The middle grades are a crucial time for girls in making decisions about how or if they want to follow science trajectories. In this article, the authors report on how urban middle schoolgirls enact meaningful strategies of engagement in science class in their efforts to merge their social worlds with the worlds of school science and on the unsanctioned resources and identities they take up to do so. The authors argue that such merging science practices are generative both in terms of how they develop over time and in how they impact the science learning community of practice. They discuss the
This article examines how effectively a curriculum designed for a sixth grade classroom in a low income urban middle school was adapted utilize the funds of knowledge that existed among the students. The author discusses how all students draw on information that they obtain from their environment in the classroom and that this is often difficult for students in science classrooms in urban areas. The curriculum that is examined was for a unit that explored food and nutrition. The authors examine what funds of knowledge the students did bring into the classroom and how they were able to utilize
This report summarizes the findings of an evaluation of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Informal Science Education (ISE) program. The program provides support for a variety of informal science education activities, including museum exhibits; television series and programs for youth or the general public; films on science and mathematics topics; exhibits or educational programs at science and natural history museums, science-technology centers, aquaria, nature centers, biological gardens, arboreta, zoological parks, and libraries; and educational programs and activities at community and
Informal environments—or out-of-school-time (OST) settings—play an important role in promoting science learning for preK–12 students and beyond. The learning experiences delivered by parents, friends, and educators in informal environments can spark student interest in science and provide opportunities to broaden and deepen students’ engagement; reinforce scientific concepts and practices introduced during the school day; and promote an appreciation for and interest in the pursuit of science in school and in daily life. NSTA recommends strengthening informal learning opportunities for all preK
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
National Science Teachers Association
We investigated curricular and pedagogical innovations in an undergraduate science methods course for elementary education majors at the University of Maryland. The goals of the innovative elementary science methods course included: improving students’ attitudes toward and views of science and science teaching, to model innovative science teaching methods and to encourage students to continue in teacher education. We redesigned the elementary science methods course to include aspects of informal science education. The informal science education course features included informal science
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
University of Maryland College ParkKelly RiedingerGili Marbach-AdJ. Randy McGinnisEmily HestnessRebecca Pease
Informing an Effective Response to Climate Change, a volume in the America's Climate Choices series, describes and assesses different activities, products, strategies, and tools for informing decision makers about climate change and helping them plan and execute effective, integrated responses. It discusses who is making decisions (on the local, state, and national levels), who should be providing information to make decisions, and how that information should be provided. It covers all levels of decision making, including international, state, and individual decision making. While most
The current world research agenda is comprehensive. The results of many studies and experiments in which scientists are currently engaged will undoubtedly have profound impacts on the lives of citizens in developed and developing nations. Yet few people even know what research is being conducted, much less understand why it is being done and what the potential implications may be. This is a critical shortcoming of our public information system. Given the frenetic pace of science research in multi-disciplinary fields, it is increasingly vital that the public be made aware of new findings in a
Adolescents often pursue learning opportunities both in and outside school once they become interested in a topic. In this paper, a learning ecology framework and an associated empirical research agenda are described. This framework highlights the need to better understand how learning outside school relates to learning within schools or other formal organizations, and how learning in school can lead to learning activities outside school. Three portraits of adolescent learners are shared to illustrate different pathways to interest development. Five types of self-initiated learning processes
Young adolescents who expected to have a career in science were more likely to graduate from college with a science degree, emphasizing the importance of early encouragement.
This paper presents research on parent support of the development of new media skills and technological fluency. Parents' roles in their children's learning were identified based on interviews with eight middle school students and their parents. All eight students were highly experienced with technology activities. Seven distinct parental roles that supported learning were identified and defined: Teacher, Collaborator, Learning Broker, Resource Provider, Nontechnical Consultant, Employer, and Learner. The parents in this sample varied in their level of technological knowledge, though in every
This article describes a course on the representations of HIV/AIDS in the visual arts, concluding that discipline-based art education may be applied to medical humanities courses in a medical curriculum.
Indigenous science relates to both the science knowledge of long-resident, usually oral culture peoples, as well as the science knowledge of all peoples who as participants in culture are affected by the worldview and relativist interests of their home communities. This article explores aspects of multicultural science and pedagogy and describes a rich and well-documented branch of indigenous science known to biologists and ecologists as traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). Although TEK has been generally inaccessible, educators can now use a burgeoning science-based TEK literature that