Connecting children’s scientific funds of knowledge shared on social media to science concepts

Funds of Knowledge in STEM Education: A Scoping Review

“…Three studies discussed curriculum formats designed to elicit student funds of knowledge (Gonsalves, 2014;Mills et al, 2019;Tan et al, 2018), which provided students greater agency in defining their own projects and sharing from their personal lives. For example, Gonsalves (2014) involved girls in an after-school program filming a mini-documentary to explore the meaning of science, particularly everyday science.…”

“…The idea of cell phones as science was recurring in their documentary. Mills et al (2019) used a social-media platform called Science Everywhere in their after-school program curriculum, which allowed students to post about activities in their daily lives connected to science. Examples of student posts included making pizza, the construction of housing, and attendance at a professional soccer match.…”

“…While almost all studies mentioned curriculum development at some level, two studies shared significant details of the iterative nature involved with design-based research and curriculum design (Durá et al, 2015;Mills et al, 2019). Durá et al (2015) detailed two years of their food pedagogy curriculum, describing how the curriculum changed between and during the years based on their learnings.…”

“…Key adjustments included having a recurring topic for Year 2 (i.e., corn) and involving families before the unit began, as opposed to mid-way through. Mills et al (2019) found it was sometimes difficult for teachers to recognize the connections between science and funds of knowledge in students' postings on the Science Everywhere platform without additional context. The authors provide suggestions to improve platform use, such as the addition of features to automate scientific questions related to student posts with the goal of helping teachers connect student posts more readily to topics of science learning and inquiry.…”

Implementing localised curriculum drawing on a funds of knowledge perspective

“…While there has been a growing body of research studies (e.g., Dickie, 2011;Hogg, 2011;Si'ilata, Samu, & Siteine, 2018;Stahl, Scholes, McDonald, & Lunn, 2021) focused on diverse students' funds of knowledge, there have been limited studies which focus specifically on how families interact in ways related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) outside of school settings. Even less is known about everyday practices related to mathematics of families from non-dominant communities (Civil, 2016;Mills et al, 2019;Williams et al, 2020). International studies exploring funds of knowledge related to mathematics of non-dominant communities often involve interviews with parents to establish mathematics and literacy activities present in household routines (e.g., Takeuchi, 2018;Williams, et al, 2020).…”