Eastern Student Samantha Marsh of Plainfield Gives Oral Presentation at CREATE Conference

2016 May 5

More than 250 talented students at Eastern Connecticut State University presented research and creative work at the university's second annual CREATE conference this past April. CREATE stands for Celebrating Research Excellence and Artistic Talent at Eastern, and is the university's premier, academic year-end showcase. At the culminating event, students of all majors presented professional posters, live music, dance performances, artwork, photography, documentaries and panel discussions.

Samantha Marsh '16 of Plainfield, who majors in Early Childhood Education and Sociology, gave an oral presentation at the event. Her two oral presentations were titled "Choices Preschool Children Make During Free Play Time: Effects of Age, Gender, Socioeconomic Status, and Ethnicity" and "Effects of Block Play on Mathematics Learning in Preschool."

"Play has been found to contribute to preschool children's development and learning," said Marsh. "However, little research has been done on where children spend most of their time during free play periods in classrooms. Although so much social interaction and learning occurs in play centers in preschool classrooms, a systematic study of how frequently children of both genders, of diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, and of different ages use specific learning centers during the day. The present investigation will examine how child demographic characteristics affect different learning center choices during free play time. All children in two preschool classrooms were observed in naturalistic play activities during center times, over a five week period. The principal investigator tallied each child's visit to each learning center during the period of the study. Frequencies of visits to each center by boys and girls, those of different cultural and SES backgrounds, and different ages were entered into both a full factorial ANOVA and a single step loglinear analysis to determine whether there are significant differences in where children choose to play across demographic variables studied. Significant differences in children's choices were found for age, gender, ethnicity, and SES. Being able to identify which children, of which backgrounds and characteristics, choose which play areas will provide insight into our understanding of children's play. More practically, it will inform teachers' choices in the kinds of centers they will create in the classrooms, based on the characteristics of their students."

Her second presentation was co-presented by three other classmates. In a joint statement, they wrote: "Although block play has been included in early childhood classrooms for over a century, few studies have examined its effects on learning in preschool classrooms. Several investigations have indicated that the complexity of children's block structures in preschool is associated with math ability. This previous work has been conducted in adult-guided or laboratory settings in which individuals or pairs of children are assigned building tasks. In the present investigation, we examined elements of block play within naturalistic free play periods in preschool classrooms over a six month period. We studied the effects of peer and teacher interactions and the availability of replica play toys on the building complexity and math learning of 41 three and four year olds. Findings indicated that the level of social participation in block play and the percentage of structures built without toys predicted the complexity of children's buildings. This complexity, in turn, predicted growth in math learning, as measured by pretest and posttest scores on Tools for Early Assessment of Math. Based on findings, we propose a path model in which peer collaboration and blocks-only building contribute to block play complexity, and the building of such complex structures enhances math learning over time."

Remarking on the variety of presentations, Professor Dickson Cunningham, conference co-chair, said, "CREATE encapsulates the essence of the liberal arts in one afternoon. It is an intellectual smorgasbord."

Speaking to the value of CREATE, Eastern President Elsa Nunez said, "It takes a very strong and dedicated student to produce this quality of work, and it's important for other students to see this output." Praising the faculty, she added, "It takes a committed and skillful mentor to guide students to the work that is on display. Mentorship is such an integral part of undergraduate research."

During the one-day conference, the Student Center crawled with artistic and scholarly activity. Students in professional attire addressed their peers, faculty and family. In the cafe, ensembles performed; in the theatre, student-produced documentaries were shown; in the Betty R. Tipton Room, aisles of posters depicting scientific research were displayed; across the hall, a gallery-worth of paintings lined the walls; and on the ground floor, panel discussions and oral presentations about the humanities took place.