Teaching science for all in lowincome urban communities
Angela Calabrese Barton, PhD
Michigan State University
July 2010
Support from the
National Science Foundation
(HRD 0429109, DRL # 0737642)
National Institutes of Health
(NCRR (SEPA) R25 RR020412))
Overview
• The challenges of teaching
science for all in low-income
urban communities
• A pedagogical practice that
matters: Noticing and
leveraging students’
“repertoires of practice” for
meaningful science
engagement
• Discussion
Framing the Challenge
In the US, low-income urban youth are…
• Not performing as well in science (GCCS, 2009)
• Less interest & motivation to pursue science (Gilmartin et
al., 2006)
• Less likely to know a professional scientist or
engineer (Aschbacher, 2008)
• Less likely to think they are good at or could be a
scientist or engineer (Aschbacher, 2008)
• Not moving into science & technology trajectories
(NSF, 2008)
Looking at the other side…
6th grade girls: From marginal to central participants…
Melanie
Janis
Janis’ story: Bringing
art to science
Beginning of 5th grade
• Wants to be a singer
• Has never heard of or met an engineer
• “Loves” English & Music, “hates” Math &
Science
• Science is for geeks
• Good student, but disengaged
• “We do the same routine [in science class],
every year, over and over and I can’t take
that because it’s boring.”
Janis’ changing participation
6th grade
• Joins afterschool club on green energy
• Develops technology skills that help
her blend art & science
• Uses art to investigate green energy &
to educate others
• Creates a digital short that is shown
on television
• Creates a science documentary that
contributes to getting a new green
roof
• Presents her work to the Mayor and at
City Hall
• Helps get the club a new green roof
“I’m a make a difference expert”
Janis’ Rap – 3rd place
Statewide competition, age 13-19
Verse 1
Just sit down and take a seat
Open your ears and listen to me
I gotta tell something that you won’t like
Somethin’ you didn’t know ‘bout your lights
Incandescent light bulbs help global warming
A solution to pollution in this bulb is forming
Fluorescent light bulbs they do last longer
Fluorescent bulbs are brighter and are stronger
So give CFLs a try ….
And wave those ugly bulbs goodbye
Take aim … at climate change
Cut down your bills, it ain’t so strange
Chorus:
Do as I do
Take and unscrew
Throw out the old
And put in the new
One simple thing you all can do
Is change to CFLs, & don’t be a fool
7th grade: I want to be an engineer
 “We know what we are doing. We
know how to make a difference. [We
know] how to save energy and how
to convince other people of better
ways to do things with electricity.”
 “The roof is probably the best
example because we actually helped
the club save money. They spent a
lot of money getting the roof but
now they have probably already
saved enough to get that roof again.
In the long run it saved money.”
 “It would kinda be hypocritical if you
can’t influence your own.”
Melanie, at the beginning of 6th grade
• Shy in class, but silly and fun out of
class
• “Passing girl”
• 23% first quarter and proud of it
- “Look! I got a 23 out of a 100!”
• Example: Save the Animals Poster
• Hides behind paper
• Leaves most of the reporting to her
partner
• Plays the role of the giraffe
We drew the giraffes saying “ I’m hungry! Help us! Help my family! We need trees
to eat the leaves!” and the little one, the baby says “Help me! And my Mommy!
I’m starving!”
Animal Project on Gorillas
 Presented report by impersonating
scientist Jane Goodall


Met requirements by reporting on habitat,
food and life-cycle of the animal
Enlisted help of Pat and Chantell to act as
gorillas while she “taught” them sign
language
 Her teacher used her report as an
example of “how to go above and
beyond”

“There are many ways to make science
interesting. I like how Melanie told us a story
rather than just gave us the facts.”
 Received 100% on her report and the
presentation.
Melanie’s Changing Experience in Science
Transition in participation
• Project participation through “impersonation” and “telling stories”
• 100/100 on both projects
• Began to participate through more and different forms of talk
• Telling stories
• Answering science questions
• Volunteering ideas
Teacher:
Melanie:
Teacher:
Melanie:
Melanie’s got the last word.
