This article reports on research investigating the experiences and resources that make science thinkable for undergraduate science majors as they engage in postsecondary science contexts. We regard these experiences and resources as contributing to science majors' science capital, and we suggest that science capital accumulates over time across identity trajectories. Using a multiple case study approach, we characterize seven undergraduate science majors' identity trajectories that they narrate through their stories of experiences with science in school, out of school and into postsecondary education. We examine how they navigate sources of science capital (e.g., families, science outreach), and the value they attribute to their science capital once they enter science programs in university. We also consider how their access to science capital influences their reasons for engaging in science outreach. To characterize students' movements into postsecondary education, and their experiences in postsecondary science, we crafted three identity trajectories: the “expected trajectory,” “persistent trajectory” and the “new directions trajectory.” These trajectories helped us to examine how science majors' identities mediate their perceptions of the use and exchange values of their science capital and the doxa of science that they legitimate. This study contributes to our understanding of how science capital operates along identity trajectories into postsecondary science, and demonstrates that simply having access to resources that contribute to students' accumulation of science capital is not sufficient for sustained engagement in science.
For secondary outreach programs to meet the goals of enhancing science education and attracting future scientists from underrepresented populations, we need an inclusive approach that integrates students' knowledge and experiences in the process of doing science. I present three pedagogical tools designed by developing equitable, inclusive collaboration among microbiologist outreach mentors and high school biology students. These activities aim to foster a sense of belonging in a scientific community and serve as an entry point to the practice of inclusion. Over a one-semester course at an alternative high school, ten secondary students and their scientist mentors met weekly to design and conduct microbiology experiments together. This group of students and scientists participated in structured collaborative learning activities to: i) understand each other's ideas about science; ii) collectively analyze their research findings; and iii) offer peer feedback. I modified the following three learning tools for use in my secondary science classroom from protocols of the National School Reform Faculty: 1) the Quotes Introduction Activity set the stage for equitable discourse between high school students and scientist mentors, while initiating important conversations about the process of biological research; 2) the Data Analysis Protocol allowed both students and mentors to contribute to the scientific process; and 3) the Feedback Carousel Activity engaged students and scientists alike in reviewing and refining poster presentations. This inclusive engagement in the social aspects of learning science can help students feel a sense of belonging and imagine their futures in the scientific community, key steps towards inclusion. The supportive system of structured feedback in these collaborative learning activities created a safe, inclusive space for secondary students to try on the role of microbiology expert, and for scientist volunteers to practice inclusive mentorship. Drawing from inclusive pedagogical tools in secondary education will help expand our capacity for inclusive science outreach and bring us closer to the goals of improving biology education and attracting future biologists at the university level.
The COVID-19 pandemic has required educators at all levels to pivot instruction online. In this article, we consider methods we adopted to engage novice science teachers in approximations of teaching, online. We describe the principles of our science teacher education program and provide a rationale for the core feature of our science teaching methods course: practice-based pedagogy. We then discuss adaptations we have made to engage novices in ambitious science teaching practices online, and the affordances and constraints the virtual context posed to these practices. We conclude with a discussion of considerations for online practice-based pedagogy.
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