scholarly journals Vertical Gardens: Sustainability, Youth Participation, and the Promotion of Change in a Socio-Economically Vulnerable Community in Brazil

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Waleska Carolina do Valle Santos ◽  
Diandra Singh ◽  
Livia Delgado Leandro da Cruz ◽  
Luis Paulo de Carvalho Piassi ◽  
Giuliano Reis

This article is situated within the intersection of education for social transformation (EST) and ecojustice education (EJE). We have described the benefits of youth participation in an after-school science program offered to socio-economically vulnerable populations in São Paulo (Brazil). More specifically, we explored participants’ changing views of sustainability as they engaged in a 24-week project of their choice: The cultivation of a vertical herb garden. The analysis of our discussions and extensive field notes revealed that during the time participants cared for the garden, they developed: (a) A more accurate (refined) conceptualization of sustainability, (b) an appreciation for alternative and viable ways of producing food in urban settings, and (c) a stronger relationship with one another. In the end, involvement in the vertical garden project proved to be a powerful example of how science education can transform the livelihood of youth by expanding their views on human interconnectedness with all forms of life.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 6400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlie D. Trott ◽  
Andrea E. Weinberg

Scientists and sustainability scholars continue to make urgent calls for rapid societal transformation to sustainability. Science education is a key venue for this transformation. In this manuscript, we argue that by positioning children as critical actors for sustainability in science education contexts, they may begin to reimagine what science means to them and to society. This multi-site, mixed-methods study examined how children’s climate change learning and action influenced their science engagement along cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions. For fifteen weeks, ten- to twelve-year-olds participated in an after-school program that combined on-site interactive educational activities (e.g., greenhouse gas tag) with off-site digital photography (i.e., photovoice process), and culminated in youth-led climate action in family and community settings. Participants were 55 children (M = 11.1 years), the majority from groups underrepresented in science (52.7% girls; 43.6% youth of color; 61.8% low-income). Combined survey and focus group analyses showed that, after the program, science became more relevant to children’s lives, and their attitudes towards science (i.e., in school, careers, and in society) improved significantly. Children explained that understanding the scientific and social dimensions of climate change expanded their views of science: Who does it, how, and why—that it is more than scientists inside laboratories. Perhaps most notably, the urgency of climate change solutions made science more interesting and important to children, and many reported greater confidence, participation, and achievement in school science. The vast majority of the children (88.5%) reported that the program helped them to like science more, and following the program, more than half (52.7%) aspired to a STEM career. Lastly, more than a third (37%) reported improved grades in school science, which many attributed to their program participation. Towards strengthening children’s science engagement, the importance of climate change learning and action—particularly place-based, participatory, and action-focused pedagogies—are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Riquarts

<span>The German contribution on the OECD SMTE Project is based on an evaluation of the PING Project (Practicing Integration in Science Education) where teachers, researches and in-service trainers collaborated in research and development of an integrated school science program with materials emphasizing the relationship between humanity and nature.</span>


1967 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 629-635
Author(s):  
John R. Mayor

The Commission on Science Education of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, with the support of the National Science Foundation, started work in the spring of 1963 on the development of an experimental elementary school science program that has significance for elementary school mathematics. The primary-grade materials have been tried out, revised, and tried again over a period of three years in fourteen centers from the state of Washington to Florida. The tryout and revision of the intermediate- grade materials is continuing. The following description of the program shows in what ways mathematics is an integral part of the program.


Author(s):  
Олег Петунин ◽  
Oleg Petunin

<p>The article is devoted to an actual problem of integration of school courses in physics, chemistry, biology, ecology and physical geography. The author analyzes the content of the concept of integration of science education and enumerates the positive effects of its implementation. The article also presents the three levels of the integration: intra-, inter- and transdisciplinary. The author thoroughly describes methods of interdisciplinary integration, stopping on interdisciplinary communication, integrated lessons and integrated courses. The article revealed issues of interdisciplinary integration and suggest ways to overcome them. In conclusion, the author comes to the conclusion that the integration of science education is an urgent 9mki0problem of general education. To date, there are a number of successful solutions for this problem. In this article we have tried to summarize some material on this issue.</p>


Author(s):  
Senay Purzer ◽  
Jenny Patricia Quintana-Cifuentes

AbstractThis position paper is motivated by recent educational reform efforts that urge the integration of engineering in science education. We argue that it is plausible and beneficial to integrate engineering into formal K-12 science education. We illustrate how current literature, though often implicitly, discusses this integration from a pedagogical, epistemological, or methodological argumentative stance. From a pedagogical perspective, a historically dominant argument emphasizes how engineering helps make abstract science concepts more concrete. The epistemological argument is centered on how engineering is inherently interdisciplinary and hence its integrative role in support of scientific literacy and more broadly STEM literacy is natural. From a methodological perspective, arguments focus on the engineering design process, which is compatible with scientific inquiry and adaptable to answering different types of engineering questions. We call for the necessity of spelling out these arguments and call for common language as science and engineering educators form a research-base on the integration of science and engineering. We specifically provide and discuss specific terminology associated with four different models, each effectively used to integrate engineering into school science. We caution educators against a possible direction towards a convergence approach for a specific type of integrating engineering and science. Diversity in teaching models, more accurately represents the nature of engineering but also allows adaptations based on available school resources. Future synthesis can then examine student learning outcomes associated with different teaching models.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document