We are excited to engage on discussions about this project.

We are excited to answer any questions and engage in discussions about this project.

Hi Karla! It is always nice to hear inspiring messages delivered in multiple languages. I am partial to the message about the importance of Science!  How did the project start? The idea for it? What brought the team from OSU and WOU together and how did the concept for your video come together? 

Hi Nickolay - it is great to hear that the video presented an inspiring message. This project is a continuation of the Lissell-B project designed and implemented by Dr. Cory Buxton and his team from the University of Georgia.  Dr. Buxton, now with OSU, successfully applied to NSF for funding to continue this work through the LaCuKnoS project, which extends development of an instructional model through implementation.  The implementation process includes professional development that supports educators to engage in and enact the model developed during Lissell-B.  This model includes language, culture and science knowledge practices. The project includes many intentional partnerships that bring together teachers, researchers, families, and communities to participate in a cycle of improvement as we implement the model in afterschool STEM clubs across Oregon.  The video was created using our educator partners during one of our professional development workshops and highlights the work done in the first year of the project.  Thank you for your interest in the project! 

Thanks for visiting our video! The Language, Culture and Knowledge building through Science (LaCuKnoS) project has three areas of interest with corresponding goals. We'd love to learn about other projects that are exploring the connections among language, culture & community, and knowledge building.

Language Development for Science Sense Making

Goal: Support students in making conscious language choices to represent “who they are” as well as “what they know” as they make sense of science in their lives (SFL: Halliday, 2004)

Mapping Culture & Community Connections to Science

Goal: Foster students’ science interest and identity by learning to see their cultures, their communities, and their histories in relation to science (CRP: Paris, 2012)

Knowledge Building for Informed Decision Making

Goal: Students learn to position themselves as competent knowers (LCT: Maton, 2013) as they apply evidence-based explanations to daily decisions and justice centered solutions to community challenges.

Thank you everybody for watching our video! My name is Barbara and I am part of the research team. Anyways, I am looking forward to having some great discussions.

Thank you for sharing your work. I see the potential in your project to engage with local communities around issues of language and science. I wondered if you did any work to engage with Hispanic communities outside of schools in order to increase the cultural relevance of the science students were learning.

We are working with teachers in rural Utah, who serve many Spanish-speaking students as well as students from Native American tribes. One of our goals is to engage with the community to create science lessons that are responsive to these students' lives and experiences, so I wondered what we could learn from you!

Hello and thank you for sharing your work. The statement about science as a language and that having access to scientific language is empowering is in my opinion, particularly valuable. l also appreciate your offering subtitles in both English and Spanish. 

I wonder if there are other cultures (e.g., Native American) represented in your community in Oregon and if there are, how are they being included in this work? I am also interested in hearing more about specific practices and professional development activities that you have planned or have already completed. 

Finally, what are the criteria for the success of the project? How will success be measured?

Dear Cory and the team, 

Thank you for this exciting research project and the video. This is an exciting and much-needed work. I am curious about some of your (or teachers' practices) approaches that are oriented as Language Development for Science Sense-Making. Could you give us some examples of what "language development for science sense-making" looks like in students' science sensemaking process and teachers' pedagogical enactments? 

This sounds like a much-needed direction in STEM education, focusing on making it culturally and community-relevant, but putting the student at the center of all that. Like others have said, it'd be interesting to hear more about the language part of the project. The rest I can envision; language I am lacking the vision of how that works in the classroom.  Thanks.

 

I love that you incorporated multiple languages in your video introduction and agree that the more we involve people from different cultures and backgrounds, the better our understanding of the world will be and the more accessible science will become to everyone. Thank you for what you are doing!

Hi Dr. Buxton and Team,
I really love the way you are redefining science education and including science teachers and educators in your project. Can you tell me what kinds of contents you're delivering in the PDs? And I am interested to see if you have observed any changes in the science classrooms yet.

Thanks for the inspiring vision! I really appreciate the community-level investment in education, as happening not just in the classroom.

Could you say a bit more about why you chose to focus the work on "rural and remote" teachers in particular? Also, with internet access being a major obstacle in many rural communities, how has this kind of community-focused, place-based project been impacted by the pandemic?

And one more question - I realize it's still a fairly new project, but how are you planning to assess the project outcomes? 

Hi Sue - thank you for your interest in the LaCuKnoS project.  Recognizing the value of bringing STEM resources to remote and rural teachers, the project partners with an established community of Science educators through the Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences (SMILE) program.  While the pandemic has certainly created some challenges for engaging with these communities, it has also provided opportunities to develop some technology and tools that have allowed us to connect in different ways virtually.  Because the communities and schools have had to bridge these technology gaps, we were able to provide virtually professional development to the teachers and engage the students, families, and communities in virtual math and science events.  In terms of assessment, the collection of data includes quantitative analysis of student surveys designed to measure aspirations in STEM and several qualitative measures including teacher focus groups, teacher logs, student concept maps, and family interviews that  are already providing evidence for our iterative cycle of improvement and driving our implementation decisions for the next year.  Thank you again for your interest and please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Cory, in your May 12/12:20 am reply to Jennifer you said, "the unintentional message that is often received by many students is that their language and ways of communicating are inappropriate and in need of replacement." resonated with me. I have engaged many teachers in conversations about the downfalls to front loading science vocabulary and insisting that student use only the science language without a deeper understanding of what it truly means or the connection to them personally or culturally. I am excited to share your work with others. I invite you and your colleagues to drop by the BioFab-pk-12 Resource Review page https://videohall.com/p/2489 presented by Barbara Hopkins.

Thank you for sharing this work. The multilingual structure of your video is powerful. I am not sure if you are looking for other spaces to share this work but as part of my project, students, community partners and faculty at UH Manoa have created the STEMS^2 Symposium. The 4th annual symposium will be held this summer June 28 - 30th online and in-person (in Hawaii). We would love to learn more about this work and invite you to the conversations that take place at the symposium. If you would like more information than what is on the website please feel free to email me at toneill@hawaii.edu