Okay… When you go to the D.R, you are one color…
Listen to her please! *The class was starting to chat*
When you go to the D.R. from the United States, you are one color, but when you come
back from the D.R, you are another color, a darker color like Kate…
Tan, E. & Calabrese Barton A. (2008). From peripheral to central, the story of Melanie’s metamorphosis in an
urban middle school science class. Science Education 92(4), 567-590.
What can we learn from these cases?
• Janis and Melanie entered 6th grade not liking science & not viewed as a
“smart” science student
• Over multiple years they moved from peripheral to central participant:
– ACHIEVEMENT: Excelled on science projects and exams
– RECOGNITION: Viewed by others as an expert
– INTEREST: Expressed confidence, capability, and interest in science
“I’m a make a difference expert!”
Why did Janis and Melanie become more engaged
and more successful in science?
A pedagogical practice that matters
• Each had a teacher who noticed and leveraged
their cultural knowledge & experience to
scaffold participation and learning in science
Mr. M (Melanie’s teacher): “The students that I teach have value. If I
give them an opportunity and a safe environment, they’ll rise to the
challenge. It is them feeling comfortable and not being intimidated
and frightened. I think it goes back to them sensing that what you’re
trying to do for them is valuable, where it’s not abstract and
unusable…You don’t know why they are in this high poverty, urban
environment, but it doesn’t mean that they aren’t as intelligent and
motivated.”
Ways to think about cultural knowledge and experience
• Patterned ways of engaging in activities
• Made up of the tools, resources and discourses that individuals
acquire over time and in the different communities in which
they participate
• Reflected in identity work
Melanie: A storyteller
Patterned way of engaging in activity:
Engaging others through story/narrative
Being a storyteller allowed Melanie to:
Play with identities of animals & scientists to try out scientific ideas
learning to talk scientifically
Share personal experiences that expanded content-based conversations
learning to make connections and deepen content explorations
Create a space for a voice in ways that reduced risk
changing expectations & modes of participation
Janis: An artist
Patterned way of engaging in activity:
Seeing the world through music & art
• Making raps (songs) on topics of investigation
 Initially a “hook” into science
• Creating digital shorts on issues that matter
 A form of talk for engaging others
• Using art to transform the science investigation
 A medium of exploration
Leveraging for change
Cultural knowledge and experience can be powerful
pedagogical resources for
– meaningful science learning
– changing participation
– identity development
How might teachers recognize and leverage students’ repertoires
of practice?
• Studies based upon three large data sets
– Urban Girls Science Practices Project (2004-2008;
NSF)
– Choice Control & Change Project (2004-2009, NIH)
– Green Energy Technologies in the City (2007-2011,
NSF)
• Investigations of teacher practice during
science units on dynamic equilibrium and
the human body & body systems and green
energy
Research Questions
Across the three studies…
• How are youths’ cultural knowledge & experience noticed and
leveraged by teachers in the classroom towards meaningful
engagement in science?
• How do teachers create opportunities for cultural knowledge and
experience to emerge authentically?
• In what ways does leveraging and noticing youth’s cultural
knowledge and experience support students in developing:
– Deeper science understandings
– Science identities
– Empowering forms of participation?
Conceptual Grounding: Sociocultural Studies of Learning
Learning is an embodied activity made evident through changes in
participation and identity trajectories (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Rogoff,
2003)
Learning is shaped by the power dynamics that play out in
communities of practice (Moje et al, 2001; Gutierrez, 2008)
Learning is both horizontal and vertical (Gutierrez, 2008)
• Vertical and Horizontal dimensions exist dialectically allowing
learning to be transformative
• Self-transformative (as individuals learn new knowledge, &
Discourses, they take up new identities)
• Socially-transformative (knowledge& practice are co-opted and
informed by the knowledge & practice/ individuals bring from
“other worlds”
Methodology
 Design Experiments (7 teachers)
o
o
o
Reflective study groups with
teachers/students to reflect upon and
analyze how pedagogical approaches
support student learning
Collaborative adaptation of curriculum
Study of enactment (observation,
interview, reflections, and pre/post tests)
 Classroom ethnographies
o
o
o
o
Participant observation in and out of school
Test scores, report card grades, class assignments
Interviews, focus group conversations , think alouds
Co-planning, multiple standpoint analysis
Emergent Patterns in Practice
Teachers recognize and incorporate “mediating
artifacts” as central to their teaching in order to
elicit students’ cultural knowledge &
experiences.
