Emily F. Coyle, Ph.D.

There are always multiple projects in different stages in the Studying Emerging Attitudes and Learning (SEAL) lab! You can read more about current projects and how to get involved in the lab at www.seallabsmu.com. 

 

Some recent projects include:

 

Families in Quarantine

Since early in the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been surveying families about their coping and how they spend their time. I'm particularly interested in how the shift in work, education, and childcare impacts family dynamics and roles in and out of the home, especially for mothers and for daughters. 

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Family interaction at a community science exhibit

I recently collected data about parents and children interacting at a community science exhibit. I am interested in how boys versus girls navigate the exhibit and how parents and peers assist them. Preliminary results suggest that with age, boys and girls diverge in the methods they use to explore the exhibit.

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The SEAL lab is now developing a related project to further probe the differences we found in the community science exhibit. This study utilizes Foldscopes - $1 paper microscopes - to examine how children test hypotheses about the appearance of macroscopic and microscopic images. Foldscopes are paper microscopes that are meant to make science more accessible to those who typically do not have access to mechanical microscopes. Examples of some Foldscope images can be found at http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/.

 

Gender & STEM intervention meta-analysis

I am currently finishing a meta-analysis that evaluates the effectiveness of interventions aimed to increase girls’ and women’s interest and participation in STEM. I am interested in empirically evaluating the impact of STEM intervention programs in order to understand what works well, what does not work, and what might even be harmful.

 

Parent-child play with a STEM toy

My dissertation examined how parents and children use a toy designed to teach mechanical still and promote STEM interest, and how that varies based on the gender marketing of the toy. These video-taped sessions offer ample opportunity to code for various aspects of parent-child interaction in a STEM play task. SEAL lab RAs recently coded for parental praise/encouragement vs. criticism/discouragement to examine how those might relate to children's persistence in the STEM task and a later independently completed mechanical transfer task. We are now coding for the more subtle ways that parents teach about STEM while interacting with their child and the toy. 

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Instruction in construction (LEGO)

In collaboration with Dr. Megan Fulcher at Washington and Lee University and Kingsley Schroeder at Penn State, I am currently investigating how adults teach about LEGO construction to boys versus girls. In the SEAL lab at SMU, we are playing audio instructions created in Dr. Fulcher's lab to assess how successfully adults and children can assemble the described LEGO constructions. 

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Experiencing Homelessness in Puyallup

I collaborated with the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty to survey homeless adults in the Puyallup, WA area about their experiences living homeless in the area. This project examined key area concerns around shelter and safety, as well as positive and negative interactions with police, and experiences of discrimination more generally.