Welcome to HOLA STEM!

About Us


HOLA!!! We are the HOLA STEM Lab, and we aim to recognize and promote positive experiences, practices, and opportunities for Latine families to advance the development of their children’s early STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) skills.

Latine families bring immense linguistic and cultural assets to schools and communities. This group is the fastest-growing population in the US (one in four children in the U.S. are Latine). 

We strive to value and leverage Latine families’ knowledge, experiences, and practices in STEM with an asset-oriented vision. Latine families, however, are not a monolithic group, and the ways in which caregivers engage with their children in STEM may vary due to essential factors, such as, for example, who is in the home and caregivers' generational status in the U.S. That is why we also examine within-group variation in Latine families' engagement.





































        Meet our Team












Jimena Cosso Ph.D

Director

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I am an Assistant Professor in the Human Development program at the University of Maryland. I was born and raised in Argentina. I came to the US to pursue my master’s degree in Comparative and International Education at New York University.  I did my Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Research Methodology at Purdue University.

 

My overarching research program explores learning contexts that shape how young children develop and learn, with a particular focus on dual language learners (DLLs) from immigrant Latine communities. Latine families bring immense linguistic and cultural assets to schools and communities, yet Latine children are considered among the most vulnerable of young learners. Disparities in learning outcomes, however, rest within structural factors such as cultural and linguistic biases in our knowledge base and the reliance on measures that are not culturally or linguistically sensitive but commonly used to make instructional and policy decisions. 


My research program addresses these main issues through two main strands: (a) culturally sensitive measures and (b) contextual factors shaping early learning, with a specific interest in early mathematics skills


Click here to see CV

Past Members

Gala Campos Oaxaca

Graduate Assistant

I am a doctoral candidate in Educational Psychology. I was born and raised in Veracruz, Mexico, and earned my undergraduate degree in Psychology and Biomedical Science at Dordt University in Sioux Center, IA. Before Penn State, I worked at a psychiatric residential treatment facility in Asheville, NC. 

My main area of research focuses on studying the sociocultural and cognitive processes involved in discourse synthesis and academic writing at the higher education level. In particular, I am interested in exploring the power dynamics and resources available to support academic writing communities

Paola del Campo

Graduate Student

I am a Ph.D. student in Educational Psychology at Penn State. I earned my B.S. in Physical Therapy at Universidad Metropolitana de la Educación in 2016 and a M.Sc. in Neurosciences Applied to Education at Universidad Mayor in 2023. For five years, I used my passion for biology and social change to teach science to young children in underserved urban communities. 

I specialize in the relationship between executive functions and science literacy during child development. I am interested in improving science educational learning in students from marginalized communities.

Annalise Chang

Undergraduate Student

I am a third-year undergraduate student majoring in Psychology and Statistics.

My research interests include early childhood development, learning processes, and quantitative methods. Alongside working with Dr. Cosso, I study emotion regulation in Dr. Pamela Cole's lab at Penn State. My plan is to attend graduate school for measurement or statistics.










Journal Articles













International Comparisons of the Home Mathematics Environment and Relations with Children's Mathematical Achievement

Ellis, A., Cosso, J., Duncan, R., Susperreguy, M. I., Simms, V., & Purpura, D.


Unique and Combined Effects of Mathematical Language and Numeracy Instruction: A Picture Book Intervention

Purpura, D. K., O’Real, C., Ellis A., Logan, J. A. R., King Y., Westerberg, L., Cosso, J., Zippert E., Napoli, A. R., Hornburg, C. B., Schmitt, S. A., & Dobbs-Oates, J. 


Impact of a Psycho-Emotional Skills-Building Program on Children's Social-Emotional Development in Colombia

Cosso, J., Russo de Vivo, A.R., Hein, S., Reales-Silvera, L. P., Ramirez-Verela, L., & Ponguta, L. A. 

Next Directions in Measurement of the Home Mathematics Environment: An International and Interdisciplinary Perspective.

Hornburg, C. B., Borriello, G.A., Kung, M., Lin, J., Litkowski, E., Cosso, J., Ellis, A., King, Y., Zippert, E., Cabrera, N., Davis-Kean, P., Eason, S. H., Hart, S. A., Iruka, I., LeFevre, J.-A., Simms, V., Susperreguy, M. I., Cahoon, A., Chan, W. W. L., Cheung, S. K., Coppola, M., De Smedt, B., Elliot, L., Estévez-Pérez, N., Gallagher-Mitchell, T., Gardner-Neblett, N., Gilmore, C., Leyva, D., Maloney, E. A., Manolitsis, G., Melzi, G., Mutaf-Yıldız, B., Nelson, G., Niklas, G., Pan, Y., Ramani, G. B., Skwarchuk, S.-L., Sonnenschein, S., & Purpura, D. J.






































Projects














Mathematics in the home of Latine families


In this project, we aim to validate a recently developed measure of the home mathematics environment (HME) for Latine families (HME-L).  


With this measure, we aim to shift attention from what Latine families do not know or do to valuing and leveraging their everyday practices and experiences.  

Latine STEM home-practices and digital support


In this project, we aim to design family STEM resources (i.e., an app) using a bottom-up approach. We are conducting focus groups with Latine families to learn about their everyday practices and the use of technology. 


This work will promote meaningful STEM content in activities and interactions already taking place in Latine families' homes.

Dual language learners' school readiness skills


In this project, we aim to examine how Latine dual language learners (DLLs) perform in different school readiness domains (e.g., science, math) based on the English language skill test (preLAS). We are using two nationally representative datasets.

This work raises concerns about the validity of English-based assessments for Latine DLLs. Being DLL is a cognitive benefit that should be celebrated and encouraged; however, assessments in one language do not accurately capture DLLs’ academic abilities. 





















Contact Us















We are always happy to meet new people! 

Reach out by emailing: 

jcosso@umd.edu

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