Designing for Rightful Presence in STEM: The Role of Making Present Practices

Opportunities to learn in consequential ways are shaped by the historicized injustices students encounter in relation to participation in STEM and schooling. In this article, it is argued that the construct of rightful presence, and the coconstructed “making present” practices that give rise to moments of rightful presence, is 1 way to consider how to make sense of the historicized and relational nature of consequential learning. Drawing on theories of consequential learning and critical justice, we analyze ethnographic data from 3 urban middle school classrooms in 2 states during a STEM unit focused on engineering for sustainable communities. Findings describe 2 making present practices students enacted as they engaged in engineering design: modeling ethnographic data and reperforming injustices toward solidarity building. We discuss how these practices supported moments of rightful presence in the STEM classrooms by inscribing youths’ marginalizing school experiences as a part of classroom science discourse and co-opting school science tasks as tools for exposing, critiquing, and addressing these unjust experiences. That which was silent and previously concealed from school authority figures gained a rightful place through the voices and scientific actions of the youth and their allies

A Longitudinal Study of Equity-Oriented STEM-Rich Making Among Youth From Historically Marginalized Communities

The maker movement has evoked interest for its role in breaking down barriers to STEM learning. However, few empirical studies document how youth are supported over time in STEM-rich making projects or their outcomes. This longitudinal critical ethnographic study traces the development of 41 youth maker projects in two community-centered making programs. Building a conceptual argument for an equity-oriented culture of making, the authors discuss the ways in which making with and in community opened opportunities for youth to project their communities’ rich culture knowledge and wisdom onto their making while also troubling and negotiating the historicized injustices they experience. The authors also discuss how community engagement legitimized a practice of co-making, which supported equity-oriented goals and outcomes

How do middle school girls of color develop STEM identities? Middle school girls’ participation in science activities and identification with STEM careers

This study explores ways to support girls of color in forming their senses of selves in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) during the middle school years. Guided by social practice theory, we analyzed a large data set of survey responses (n=1,821) collected at five middle schools in low-income communities across four states in the United States. Analyses focus on the extent to which key constructs that inform girls’ development of senses of self and relations among those indicators of STEM identities varied by their race/ethnicity. Though the means of indicators sometimes varied across racial/ethnic groups, multigroup structural equation modeling analyses indicate no significant racial/ethnic differences in the relations of STEM identities, suggesting that similar supports would be equally effective for all girls during the middle school years. Girls’ self-perception in relation to science was the strongest predictor of their identification with STEM-related careers, and this self-perception was positively and distinctively associated with their experiences with science at home, outside of school, and in school science classes. This study argues for strategically expanding girls’ experiences with science across multiple settings during middle school in a way that increases their positive self-perception in and with STEM

Creating hybrid spaces for engaging school science among urban middle school girls

The middle grades are a crucial time for girls in making decisions about how or if they want to follow science trajectories. In this article, the authors report on how urban middle school girls enact meaningful strategies of engagement in science class in their efforts to merge their social worlds with the worlds of school science and on the unsanctioned resources and identities they take up to do so. The authors argue that such merging science practices are generative both in terms of how they develop over time and in how they impact the science learning community of practice. They discuss the implications these findings have for current policy and practice surrounding gender equity in science education

Critically engaging engineering in place by localizing counternarratives in engineering design

In this manuscript, we use the construct of critical epistemologies of place to frame our exploration of how to support engineering design among youth who have historically been marginalized from the domain, and its implications for educational settings. We present an in-depth longitudinal case study of one 12-year-old African American boy to raise questions of what it means for this youth to engage in engineering design in collaboration with the people around in him—experts and knowledgeable others in his community space and how this engagement supports his work in science and engineering. This study suggests that engaging engineering design through a critical epistemology of place involves an iterative and generative process of layering community wisdom and knowledge onto STEM toward (a) how epistemologies of place—and their layers—challenge dominant master narratives, (b) reimagining practices in place, and (c) transforming the dangerous territory of STEM. Our study expands upon current understandings of supporting youth in engaging engineering through highlighting the vital role of sociohistorically constructed understandings of STEM and community in determining when, how, and why engineering takes place

“It Changed Our Lives”: Activism, Science, and Greening the Community

Drawing upon critically oriented studies of science literacy and environmental justice, we posit a framework for activism in science education. To make our case, we share a set of narratives on how the River City Youth Club acquired a new green roof. Using these narratives we argue that the ways in which youth describe their accomplishments with respect to the roof reflects a range of subject positions that they carve out and take up over time. These subject positions reveal how activism is a generative process linked to “knowing” and “being” in ways that juxtapose everyday practices with those of science. Résumé Fondant notre approche sur des études critiques dans le domaine de l'alphabétisation scientifique et de l’équité environnementale, nous postulons un cadre visant à promouvoir l'activisme en enseignement des sciences. Comme arguments, nous présentons une série de récits qui racontent comment la Maison de jeunes de River City a pu se doter d'un nouveau toit écologique. Ces récits nous permettent de montrer que les façons dont les jeunes décrivent leur rôle dans la réalisation de ce projet reflètent une gamme de positions que les sujets adoptent et modifient au fur et à mesure que progresse la réalisation du toit. Ces différentes positions indiquent que l'activisme est un processus génératif lié à la ‘connaissance’ et au ‘savoir’, processus qui juxtapose les pratiques quotidiennes et celles des sciences

