Meeting Abstract
Connecting science learning to students’ everyday experiences increases interest and motivation in students with low success expectations (e.g., Hulleman & Harackiewicz 2009, Harackiewicz et al., 2015). To achieve this goal, we have developed a curriculum for middle-school age youth that uses authentic and cutting-edge cancer biology content. This NSF-supported effort involved an intensive multi-year collaboration between a research professor and inner-city teachers. The resulting 5-week curricular module is designed for middle school age students and centers on the role of cell signaling in cancer biology. We will describe the sequence of topics covered and the instructional practices used to support economically-disadvantaged, middle-school age youth to seriously engage with research findings from studies of cell signaling. We have now implemented teaching of this complex and controversial topic two times, with youth who were 12-13 years, and another group that was 13-15 years. Our program consists of 16 one hour sessions over 5 weeks of an out-of-school inquiry science workshop.We start by building community and providing routines that enable reflection, participation, and questioning. We do not begin by introducing cancer biology. Rather, we wait until students have developed shared vocabulary and knowledge about fundamental cell concepts and cell communication. Data on changes in participants’ motivation and learning compared to a control group also will be presented.
