Cultural Relevance, Equity, and Diversity | STELAR - STEM Learning and Research Center

STEM Dreams in Motion - Episode 4

Curricular Materials

This series of videos highlights contemporary stories of refugees who are considered role models for their tenacity and accomplishments. Each story sheds light on journeys to becoming a STEM professional in the United States. Episode 4 features two Congolese brothers who grew up in a refugee camp and are currently STEM college students.

Drones in Alaska Elementary Curriculum

Curricular Materials

This collection of three teacher's manuals, five videos, and one career exploration guide were created with and for Alaska Native communities as part of the Drone Research and Opportunities for Native Elementary Students project, funded by NSF I-TEST Grant Nos. 1850561 (Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks) and 1850556 (Univ. of Alaska Anchorage). The Drones in Alaska base curriculum has three versions, one with lexicon in Sugs'tun, one with lexicon in Lower Tanana Athabascan, and one with lexicon in Lower Koyukon Athabascan. The Teacher's manual for the Drones in Alaska base curriculum is applicable to

The Internet Doesn't Exist in the Sky: Literacy, AI, and the Digital Middle Passage

Publications

This article utilizes speculative and visual storytelling alongside interdisciplinary research on artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic oppression to engage in a thought experiment on how literacy studies might refuse the oppressionist logics currently undermining the possibilities of AI in literacy education. As technological advancements in education will only continue to increase and as society is yet to ascertain the parameters of an ethical AI system, it is paramount to analyze the past and present and contemplate potential futures, especially those that do not result in violence

Student Engagement in an Online Engineering Afterschool Program During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic forced much of schooling online and limited students’ access to informal learning opportunities such as afterschool programs. The purpose of this study was to investigate how fourth- and fifth-grade students engaged in an online engineering program and what factors influenced their engagement. We drew on a four-dimensional model of student engagement to describe how students engaged in the afterschool engineering program and to identify the factors that enhanced or inhibited engagement. Using a case study design, we drew on interviews with six program mentors and ten

Leveraging local resources and contexts for inclusive computer science classrooms: Reflections from experienced high school teachers implementing electronic textiles

Publications

Background and context Promoting open-ended projects presents new opportunities and challenges for inclusive teaching in CS classrooms. While efforts have been made to develop inclusive curricula, little research has focused on ways teachers apply curricula in their classrooms to promote inclusion. Objective To understand the challenges faced in facilitating an open-ended unit and the pedagogical strategies enacted to address those challenges, we analyze the self-reported teaching practices that experienced teachers developed in their implementation of a constructionist electronic textiles

Acknowledging Bias and Pursuing Protections to Support Anti-Racist Developmental Science: Critical Contributions of Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory

Publications

American racism is deeply engrained in the nation’s ecology including its chronosystem and contributes to the nation’s unavoidably shared vulnerability. Interrogating an accurate portrayal of the nation’s history is informative for securing anti-racist research. This special issue commentary discusses the role of Spencer’s phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST) as a means of providing an epistemic framing for disentangling and directly addressing the problem of structural racism in the conduct of science. Additionally it demonstrates the efficacy of PVEST and offers

A Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST): A self-organization perspective in context

Publications

A framework that emphasizes and integrates individuals' intersubjective experiences with Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory (PVEST) is introduced and compared with self-organizational perspectives. Similarities, differences and advantages of each framework are described. In a demonstration of PVEST's utility, a subset of data from the 3rd year of a longitudinal study (14- to 16-year-old middle adolescent African-Americans) is used for examining an achievement variable: negative learning attitude. Explored separately by gender, a regression model that contained risk, stress, and a

STEM, STEAM, Make, Dream: Reimagining the Culture of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Publications

STEM, STEAM, Make, Dream explores the ways that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics can transform all young people’s lives through learning. This includes reimagining our collective relationship to STEM by presenting it as more accepting and accessible than previously acknowledged. Beginning with the ways that STEM has been used to marginalize many children, the book examines the need for the arts – including culture – to serve as an anchor for instruction. It also describes the need for “making” (hands-on creation and tinkering) in establishing relevance in learning. Then

Transdisciplinarity in STEM Education: A Critical Review

Publications

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education garnered significant attention in recent years and has emerged as a key field of research globally. The goal of this article is to offer a critical review of how STEM education and its transdisciplinarity were defined and/or positioned in empirical studies published during the early formulation of the field. In particular, we sought to identify how these studies conceptualize learners and learning and portray the underlying assumptions in light of the macrosystemic discourses that often serve as ideological forces in shaping

"We’re changing the system with this one”: Black students using critical race algorithmic literacies to subvert and survive AI-mediated racism in school

Publications

Purpose – This paper aims to center the experiences of three cohorts (n ¼ 40) of Black high school students who participated in a critical race technology course that exposed anti-blackness as the organizing logic and default setting of digital and artificially intelligent technology. This paper centers the voices, experiences and technological innovations of the students, and in doing so, introduces a new type of digital literacy: critical race algorithmic literacy. Design/methodology/approach – Data for this study include student interviews (called “talk backs”), journal reflections and

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