Effective use of mediating artifacts allows boundaries
between scientific and students’ cultural
knowledge and practice to become transparent
(accessible) and negotiable (disrupted and
transformed)
Mediating artifacts have multiple functions:
Supporting students in grappling with scientific
ideas in ways that legitimize and account for
their cultural positionings
What are mediating artifacts?
Science
• Scientific norms &
routines
• Discourses
• Patterned ways of
knowing and doing
•
•
Tangible symbols of a
negotiation between the
knowledge and practice of
school science & the learner
Youth worlds: cultural
knowledge & experience
• Cultural norms and
routines
• Discourses
• Patterned ways of
knowing and doing
•
Blur or merge boundaries between science & everyday
•
Porous boundaries to allow movement between worlds
Can be scientific OR everyday tools, objects, practices and representations
Tangible anchors of students’ personal connections throughout science inquiry
3 short cases
• Mr. M: Learning about body systems
through the bone song
• Mrs. T: Navigating the complex food
system through real food and a
survey
• Mrs. H: Negotiating practical and
reasonable goals with the help of a
bar graph
Case 1: Mr M
• Teachers recognize and incorporate
“mediating artifacts” as central to their
teaching in order to elicit students’ cultural
knowledge and practices.
Mr. Moreno
Context
• Mr. M is a white teacher in his late 20s, with
6 years of experience and Science
Department Chair, although not certified in
science (elementary general certificate)
• School demographics:65% African American
and 35% Latino/a
• Located in the poorest congressional district
in the “city” (a large east coast city)
• 100% of the students are on the school’s free
lunch program
• School is surrounded by convenience stores,
fast food restaurants and apartment
buildings
• Most students walk to and from school
Ginny’s Bone Song
• End of series of lessons on skeletal system: Test
Prep.
• Students to prepare teacher endorsed method of
flash cards
• In addition to flash cards, Ginny “wrote” a bone
song, using the tune of a popular song (Mambo
#5)
• Taught bone song to a few peers who encouraged
her to sing it to Mr. M.
Ginny’s bone song
A little bit of cranium on my head
A little bit of mandible on my jaw
A little bit of scapula on my back
A little bit of humerus on this bone
A little bit of radius on the back
A little bit of ulna on the front
A little bit of carpals just like that
A little bit of meta carpals on my hand
A little bit of phalanges on the end
A little bit of tibia on the front
A little bit of fibia on the back
A little bit of torso just like that
A little bit of metatarsals on my foot
A little bit of phalanges on the end
Just wave your phalanges, yeah yeah
yeah
Just wave your phalanges, yeah.
How did this experience matter to
Ginny?
Deeper Content Understanding
• Successful in test, 95/100
• Re-phrasing definitions to fit song phrases
• Teaching lyrics to friends akin to additional revision
Identity
• Successfully merged her social, pop culture identity with her science
student identity with this product
Increased participation/Agency
• Creative talent publicly acknowledged as important learning
resource
• Taught lyrics to friends, science class, 6th grade
How did the Bone Song impact the learning
community?
Teacher
• Typed up the song, distributed it to all 5 sections, and hung a copy in the hallway.
• Designed a follow on lesson to the song which used the song and dance movement
to focus on structure and function of the skeletal system: support, structure,
mobility and protection
• Used bone song in 3 important ways
• as an example of how students can be creative in science class
• as an opportunity to expand the curriculum
• as a pedagogical tool to teach skeletal system following year
Peers
• Liked bone song immensely, used it as a learning tool, also scored well on test
• Could remember lyrics of bone song three months after the test
Case 2: Mrs T
• Claim: Effective use of mediating artifacts
allows boundaries between scientific and
students’ cultural knowledge and practice to
become transparent (accessible) and
negotiable (disrupted and transformed)
Mrs. Tiller
Context
• Mrs. Tiller is an African American teacher
in her 50s and teaches 6th grade science
out of field.