Analysis of ginger root essential oil and hydrosol: CYP450 inhibition

Former researches showed ginger extracts could contribute to hepatic protection. Two species of cytochrome P450 enzymes, CYP2E1 and CYP2A6, are both important heme-containing liver enzymes for hepatictoxicology via metabolizing small organic molecules into toxic metabolites. CYP2E1 metabolizes more than 2% of all the oral drugs and is closely associated with liver toxicity. CYP2A6 metabolizes fewer than 5% of all the oral drugs and activates some tobacco procarcinogens. Therefore, inhibitors from natural extracts might be able to provide with preventative therapy to liver toxicity and cancer.CYP2E1 inhibitors may be used to inhibit liver toxicity of CYP2E1 in metabolizing the pain killer acetaminophen into toxic N-acetyl-p-quinoimine (NAPQI) to prevent liver cell necrosis. In addition, CYP2A6 inhibitors may be used to suppress the metabolism of certain pro-carcinogensthat are inhaled from smoking. In this research, two extracts from steam distillation of ginger root, ginger essential oil and ginger hydrosol, were collected. CYP2E1 and CYP2A6 were assayed with presence of the two extracts at a series of concentrations to test the ginger extracts’ dose-dependent effects. The results showed both of the two extractsas CYP2E1 inhibitors but as poor inhibitors to CYP2A6. The major organic contents of ginger essential oil and ginger hydrosol were identified by GC-MS. The results showed both of them contained citral. The major organic components of ginger hydrosol were determined as citral (neral and geranial), 2-heptanol and eucalyptol. The Michaelis-Menten kinetic analysis showed that ginger essential oil, citral, and ginger hydrosol were all competitive inhibitors to CYP2E1 from human liver S9 fraction. The KI for Brazilian ginger essential oil was 27.3mg/L and the KI for Costa Rican ginger essential oil was 29.9 mg/L.The inhibitory constant of citral was KI of 43.0µM. Meanwhile, the KI for Brazilian ginger hydrosol was 4.6% of its original concentration, which corresponded to 45.5 µM citral (neral: geranial=1:1.4).The KI for the Brazilian ginger hydrosol was 3.6% of its original concentration, which corresponded to 44.3µM citral (neral: geranial=1:1.4). Citral was implicated to be the most potent inhibitor from ginger hydrosol to human liver CYP2E1.Ginger hydrosol and citral were shown to be inhibitors to purified human liver CYP2E1 in the metabolism of acetaminophen to NAPQI by analysis with LC-MS. In the presence of the substrate acetaminophen at 800µM, the concentration close to its toxic concentration, Brazilian ginger hydrosol exhibited a 50% inhibition of enzyme activity at the concentration over 25%. This concentration of Brazilian ginger hydrosol corresponds to a dose of citral of around 158 µM. This result implicated that ginger hydrosol and citral could be used as a natural therapeutic for toxicity of acetaminophen

Internalization of Aeromonas hydrophila by fish epithelial cells can be inhibited with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor

Aeromonas hydrophila is a Gram-negative bacterium that is pathogenic in fish, causing motile aeromonad septicaemia. It can enter (invade) fish cells, and survive as an intracellular parasite. The host-pathogen interaction and signal transduction pathway were studied by screening signal transduction inhibitors using carp epithelial cells and a virulent strain of the bacterium, PPD134/91. Genistein, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, postponed internalization of A. hydrophila into host cells, suggesting that tyrosine phosphorylation plays a role in internalization. In contrast, staurosporine, a protein kinase C inhibitor, and sodium orthovanadate, a protein tyrosine phosphatase inhibitor, accelerated internalization of PPD134/91. Other virulent strains of A. hydrophila were also examined and it is likely that all strains, irrespective of serogroup, use the same signalling pathway to facilitate bacterial uptake

Transforming Science Learning and Student Participation in Sixth Grade Science: A Case Study of a Low-Income, Urban, Racial Minority Classroom

Recent criticisms of the goal of “science for all” with regard to minority students have alluded to the onerous culture of school science characterized by white, middle-class values that eschew personal everyday science experiences and nontraditional funds of knowledge, in addition to alienating science instruction. Using critically-oriented, sociocultural perspectives, this article explores the sixth grade classroom of a male, white, science teacher in an urban school that serves only minority students. Using Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, and Cain's (2001) notion of figured worlds, we look at what learning science looks like in Mr. M's classroom and how he provides the structural support to increase student participation by creating different figured worlds of sixth grade science. In these different figured worlds, we discuss the pedagogical strategies Mr. M uses to purposefully recruit nontraditional funds of knowledge of racial minority and low-income students, thereby positioning them with more authority for participation. Through this case study of Mr. M and the racial minority and low-income students he teaches, we discuss the role science teachers play in urban school science education and the agency and achievement racial minority and low-income students are capable of with appropriate support

Funds of Knowledge and Discourses and Hybrid Space

The findings reported on in this manuscript emerged from a design experiment conducted at a low-income urban middle school intended to support the teacher in incorporating pedagogical practices supportive of students‘ everyday knowledge and practices during a 6th grade unit on food and nutrition from the LiFE curriculum. In studying the impact of the design experiment we noticed qualitative shifts in classroom Discourse marked by a changing role and understandings of the funds of knowledge students brought to science learning. Using qualitative data and grounded theory we present an analysis of the different types of funds of knowledge and Discourse that students brought into science class. We focus on how the students‘ strategic use of these funds augmented the learning experience of the students and the learning community as well as the learning outcomes. We discuss the implications these funds of knowledge and Discourses had on the development of three related third space transformations: physical, political, and pedagogical