Page 99 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

76 W.-M. Roth

Fig. 14 At the open-house event: A middle-school student explains the use of a colorimeter,
which is used to measure turbidity of water by comparing it to a sample of clean water, to local
resident very interested in the environment (© Roth 1998. With permission)

the water from the creek. (Covers sample) And then you scan the sample. And then
you see what the things floating in the water is.
Miles: Over-range, what does that mean?
Jamie: (Pushes a number of buttons)
Miles: Oh, it is when it is over the range, I see.
Jamie: First I have to do the standard again. (Does standard) Then I take the creek
water. (Enters bottle into instrument. Pushes buttons.)
Miles: Oh, I see. This is really neat.
This interaction did not lead to a contrast between an all-knowing adult (expert) and
a child; there was no belittling. Rather, the conversation involving Miles and Jamie
allowed the articulation of an honest request for understanding and an illustration
of the operation of the device. Scientific and technological literacy emerged from
the dialectic tension between a request for information and the production of an
answer in the form of a demonstration.
In summary, then, this (triple) teaching experiment that I conducted with my
graduate students showed that children participated in activities with similar moti-
vations as those of adults, and they participated in a variety of forms of conversa-
tions with adults other than the regular teachers. More so than most of their village
elders, they had felt spoken to their sense of ecojustice when they heard about the
dire straits of the local watershed; and more so than most of their village elders,
they felt the need to do something about the situation. The conversations they had
with individuals and collectives, therefore, broke the mold of normal modes of
schooling, opening up the possibility for lifelong participation in such an activity