• School demographics: 64% students
categorized as African American, 21%
White, 8% Hispanic.
• Located in a city in Midwestern state that
is one of the most economically
depressed in the state.
• Surrounding school is a neighborhood
with convenience stores & fast food
restaurants about a block away.
• Many students walk to and from school,
while others take the school bus.
Lesson Overview
•
Lesson 2 in a unit on the complex system of
influences on food and activity choices
•
Learning Goals for lesson: To investigate how
taste influences food choices
– To understand humans’ innate biological
preference for sweet and fatty foods;
– To describe the relationship between biology and
food preferences.
•
Lesson Overview
– French Fry visualization & discussion
– Tasting experiment with partners: Taste, record,
discuss and build initial theories about human
taste preferences
– Reading for LiFE on biology of taste
French Fry Visualization
You are walking down the street and smell French fries cooking at a
fast food restaurant. They smell hot and delicious. You and your friends
are hungry so you decide to go in and order some food. The French
fries smelled so good you decide to order some with your meal. When
you get the Fries, they are exactly what you wanted. They taste even
better than they smelled! Each one is crispy and satisfying. You eat all
your fries.
Mrs: T.: I know what I’m going to do for this lesson. I’m going to get
some potatoes and cook up in my classroom some home-made French
fries. Just imagine how the smell of those fries will linger in the hallway
as they walk to my classroom. I’m even going to let them eat the fries.
Savor their taste. Enjoy them. They are going to have to answer those
questions honestly with the fries right there in front of them!
(Fieldnotes, PD session)
Mrs. Tiller’s classroom…
“Mmmmm… Now that’s science!”
•
Mrs. Tiller cooked the French fries…and her students entered her class curious,
excited, and hungry.
•
“OK, who wants fries? Hot, crispy fries? Hmmm. Don’t they smell good? Sit down
and raise your hand if you want fries!”
•
As she passed out the fries, she re-created the initial visualization scenario
•
Mrs. T. then enticed the class, “The smell is just making my mouth water. How
about you?” and then asked them to record their observations and to provide a
score on the following three questions, on a scale of 1-5 (never to always):
– The smell of foods like French fries make me want to buy and eat them.
– I order French fries after smelling them in fast food restaurants
– French fries and other fried foods taste really good to me.
“Mmmmm… Now that’s science!”
• Mrs. T. tallied the student responses.
• She began asking questions to
encourage her students to talk
about the patterns they might
detect:
Never -------------------------------- Always
Q1 (want to
buy fries?)
Q2 (buying
fries)
Q3 (taste)
1
2
3
4
5
1
2
2
6
12
1
2
0
3
17
1
2
0
0
20
- “Who liked the fries?”
- “Did you want to buy the fries?”
• The students keyed in to what they liked about French fries…
- “I liked ‘em. They were good.”
- “Hot and crispy. I would buy them everyday!”
- “The smell just makes my mouth water. How can they be bad for you?”
• Created bar graphs from the chart to represent the data differently…
Mrs. T:
Look at my beautiful graphs. It’s nice isn’t it? What do you notice? [pause] Look! Look at how big
or little the bars are!
Marla:
Well, just about all of us picked 4 or 5 for all of the questions?
Mrs. T:
That’s right! Our bodies are naturally inclined to want fast food and we are hardwired to want to
eat fries! We want that fatty food!
Shawn:
Why say fast food is bad if we are supposed to like it?
Mrs. T:
Great question! Write that down under your observations. Jillian?
Jillian:
Why did Casey vote that French fries don’t ever taste good, if [the human body] is suppose to
want fatty food?
Casey:
Hey, my body doesn’t have to like it.
Jillian:
Yah, but that’s not what [the reading] says.
Mrs. T:
Ok, Ok. Someone else?
Jasmyn:
I was just wondering why more people would buy fries than wanted to buy them.
Mrs. T:
What do you mean?
Jasmyn:
12 people wanted to [buy them], but 17 did.
Alex:
They were gonna buy them anyway. I don’t need smells to tell me what to do.
