A Marketplace of Learning

A Marketplace of Learning

UCI researchers help create educational moments at the grocery store.

By Christine Byrd

A trip to the grocery store with an abuela can be a rich source of educational moments for a child – learning how to use the five senses to choose a ripe avocado or converting kilos to pounds.

As a developmental psychologist, UCI Assistant Professor Andres Bustamante cherishes these rich conversations that pass knowledge between generations. Soon, families visiting a popular supermarket in Santa Ana, Northgate Market, will be greeted by signs and interactive exhibits that spark conversations about science and math and could measurably impact school readiness.

For the last two years, with $2.57 million in funding from the National Science Foundation, Bustamante and colleagues June Ahn, UCI professor of education, and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, professor of psychology at Temple University, have been working closely with the Santa Ana Early Learning Initiative (SAELI) to design public spaces that encourage playful learning.

“We’re trying to bring enrichment opportunities akin to what you’d find at a museum, zoo or amusement park into communities that don’t have access to as many of those places, due to cost, travel or language barriers,” Bustamante says. “So we’re designing these opportunities in everyday spaces where children and families naturally tend to spend time like parks, bus stops and grocery stores.”

Bustamante worked with SAELI to host 20 design sessions with families – including seven held virtually – and invited families to tell stories and share how they imagine their community. From these sessions emerged a wealth of anecdotes: an uncle who accidentally bought twice as much ham as he needed (a kilo is just over 2 pounds), or a grandmother’s wisdom about popping the stem off an avocado to see if it’s ready to eat.

“Families have all of this cultural knowledge to pass down – we call them ‘funds of knowledge’ – and their conversations combine those funds of knowledge with the scientific practice of using the five senses to observe, compare and contrast,” says Bustamante. “We’re building on families’ strengths and encouraging them to engage kids in talking about why they are picking these fruits and vegetables.”

Through ongoing collaboration with the families, Bustamante and his colleagues used these stories to create signs and activities that are culturally responsive and foster conversations about math and science within the grocery store and other everyday spaces. Northgate Market, a mainstay of Southern California’s Latino community, emerged as an ideal partner.

“Northgate Market is thrilled to join UCI on such an innovative initiative to teach children about math and science. We know the importance of a good education to achieve their dreams, especially for children in underserved communities. We are happy to be part of it and can’t wait to see the results,” says Oscar Gonzalez, Northgate Market co-president and UCI Foundation trustee.

The first signs will be installed at Northgate Market on Bristol and McFadden in Santa Ana this fall, and then Bustamante and UCI graduate students will begin evaluating their impact. Researchers will observe conversations between children and adults near the signs and exhibits, and count how many math and science words they use. They will also have parents record their own shopping trip with their children to gather qualitative data about their in-store discussions.

Ashlee Belgrave, a Ph.D. student in education, recently published an article in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology about the participatory design process used to develop the supermarket signs. Another Ph.D. student, Vanessa Bermudez, is publishing a paper focused on capturing the cultural values of community partners through projects like this one.

Education graduate and undergraduate students have played crucial roles throughout every step of this project, according to Bustamante. Students with bilingual Spanish and English skills were instrumental in the design sessions for communicating with families, and then creating designs, stories and signage in Spanish.

“It’s so beautiful to watch the design sessions, because the families look at our undergrad and graduate students, and feel like they see their own children in them,” says Bustamante. “It’s also really valuable that our undergraduate and graduate students are able to come into the project and leverage their cultural strengths and language assets in a meaningful way.”

The signage at Northgate Markets is just one of several installations designed to foster educational moments in public spaces throughout Santa Ana, funded by Bustamante’s NSF grant. Neighborhood bus stops will be upgraded to feature the bingotype card game Loteria and murals with an “I spy”style list of items for children to find in the artwork.

The first public project expected to be completed will be a giant abacus at a bus stop on Main Street in Santa Ana, near Madison Park. Many families shared memories of using an abacus to learn math growing up, so they helped design the feature at this bus stop. The city incorporated the design into its planned upgrades to the street corridor, and is funding the construction of the play-themed bus stop.

“We’re really excited for this proof of concept. The city can integrate the design and have an educational impact with similar cost to what they had budgeted for the bus stop anyway,” says Bustamante. “It’s like a dream come true for this whole movement.”

That movement is global. Santa Ana is part of a network of cities from Pittsburgh to Johannesburg to have these Playful Learning Landscapes in public spaces. Bustamante and colleagues connect with leaders around the world to share best practices and lessons learned from the process, through a group coordinated by The Brookings Institute.

“I appreciate the amazing community around this work,” says Bustamante. “Students, colleagues, community partners and parents all contribute in special ways, and without each and every one of us we would not be able to do this work.”