Page 95 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

72 W.-M. Roth

Parents, activists, aboriginal elders, scientists, graduate students, and other com-
munity members were an integral part of the science units. They mediated, as
shown in the activity theory structure (Fig. 5), what, how, and who for the students
worked, researched, and learned. For example, every other week the classes spent
one entire afternoon (noon–2:30 pm) in and around the creek. Parents assisted both
in driving children to the different sites along the creek and participated in teaching
by asking productive questions, scaffolding, and supervising children. Thus, Mr.
Goulet, for example, was very eager to contribute to the teaching of students.
I therefore invited him every time we went outdoors; and during the 4-month
period, he only missed one outing. After I had told him that there was only one rule,
“No Answers! Only Questions!,” he always went off with a group of male students
(i.e., not including his daughter) and, through his questioning, allowed students to
learn a lot not only about biological phenomena and relations, but about physical
and chemical characteristics of soil, the creek, and the water (e.g., which objects
float in the creek).
Members from the environmental activist group also contributed giving presen-
tations, assisting in teaching kids how to use particular tools and how to do research
in the creek and how to analyze the data and organisms brought back to the class-
room. Students from classes that had already completed or were near completion of
their unit talked about their work in another class that was just beginning, and
assisted their peers during fieldwork and data analysis (Fig. 12).
This involvement of community members, therefore, integrated the children’s
activities with activities in the community in two ways – much in the way it had done

Fig. 12 The middle-school students conduct various kinds of research projects in and alongside
the creek. In the back (white shirt and shorts), a boy who has previously completed the unit assists
newcomers to field study (© Roth 1998. With permission)