SEEDS Yielding Fruit
Below are examples of a few of the many examples of transformative pedagogy, projects, and initiatives our members are facilitating with schools and communities for the purpose of advancing equity and diversity in science education. You can see other examples in our photos collection as well as in our newsletter pages.
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Mars Rover Scenario
- This inquiry science lesson is one example of the many activities facilitated in the NSF sponsored projected entitled, Improving the Participation and Achievement of Students in Diverse Schools by Enhancing Teacher Professional Development in Science and Learning Technologies. In this exhibit the principal investigator, Dr. Alberto J. Rodriguez, explains how children can act like scientists in a problem solving scenario that involves planning and building a model of a planetary exploring robot to investigate an unknown planet. Probeware, wireless video cameras, and other devices were part of students' designs, and were mounted to the students robots. This data set was fed back to students in another classroom where iBooks were used to interpret their collected data. In addition to images and video of the Planet Exploration Rover Problem Solving Scenario in action, this exhibit features interviews with Dr. Rodriguez, lesson plans associated with the activity, a Webquest investigation to support teachers and students trying it themselves, and links to the project website containing a wide variety of other science activities. These science activities were each developed to address issues of equity and diversity in science classrooms for a project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF Grant #0306156).
Click here to explore this Mars Rover lesson through video with Dr. Alberto J. Rodriguez -
Students learning about social determinants of health
- Digital image processing is a state-of- the art technology that research scientists use. Our lesson was created in response to a vision that a Buffalo Public School Teacher had after participating in a summer program at Roswell Park Cancer Institute of Buffalo. From his experiences at Roswell Park, he gained valuable insight into what actually goes on when determining whether or not a patient has cancer. What was remarkable to him was that a patient could undergo a procedure involving a biopsy of the tissue in question, the sample then swiftly taken to the cytopathology department where the doctors looks for cancerous cells using digital image processing, and the patient gets the much needed diagnosis, all within an hour's time. This innovative technology that scientists use has and can come to the classroom where it potentially can transform teaching and learning. Steve, the Buffalo Public School Teacher, wanted so much to bring his experiences to his students but needed help. With the help of students from the University at Buffalo including Ekue, a PhD pharmacology student who has experience with digital image processing, his vision became a reality.
Click here to explore this lesson with Steve and Randy. -
Science and Song
- So today I had the most enjoyable morning...I spent time with a fantastic group of teachers today who are looking at new ways to engage students. One of the things they wanted more resources on was about how to use music in the classroom. I have brainstormed a list of resources (which I found so much fun to compile) that I will share with them but also wanted to share more broadly. Do you have things you would add? Please let me know as I encourage music in all parts of our life.
Click here to view this lesson from Dr. Deb Morrison. -
National Academies of Science Address
- Watch this talk given at the National Academy of Sciences to learn common ways teachers and researchers stumble when they attempt culturally responsive instruction in science. Dr. Alberto Rodriguez delivered the invited address, "How to avoid known pitfalls associated with culturally responsive instruction" to the National Academy on July 21, 2018. https://vimeo.com/226482301
See also the published brief from the National Academy of Sciences #53 published with Dr. Deb Morrison http://stemteachingtools.org/brief/53 -
Speed Limit Study
- This exhibit describes a school and university collaboration teaching the science topics of force and motion with explicit connections to the lives, experiences, and concerns of children. In order to engage children in local community planning, development, and safety issues like speeding commuters, children began to use science to study questions like "How fast do cars actually travel in front of our school?" This was a question that provided an authentic context for problem solving while allowing children the opportunity to directly influence and change their community. Throughout the week children explored motion, speed, school and societal rules, and responsibility, in relation to the problem of cars speeding by during school hours as harried commuters raced through the community to make their work deadlines.
Visitors to this exhibit can expect to observe:- various pedagogical strategies for teaching difficult concepts like speed and deceleration,
- strategies for helping students interpret graphs,
- strategies for applying real world data to abstract concepts, and
- ways to connect and engage children in larger social issues as they act as a change agent in their own communities.
Click here to view this lesson with Dr. Randy Yerrick. -
Secondary Science Teaching with English Language & Literacy Acquisition
- SSTELLA
SSTELLA provides a framework that includes 9 instructional practices and set of tools upon which (1) university teacher educators and mentor teachers can draw to support novice teachers in developing responsive teaching practices; and (2) novice teachers can draw to help support EL student engagement in the disciplinary practices of science.
Read about the commissioned paper from the Committee on Supporting English Learners in STEM Subjects. National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Washington, DC: National Academies Press at this link.
Read more about SSTELLA and the research team at Visit this link to read more about the SSTELLA Team of researchers (Sara Tolbert, Trish Stoddart, Jorge L. Solís, Edward G. Lyon, George C. Bunch, Doris Brigitte Ash, Corey Knox, and Ivan Salinas) -
Conference on African American Health Disparities
- Conference Title: "Igniting Hope"
Buffalo is among the poorest and most diverse cities in the US with 31% living in poverty and 50% underrepresented minority, leading to challenges in healthcare and health disparities. The life expectancy of African Americans in is 12 years shorter in Buffalo compared to that of White citizens of Buffalo and the risk of chronic illness is more than 70% above that of Whites. Members of SEEDS, local pastors, health providers, medical researchers, and vested partners from across Western New York held an inaugural conference to discuss and address health inequities and the social determinants of health.
Click here for access to the conference materials. -
Engaging in Research Practices as Critical Scholars/Activists: A Metalogue
- This chapter discusses the possibilities of engaging in activist oriented scholarship as critically engaged scholar/activists. Authors draw upon our experiences to think about what this type of engagement means both on personal and individualized levels as well as in the broader context of being/becoming activists and critical scholars within a field -- science education -- that has little history of supporting this type of work. Each author has chosen to engage with activism as a methodological and theoretical approach to working within and for schools as science educators. Authors consider and creatively re/imagine the following research practices:
- (1) Positionality: What are our own social , political, and gendered / classed / racialized roles as we conduct research within economically oppressed communities?;
- (2) Public: What are our responsibilities to the communities in which we work and to the broader public?; and
- (3) Rigor: How do we (re)define rigor as a measure of transformative impact with the communities with whom we research?
Click here for access to this chapter and more from Alexa Schindel, Sara Tolbert, and Alberto Rodriguez on Academia.edu.
Schindel, A., Tolbert, S., & Rodriguez, A. J. (2019). Engaging in Research Practices as Critical Scholars/Activists: A Metalogue. In Critical Voices in Science Education Research (pp. 189 - 199). Switzerland: Springer, Cham.
who we are
SEEDS Stands for Science Educators for Equity, Diversity, and Social justice.
contact us
Email questions about SEEDS to: hello@seedsweb.org
what we do
SEEDS is an organization dedicated to social justice within/through science and science education.
