Justice-Centered STEM Education

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Okhee Lee

New York University

August 12, 2022

Asset-Oriented Framing

Deficit-Oriented Pedagogy

• Linguistically marginalizing
• Culturally marginalizing

Asset-Oriented Pedagogy

• Linguistically sustaining
• Culturally sustaining

Shifts from Deficits to Assets

Terms Indicating Shifts from Deficits to Assets

• Limited English proficient students (LEPs) in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
• Students from non-English language backgrounds
• English language learners
• English learners (ELs) in the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015
• Emergent (or emerging) bilinguals
• Multilingual learners
• Term in future federal legislation?

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Shifts from Deficits to Assets

Terms Indicating Shifts from Deficits to Assets

• Culture free
• Culturally different
• Culturally congruent
• Culturally responsive
• Culturally relevant
• Culturally sustaining
• Indigenous ways of knowing, being
• Multiple ways of knowing
• Abolitionism; Liberation

Guadalupe Valdés

Helen Quinn

Okhee Lee

Lorena Llosa

Science, Language, Computational Thinking, and STEM Education for Equity and Justice

Eric Klopfer

Daniel Wendel

Corey Brady

Douglas Clark

Todd Campbell

Eric Banilower

Dan Heck

Jessaca Spybrook

Rosenberg et al. (2021) focus on 656,000 Twitter posts in relation to NGSS to ascertain how NGSS is being publicly perceived.

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NGSS is receiving increasingly positive support, in contrast to opinion polling on Common Core State Standards.

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Rosenberg, J. M., Borchers, C., Dyer, E. B., Anderson, D., & Fischer, C. (2021). Understanding public sentiment about educational reforms: The next generation science standards on Twitter. AERA Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584211024261

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Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

Before

After

Knowledge of Science Disciplines

Students as Scientists and Engineers

Some Students

Scientists and Teachers

All Students

Making Sense of Phenomena (Science) and Designing Solutions to Problems (Engineering)

Traditional Contemporary

NGSS: All Standards, All Students

Shift 1: Phenomena or problems –

Explaining phenomena or designing solutions to problems

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Shift 2: Three-dimensional learning –

Blending science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas

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Shift 3: Coherent science learning progressions – Building science understanding across time

NGSS: All Standards, All Students

NYU SAIL RESEARCH LAB

Doing Science, Using Language

http://www.nyusail.org

DRL-1503330

Yearlong Fifth-Grade Curriculum

Science Shift 1:

Phenomena and Problems

• Phenomenon: Our school, home, and community make large amounts of garbage every day.
• Question: What happens to our garbage?

Phenomena and problems – Local and universal

What happens to our garbage

(in the real world)?

What happens to our garbage

(in the classroom)?

language intensive

Do you see this?

Yeah, it’s the same as this.

Science Shift 2:

Three-Dimensional Learning

Science Shift 3:

Learning Progressions (Storyline)

Students build science understanding over the course of lessons, units, and years of instruction.

Cluster 1

Cluster 2

Cluster 3

Cluster 4

SAIL Garbage Unit:

What happens to our garbage?

Garbage Unit Storyline:

What happens to our garbage?

Lesson

Physical Model

Diagrammatic Model

Computational Model

Models in the Garbage Unit

Computational Model to Explain Decomposition Caused by Microbes (Science)

Microbes

Banana (solid)

Banana (gas)

Computational Model to Solve Problem of Plastic Pollution (Engineering)

Earth Science:

Why does it matter if I drink tap water or bottled water?

Engineering Design:

How can we help solve the problem that plastic pollution from bottled water harms ocean animals?

Earth Science:

Computational Model to Solve Problem of Plastic Pollution (Engineering)

Example: Social media campaign to get more students at their school to use water fountains, instead of plastic water bottles

People

Plastic Water Bottles

Water fountains

People converted to reusable water bottles (25%)

COVID-19 Pandemic

Water fountains

Coronavirus in The Washington Post

Plastic Pollution with 5^th Grade Students

In March 2020, U.S. schools transitioned to remote learning

• Students analyze data about COVID-19 cases and deaths from
• Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center (left)
• Our World in Data by Oxford University (middle)

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• Students observe racial and ethnic disparities in the data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (right)

Data Science of COVID-19

• Students explain underlying causes for disparities in COVID-19
• Causes include overrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities in limited affordable housing and frontline work
• Both causes create challenges for following CDC guidance based on STEM disciplines (e.g., keep 6 feet apart and stay at home)
• Students design solutions to promote justice in society

Computer Science of COVID-19

Knowledge of Science Disciplines

Students as Scientists and Engineers

Some Students

Scientists and Teachers

All Students

Making Sense of Phenomena (Science) and Designing Solutions to Problems (Engineering)

Traditional Contemporary

Student Agency

Student Equity

Science Instructional Shifts: Contemporary

Knowledge of Science Disciplines

Students as Scientists and Engineers

Some Students

Scientists & Teachers

All Students

Making Sense of Phenomena and Designing Solutions to Problems

Traditional Contemporary

Students as

??

All Students

Science Instructional Shifts: Future

Student Activism

Future

Traditional Contemporary Future

Science Instructional Shifts: Future

STEM education needs to:

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1. address pressing societal challenges

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• leverage multiple STEM subjects, including data science and computer science, to explain pressing societal challenges

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• design justice-centered solutions

Justice-Centered STEM Education

Federal Legislation Involving STEM

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• Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021

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• Chips and Science Act of 2022

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• Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, including energy and climate programs

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And more . . .

Thank You