Love the community/family involvement aspect of the program! I’m wondering if in the Funds of Knowledge framework the cultural backgrounds of students and their families provide unique opportunities for teaching STEM content and, if so, how these might be leveraged for teaching STEM outside of a Native American context? Also, are there plans to create a more formal, classroom version of the program?

interesting project! I was wondering whether you think the family involvement in your project would be feasible in other American education contexts. I think it could be potentially very powerful, if for no other reason that having parents and other family involved in a child’s education helps the child see that education is highly valued, and drawing on community members’ expertise can lend a welcome hand to teachers.

Thank you for this video. I think having families participate in youth field trips is fantastic. Not only do you get to build on families funds of knowledge, but parents and grandparents get exposure to what students are learning. You mention one on one mentoring but do not speak much about that. Can you tell me more about this component of the program? Do you have any evidence of impact on students or community? You left me eager to hear more!

I’m adding my thanks to those above, Sally. In my projec, we are sharing lesson videos among teachers nationwide. Your lessons seem different from any that we have. I would like very much to have lessons from your teachers—lessons that they are willing to share for the benefit of teachers in other areas of the US. We record lessons, assist with editing, and (with the teacher’s approval) post for other teachers to view and discuss. Although my matthewscc@umsl.edu address is a Missouri university, I live and work from Green Valley, AZ.

Well done focused video. The focus on the Native American and culturally and geographical relevant material for the students using mentors is quite unique. How would you scale this program for other underrepresented groups in STEM where they could have mentors to work with at the same time have culturally relevant STEM activities? The activities the students participate in including siblings and parents must make for very interesting communications, thank you for this video.

I’m a little unclear about the relationship between formal and informal education. Agree with all the comments about the very important role of families. And a shout out to CADRE Fellow Corey Knox!

Hi Deborah, excellent questions. My belief that is that it is essential to learn about the families, communities and children’s lives in out of school activities. From that knowledge we learn and create relevant learning opportunities. This is Funds of Knowledge. In the process. Stong bonds between family, school and community have opportunities to the hold and flourish.

I agreen Rosi good answer. All students indeed come to us with their suitcases of life experiences and it up to us the educators to ensure that we do not divorce them from those experiences but actually harness them to encourage meaningful learning.