Mrs. T:
But what do you think our experiment shows. . . I mean do you think all 19 of you would buy the
fries with out smelling them first?
Alex:
That they was making money off their smells!
Mrs. T:
Alex, enough. Marla?
Marla:
Smell helps us to taste better?
Mrs. T:
Raise your hand if smell helps you to taste better…
French Fry Survey
Biological taste preferences and their intersections with the complex food
environment required understandings of students’ cultural practices – what
students cared about and did on a day by day basis, such as eating fries.
French Fries
•
•
“honest answers” & “savor the taste”
animated atmosphere full of student stories
French fries survey data representations: Making Boundaries Transparent
•
•
Survey results (Chart): Elicited stories about experiences with fries
Data Representation (Graph): Movement between cultural practices and reasoning
with evidence
Complex conversation: Negotiating new boundaries – what is healthy
eating?
•
•
Taste + food preferences + complex environment
Tensions: Mrs T’s movement between…
-
Student stories – scientific thinking
Final form science – knowledge in the making
Case 3: Mrs H
• Claim: Mediating artifacts have multiple
functions: Supporting students in grappling
with scientific ideas in ways that legitimize
and account for their cultural positionings
Mrs. Hanson
Context
• Mrs. Hanson is a white teacher in her 40s who teaches 6th
grade science.
• School demographics: 44% students categorized as
African American, 31% White, 21% Hispanic, 5%
Asian/Native American
• Located in a city in Midwestern state that has experienced
major economic decline (unemployment ~16%)
• Immediately surrounding the school are convenience
stores, fast food restaurants, and local neighborhoods.
• Many students walk to and from school, while others take
the school bus.
Overview of Lesson: “Putting it all into play”
Lesson 12 in unit on dynamic equilibrium in the human body
Learning goal: To use scientific evidence to make healthy
food and activity choices.
Lesson overview:
• My Pyramid recommendations
–
–
•
•
5 key practices
Scientific evidence for practices
Graphing personal serving intakes (24 hour food
recall) in five areas
Using personal data and government guidelines to set
up healthy goals
“Last week we were keeping track of the things that we ate and drank. And we talked about
Calvin, he kept track of what he ate and drank. And when you did your research project a lot
of you were on websites that showed the food pyramid.
Today, we’re going to kind of put that all into play.”
Setting up the initial graphing activity: personal narrative
Mrs. Hanson:
“In the last 24 hours how many times did you eat at a fast food restaurant? Think about
how many times a week you go…. all the way last Wednesday including the weekend, how
many times did you recall going to fast food for breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack.
You might be like oh yeah, last Saturday we were running around doing some shopping, we
stopped at a fast food place for lunch. Or yeah, you know, we stopped and picked up a
pizza. Maybe you stopped at McDonalds for breakfast this morning.”
Setting up the initial graphing activity: personal narrative
As students start to record their fast food activities, Rita calls out:
Rita: But sometimes my parents don’t feel like cookin.
Mrs H: Alright. Sometimes you know, your folks are like, I’m not cooking tonight. I’m tired. I’ve been
working. We’re gonna go out and grab something.
Sam: Yah, my mom is tired of cooking and we just go out. And ya know it saves money if you go to the
dollar menu.
Mrs H: OK. These are the reasons you eat fast food.
Sam (calling out): Cause it’s good, too. It’s greasy.
Mrs H: Cause it’s greasy? So you like the taste of greasy foods.
Marcus (calling out): You can make greasy foods at home!
Sam: But not for a dollar!
Mrs H: OK. Alright. These are good reasons to think about. But go back to your charts. Now use your
totals to make a bar graph for each category. This will let you see how you are doing compared to the
[official] recommendations.
Working with data
Mrs. H: Let’s talk about how your graph compared to the
recommended amounts. What did you notice about
the first graph, which was fruits and vegetables. When
you graphed your amount, compared to the
recommended amount, what did you notice?
Carl: Mine was more than the recommended amount.
Mrs. H: OK, who has something different for that one?
Rita…
Mrs. H: What’d you find?
Jason: Mine was a lot lower.
Mrs. H: Yours was a lot lower. But how much lower?
