Measuring Acquisition and Growth in Inquiry and Curiosity (MAGIC)

The MAGIC Project (Measuring Acquisition & Growth of Inquiry & Curiosity) is an ongoing research initiative that aims to design new performance-based assessment tasks of young learners’ curiosity, creative thinking, problem-solving, and scientific inquiry. Developing these skills in early childhood creates a foundation for lifelong learning, yet there is a lack of valid and scalable measures that can inform efforts to promote these skills in preschool and early elementary grades. We are working with educational partners to test and validate these assessments with children from diverse language, racial/ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds to ensure that tasks yield information that is equitable and relevant.

We have created a national network of researchers to help us design new assessment tasks that can capture individual differences and change over time in these foundational learning skills. If you are interested in participating in this effort, please reach out to Ishani and Thea, the project coordinators, by email: iwakhlu@stanford.edu & twulff@stanford.edu.

This research is funded by grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.