No abstract

The issue of girls' lack of connection to science has received much attention. Situated approaches such as research apprenticeships offer the chance to engage learners fully in science communities of practice and thus connect girls to science. However, such programs are often designed with lab settings, rather than field settings, in mind. This paper investigates a research apprenticeship program (Girls on Ice) that immerses girls in field science. In particular, the program makes explicit tacit elements needed for success in field science, such as a sense of adventure and physical and mental toughness. Using a qualitative approach, we explored how and in what ways girls connected to a field science community of practice. Emergent themes from the analysis illustrate that girls learned both explicit and tacit practices and ways of being that are associated with being a field scientist, such as teamoriented leadership and physical and mental perseverance. The results suggest that providing girls exposure to and practice with the tacit skills needed in science might constitute a new way to increase its perceived relevance and to counter gendered expectations of women in science.

Situated learning experiences such as research apprenticeships can help connect girls to the sciences, ultimately helping to achieve gender equity in the science workforce. The material resources available in research apprenticeships-such as research equipment, field gear, etc.-may be particularly consequential for building identification with science, as they are abundant and frequently hold disciplinary authenticity. However, most sociocultural studies of research apprenticeships have focused on cognitive-ideational or social aspects rather than on the material aspects of the learning setting. This paper investigates the association between different types of science-related material resources in the context of a geoscience and biology-focused research apprenticeship program for girls. The study employed a qualitative approach, drawing on theoretical constructs of communities of practice, identity resources, and identity work to inform program design and analysis. Our findings highlight specific ways that instruments, specialized clothing, specimens, artifacts, and physical settings of science intersect with science-related affect, science learning, and a sense of "feeling like a scientist." The results imply that practitioners both in and out of the classroom should privilege agentic use of tools when working with all learners, but especially girls. Further, the types of material resources selected in learning settings are critically important, as different types of material resources afford different types of identity work. In particular, using materials that hold disciplinary authenticity, when coupled with learning about how scientists use those same instruments, helps girls "feel like scientists," an important part of becoming a science apprentice.

The research apprenticeship is a situated form of learning that can be effective in connecting learners to science. It is commonly assumed that this pathway is characterised by power transitions from those positioned as experts to those positioned as novices, yet power and positionality during a research apprenticeship have rarely been explicitly investigated. Using a qualitative approach, we explored this area in the context of a summer research apprenticeship for girls, involving primarily female scientist mentors. We found that scientist mentors positioned, and were positioned by, learners in three different ways, and that these positionalities were associated with different kinds of identity work among learners. Given stereotypical societal views of science that can be at odds with gendered identities, these patterns may be particularly consequential for girls. We discuss implications for teacher professional development, as well as future research directions.

The nature of the learning that occurs with real versus replicated objects and environments is an important topic for museums and science centers. Our comparative, exploratory study addressed this area through an investigation of family visits to two different settings: an operating permafrost research tunnel, and a replica of this permafrost tunnel at a science center. We conducted and analyzed family interviews, grounding our work in the Contextual Model of Learning and ideas about sensory components of learning. We found significant differences between the real and replicated environments in terms of what families discussed during interviews. Specifically, the proportion of perceptual (descriptions of features or sensory-based perceptions) talk at the real tunnel was higher than that at the replica tunnel, while the proportion of conceptual talk was higher at the replica tunnel as compared to the real tunnel. The nature of the conceptual talk was similar at the two sites, and often relied on objects as 'nodes' of learning. Our findings suggest that visitors were sensorially engaged to a higher degree in the real, versus the replicated, setting. Given these findings, exhibition designers should think carefully about the goals of specific exhibit elements and privilege real objects and immersive experiences accordingly.