Jason: Um, mine was 0 instead of 5.
Mrs. H: Right, he doesn’t even have a bar!
[a few students gasp]
Mrs. H: Because he had no fruits and vegetables over the
last 24 hours. We’re not making a judgment, we are
just looking at information.
The bar graph is a great visual tool for us to compare what the
recommended amounts are to what we actually do in our daily lives. This
will help us as we are choosing a goal. When you look back at the three
graphs you just did, does anything really jump out at you and you say, whoa!
I’m really off here? I’m not even close to what the recommended amount is
for something? Does anybody have one of those graphs?...
Wrapping up…
Mrs. H:
From what you learned about your current eating from analyzing your 24 hour
food intake and what you just wrote about why healthful eating is important,
think about the goal that you want to choose. . . .
Marcus: It’s important to choose something that is practical-Mrs. H: --and realistic
Marcus: --and realistic for your life.
Mrs. H: Alright. You’re going to choose a goal right now. And as Marcus just said, the
goal needs to be practical and realistic.
Noticing & leveraging students’ cultural knowledge and experiences
Trying on the norms and
practices of science:
• Representing data accurately
and quantitatively
• Reasoning with data
• Comparing and contrasting
with government
recommendations
• Making reasonable and
defensible recommendations
for personal goals
Bar graph
A representation of
scientific data &
cultural and familial
practices, and placebased constraints that
mediates sense
making of
scientifically-based
guidelines
Legitimizing student lives
as valid sources of data
and critique.
• Analysis based on personal
experience
• Contrasts with guidelines
viewed as generative
• Expanded talk about
guidelines to include what is
realistic and practical
Looking across the teachers
• Noticing and leveraging
students’ cultural
knowledge &
experience made
possible in part through
strategic use of
mediating artifacts.
Bar graphs: Grounding
healthy eating goals in
scientific evidence, personal
data, and cultural practices
Mediating Artifacts: Implications
Science
Youth worlds
Tangible symbols of a
negotiation between the
knowledge and practice of
school science & the learner
Community Outcomes
Individual Outcomes
Implications: Community Outcomes
•
Increased opportunities to develop awareness of
and trying on of scientific norms, practices,
identities
•
Hybrid spaces created that
– Merge vertical and horizontal learning
– Link everyday/cultural knowledge and experience
and science
•
Everyday discourses, values and priorities
become visible and pertinent to the classroom
community
– Tangible anchors of students’ personal
connections throughout science inquiry.
– An unfolding of student's personal connections to
the science content through this process
Bar graphs: Grounding
healthy eating goals in
scientific evidence, personal
data, and cultural practices
Implications: Individual Outcomes
– Expanding identities
– Expanding resources for learning
– Expanding forms of participation & agency
Amelia as caretaker, Sweet
Water girl, and worm poop
expert.
Mediating Artifacts: Implications
Teacher or student initiated
Expanded opportunities, resources &
practices
Science
Youth worlds
Tangible symbols of a
negotiation between the
knowledge and practice of
school science & the learner
Community Outcomes
Individual Outcomes
Pedagogical Implications
• Engaging Mediating Artifacts is an
iterative process and builds over
time
– Productive responses lead to new
opportunities to notice
– Repertoire of legitimate practices and
identities allowable in CoP expanded
– Value of struggling with scientific meaning
making elevated
Bone Song changed Mr. M’s teaching of the
skeletal system, including focusing on more
productive scientific ideas & encouraged a
broader range of student participation
French Fry episode: student
engagement with fries (and eating
practices) fostered further data
reduction and more complex claims
about the food environment
Questions & Discussion
THANK YOU!
I would also like to thank the students, teachers, and families whose stories are told here.
Typical School: Carlson
• Public middle school, grades 6-8, 700 students
• 38% African American, 6% Latino population, 2% Asian,
54% white
• >70% of the students are on the school’s free lunch
program
• Each class receives five periods of science each week, each
period lasting 55 minutes
• Partner teachers have been 2 and 15 years of
teaching experience
• Using reform-based curricular materials (i.e.,
PBIS, LiFE) supplemented by personal teaching
materials
• NASA Explorer School