Creating Cultural Connections in STEM Classroom Communities (CCCSCC) will be an Inquiry-based, Technology-Enhanced, Culturally Relevant Teaching (CRT), and Action Research-based project opportunity for historically underprivileged, underrepresented, marginalized, and disadvantaged minority students in 7th-12th grade in an urban public school setting to enhance their STEM curriculum learning by becoming published science authors. Students will also further their familiarity with the work of real-world science professionals by participating in their own Action Research projects to make claims on how well their final storybook product imparts the science concept/lesson objective to their target audience of elementary students. Moreover, students will design, organize, and run quarterly science writers workshop conferences in order to have opportunities to collaborate with their STEM colleagues and peers. As an ultimate project goal, CCCSCC seeks to connect students of color to STEM concepts using storytelling that is aligned with their cultures and real-world experiences. Historically, minority students have been educated using textbooks that have been immersed in the predominantly Cauasian cultural experience and its exclusionary real-world context. This educational practice has often led to increased student disengagement and subsequently poor classroom behavior due to student disconnect and boredom. My main objective is to have students create their own publishable science texts in order to teach scientific concepts to other students within their class, school community, as well as the entire world. I anticipate that my future STEM students will readily and enthusiastically participate in this school-year project because they will feel empowered to change student curriculum and the future trajectory of STEM education to become more inclusive of all cultures. Also, students will learn new marketable skills that could morph into lucrative scientific writing careers. Students learn how to become published STEM authors as well as garner marketing skills that teach them how to design, create, and operate a website where their books can be sold for public consumption. The Next Generation Science Standards that has seen implementation in STEM classrooms since 2013 is rich in content and practice ideas that equip today’s STEM student with tangible 21st century skills to enhance their future journey beyond the hallowed school walls. The following is an abbreviated listing of example curricular STEM topics derived from the NGSS that students could draw on for inspiration and incorporation into their storybook:
*Scientific Concepts*
Motion and Stability - Forces and Interactions
Pushes and pulls
Objects in motion
Apply scientific and engineering ideas to design, evaluate, and refine a device that minimizes the force on a macroscopic object during a collision.*
Newton’s Laws
Analyze data to support the claim that Newton’s second law of motion describes the mathematical relationship among the net force on a macroscopic object, its mass, and its acceleration.
Matter and Its Interactions
Use mathematical representations to support the claim that atoms, and therefore mass, are conserved during a chemical reaction.
Molecules and Organisms - Structures and Processes
Plants and Animals
Subatomic Particles, Atoms, Compounds and Molecules, Cells, Tissues, Organ Systems and the Human Body
Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the structure of DNA determines the structure of proteins which carry out the essential functions of life through systems of specialized cells.
The Systems of Earth
Why does weather perform the way it does sometimes?
Matter and Its Interactions
Apply scientific principles and evidence to provide an explanation about the effects of changing the temperature or concentration of the reacting particles on the rate at which a reaction occurs.
Earth and Human Activity
The Circle of Life (Food Chain)
Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.
I desire to see all students, no matter their nationality, race, gender, sexual orientation, or religious/non-religious affiliation, reflected in the texts and curriculum that they are mandated to use during their K-12 educational journey. I believe and often enforce one of the many mantras I coordinate my own educational life journey around: Do not be a part of the problem, be the solution! Science centers itself around solving problems and explaining natural and artificial phenomena. Thus, I want to equip all of my future STEM students with the scientific tools necessary to not only succeed in the professional STEM arena but also possess the ability to educate others along their own educational life journey. It is my intention to recreate this project at the start of every school year where I am blessed to teach science to students and watch the ripple effect occur. Much like the “butterfly effect” concept that can be defined as, the action of a butterfly flapping its wings in Thailand today leading earthly weather patterns to shift so there is a hurricane that will hover dangerously close to the southernmost parts of the United States tomorrow. This human existence is fragile at best, aptly highlighted by this global coronavirus pandemic the world is suffering through in 2020, and unites everyone in a way that strips away former tyrannical patriarchal and oppressive cultures in favor of all people coming together to eradicate a common enemy that threatens all human life. My point being, how can we ever return to a society where one person’s culture is valued over another’s based solely on skin color and prior oppressions of inequality? We simply can not allow ourselves to do so and thus, the nature of this project will produce yearly culturally inclusive educational science curriculum products designed and created by the very students it seeks to serve.
*Project Timeline*
First Quarter (Weeks 1 - 9)
Introduction to Course Syllabus, Timeline, and Scientific Concepts
Storybook Project Guidelines Introduced
Student Groups formed
Mock Science Writers’ Conference Guidelines Introduced
Seminar Topics and Student Proctors determined
Mock Science Writers Conference held (Week 9)
Second Quarter (Weeks 10 - 18)
Students select scientific theme/concept to be explored in their book
Students write out the entire story
Student conduct peer reviews of class stories and offer revisions
Student illustrators produce storyboards of potential storybook illustrations
Students finalize final product format: digital or traditional.
Students begin working on first drafts
Mock Science Writers Conference held (Week 18)
Student Awards Show for best draft work (multiple categories)
Third Quarter (Weeks 18 - 27)
Students produce a rough draft (Weeks 18-21)
Students conduct peer reviews
Each group has to perform and receive 2-3 peer reviews from other groups
May receive peer reviews from students in other class sections
Students use teacher/peer feedback to make revisions and produce a final project
Mock Science Writers Conference held (Week 27)
Students present final storybooks during the conference
Students discuss the data collection methods they will use to collect their action research evidence when they read their stories to elementary school students
Fourth Quarter (Weeks 28 - 36)
Students work on presenting their storybooks to elementary students and educators to collect data about the effectiveness of presenting their chosen scientific concept for student understanding. (Weeks 28 - 30)
Students synthesize their collected data and write reports to be presented at the final conference
Book Sale Drive
Book Sale Drive Competition
Students with the most sales will when a designated prize
Monies can be donated to the school for STEM resources with student permission
Mock Science Writers Conference (Week 35 or 36)
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