview protocol builds on the school’s pedagogical documentation routines and provides an authentic opportunity for students to share and reflect on their experiences of learning to read.

Environmental Qualities of Elementary Classrooms

Dr. Megan Franke PI, This research study examined how the school’s architectural designs, rooted in Richard Neutra and Principal Seed’s vision, have impacted the environmental quality of the school’s classrooms.   Six classrooms were involved where measurements had been recorded using sensors for elements like light, temperature, air quality and surveys are used to get student & teacher inputs.  Students have been very interactive with researchers in asking questions, and the intermediate students in one class had a zoom call with the director of sustainability from Eastman Perkins (study co-sponsor) to talk about the measurements and impacts of the study