Creating relevant science through urban planning and gardening

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe a community‐based science project that was coproduced with urban teenagers and to elaborate on my understanding of what it means to create a practicing culture of science learning. This understanding will be positioned in relation to various educationally relevant discourses and research on urban science education, concluding with an exploration of these questions: In what ways did an urban planning and community gardening project help to create a learning environment in which science was relevant? To whom was science relevant and toward what ends? It is argued that in a practicing culture of science learning, science was relevant because (a) it was created from participants' concerns, interests, and experiences inside and outside science, (b) it was an ongoing process of researching and then enacting ideas, and (c) it was situated within the broader community. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 860–877, 2001

Using students' lived experiences in an urban science classroom: An elementary school teacher's thinking

“…In this regard, McCarty et al (1991) and Michaels's (1981) studies have suggested that students who develop a meaningful context for absorbing new information based on their personal experiences also improve their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. According to Fusco (2001), students in urban schools learn science best by understanding their own experiences and integrating science into the larger community. Fusco also argued that urban students' interest in learning science has to come from their own "concerns, interests, and experiences" (p. 871).…”

“…Studies in urban education have also shown that cultural diversity, learning diversity, and curriculum influence classroom-learning outcomes (Barton, 1998a(Barton, , 1998bDelpit, 1995;Fusco, 2001;Hillocks, 1998;Landson-Billings, 1995). Teachers have to create a classroom environment that allows students to participate in a diverse setting while allowing teachers to incorporate students' lived experiences as a part of science learning (Atwater, 1996;Kahle et al, 2000;Oakes, 1990;Oakes, Gamaron, & Page, 1992).…”

“…Many students in urban schools question science learning because the science has little to do with their personal lives (Fusco, 2001). Research shows that these urban students have to see some kind of connection between their science learning and lived experiences, and teachers have to create an environment in the classroom where such connections can be made.…”

Education and Resilience: Social and Situated Learning among University and Secondary Students

“…Youth in such programs start out as peripheral or novice participants, and through first observing and then working alongside the more experienced adults, eventually become full participants in the community of practice (Rogoff et al 2003). Other authors, including Fusco (2001), Roth (2002), Roth and Lee (2004), Barab and Roth (2006), and Boyer and Roth (2006), have described education programs from a situated learning perspective, citing examples of youth engagement in civic ecology practices such as community gardening, harvesting seaweed, and habitat restoration.…”

Learning and teaching as emergent features of informal settings: An ethnographic study in an environmental action group

“…While there are some who study other informal settings such as social and environmental action (Foley, 1999;, youth urban planning and gardening (Fusco, 2001), and students collecting data for local community groups (Helms, 1998), such learning settings remain largely understudied in the context of science education. Most science learning settings that are studied are mandated to present or teach scientific knowledge; few look at how science is actually practiced-as in the case of eelgrass mapping-as part of a collective conservation effort.…”