Culturally Relevant Learning Environments for Invention Education: Modifying Curriculum to Connect Science Learning to Home Cultures

• In Event: Creating Innovative Learning Environments Through Community and Interdisciplinary Connections for Invention Education

Abstract

Can invention help middle school English language learners (ELLs) learn science content that connects to their own home cultures? This poster presentation describes a culturally relevant invention education program for middle school science that was a collaboration among Boston College, Lemelson-MIT Program, and the Waltham Public Schools. The presentation describes how we modified the invention curriculum for ELLs and incorporated activities that connected curriculum to home experiences.
The study explores how middle school ELLs perceived and experienced a modified Junior Varsity Invention Curriculum and investigates how students’ writing developed as they engaged in culturally relevant “HomeFun” activities. We modified the curriculum by incorporating these activities and adding visualizations to offer access points to the students. “HomeFun” activities helped accomplish culturally relevant teaching (Gay, 2000) in science class. These activities provided opportunities for students to connect knowledge from their home cultures to key aspects of the curriculum. For example, one activity asked “What is an invention from your home country”? We also modified texts to insert visualizations in which images facilitated students’ learning of vocabulary and science concepts (Rundgren & Yao, 2014).
Employing a multiple case study method (Merriam, 2009), we purposefully selected five ELLs. Our data included observations, interviews pre- and post-, writing samples, and completed “HomeFun” activities. All interview and observation data were analyzed inductively (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Merriam, 2009). To analyze “HomeFun” activities and writing samples we adopted and modified the analytic framework from Saint-Hilaire’s (2013) science curriculum work combined with Donahue’s (2008) account of culturally relevant science.
The findings show 1) connected learning—synergies between language, science, and writing (“it was good because I learned how to write with science, and it helped me understand what we were doing more”); 2) support from visualizations (“‘cause if I was confused on what to do, I could look at it and see what they were doing”); and 3) culturally relevant teaching (“Oh, I did this for homework, um, the guy who invented Duolingo, he, which is an app for like, to learn different languages and it's easy. His name, I think he was Luis von Ahn, and he’s from Guatemala like me, and he invented that app”). Analysis of students’ writing also shows how ELLs connected their home cultures and values to the curriculum.

Students reported that the visualizations, the science literacy activities, and the HomeFun tasks helped them learn science and provided connections to their home cultures. The “HomeFun” activities fostered culturally relevant science learning within a literacy practice. This made the content more accessible, and it also motivated students by treating their cultural backgrounds as a resource. We draw conclusions about the benefits of invention-oriented curricula and visualizations for teaching science and the importance of making science culturally relevant. In addition, the study demonstrates how the modified invention education program motivated ELLs and helped them comprehend science concepts, retain science content knowledge, and get excited about their own inventions. Simultaneously, the additional visualizations and visualized formulae helped them understand complicated science concepts.

Authors

• Deoksoon Kim, Boston College

• So Lim Kim, Boston College