Designing a Community-Based Student Interest–Focused Sustainability Science Curriculum

• In Event: 52.068 - New Tools, New Voices: Innovations in Understanding and Analyzing Life-Wide Ecologies for Youth Interest-Driven Learning

Abstract

Objectives
Learning about sustainability science is a complex process that integrates knowledge from several different disciplines and sources (Aikman, 1999). Prior research, however, shows that there is a separation between community based knowledge that focuses on sustainable practices and the science knowledge that students learn as a part of their formal curriculum (Bell, et al., 2009). Through collaborations with rural and indigenous partners, we designed the SPIRALS (Supporting and Promoting Indigenous and Rural Adolescents’ Learning of Science) curriculum to use the context of local communities as a way to demonstrate how scientific understanding exists in youth’s everyday experiences and how traditional ecological knowledge adds critical knowledge to sustainability science. Our research study grounds itself in theories of complex systems thinking (Resnick & Wilensky, 1998), culture and learning (Bang & Medin, 2010) and participatory action research (Walter, 2009) and is embedded in a contextualized inquiry-based learning.

In this presentation we present our findings about how contextualizing science learning to culture, community, and personal interests enhances rural majority and indigenous adolescents’ understanding of sustainability science and strengthens their motivation and attitudes toward learning about sustainability science.

Methods
The SPIRALS curriculum guides early adolescents in an investigation based on their interests in sustainability. The activities build on each other from an exploration of personal and community sustainability to a deeper inquiry about one local community sustainable practice that the learners have chosen. Mapping in many forms—personal everyday maps to user-friendly GIS mapping—plays a critical role in the inquiry. The curriculum is customizable through a website where community mentors can adapt the curriculum to cater the experience specifically to the group’s age level, capabilities and interests.

Data sources
The study uses pre- and post- surveys, interviews and other curriculum artifacts (e.g. systems thinking maps) to assess how interest driven activities embedded within the curriculum impact motivation, attitudes and learning about sustainability science phenomenon.

Results
Preliminary data analysis from an initial study group of about 100 learners lends support for our hypothesis that contextualizing science learning to the local community has positive effects on student motivation and attitudes toward science. Groups of learners chose inquiry projects related closely to local practices (e.g., maple sugaring, hunting, Christmas tree farming). Each group involved knowledgeable community members as part of information gathering and created personal and group maps reflecting increasingly complex systems thinking. The surveys and interviews conducted suggest that the learners that we have worked with are engaged as a result of the personalization of projects and the focus of their work on a practice meaningful to their community. For our poster presentation we will be presenting the data resulting from scaling up the project to approximately 500 learners.

Scholarly significance
The merit of this study is its potential to examine ways to meaningfully contextualize science learning and strengthen students’ motivation to learn, particularly in under-represented groups. In particular, the project enhances our understanding of the way learners’ perceptions of the learning environment and community related to their scientific knowledge and motivation for learning.

Authors

• Sameer Honwad, University of New Hampshire

• Marlena Koper, University of New Hampshire

• Eleanor Diane Abrams, University of New Hampshire

• Michael J. Middleton, University of Massachusetts - Boston