1. Authors Angela Calabrese Barton, PhD; Ann E. Rivet, PhD Meghan Groome, Edna Tan, Doctoral candidates Department of Mathematics, Science, and Technology Teachers College Columbia University Box 210, 412B Main Hall 525 W. 120th St. NY, NY 10027 NSF# 0429109 Urban Girls’ Science Practices Objectives  To document, describe and analyze high-poverty urban girls’ science practices in both form and function in the context of two specific middle school content areas  To document and describe those reform-based pedagogical strategies enacted by teachers that help girls to successfully leverage their science practices in their efforts to engage meaningfully in science Research Activities & Methodological approaches Year 1 - Identify girls’ science practices in the classroom and how they leverage them in support of learning Methods: Year 2 - Identify reform based pedagogical strategies (based on the same curricular units as Year 1) used by teachers that facilitate and/or constrain girls’ efforts to leverage science practices Methods: Year 3 - To design experiments to test pedagogical strategies that facilitate girls’ efforts to leverage science practices Methods: Broad scale survey -162 girls and boys from 3 schools to determine baseline attitudes & beliefs - survey on 2 stories (empty lot, plants types) Ethnographic case study - 12 girls in 2 classrooms to document and to describe girls’ practices -2 curriculum units of investigation Farm to Store How my friends make me sick - Participant observation (2 days per week) - Interviews (2 per case study girl) - Think Aloud (one per case study girl) Open and closed coding from two perspectives Axial and selective coding within and across perspectives Event Guided Event Maps Shifts in episodes Chains of activities Analysis of selected events Identity Structure meaning making Purpose/function Case Guided Portraiture Family background School experiences Social relationships Authority/ participation Meaning making (skills, content, habits of mind, culture) Linking portraits with events Analytical approaches Ethnographic case study (2 to 4 teachers in 4 classrooms with approximately 120 students) -Elaborating and refining the form and function of girls’ science practices formulated from the case studies during year 1 -Clarifying and adjusting our conjectures regarding those pedagogical strategies used by teachers that facilitate or constrain girls’ attempts to leverage those practices in support of their learning -Participant observations of teachers’ practices around these conjectures in a variety of classroom settings Design Experiments Phase 1 Test out our conjectures regarding those pedagogical strategies which support girls’ learning through design experiments where teachers systematically incorporate pedagogical strategies that promote girls’ science practices Documentation -how teachers make use of these strategies to help students leverage their science practices in the pursuit of learning - what impact this has on actual engagement in science by girls. Design Experiments Phase 2 -Expand range of pedagogical strategies -Expand to multiple teachers -Test and refine initial conjectures -Test links between context, curriculum, and content Cross Method Analysis -Combination and analysis of data to consider how pedagogical strategies facilitate girls’ practices that lead to a meaningful engagement in science Context The contextal elements of high poverty and urban are vital, in understanding the school science experiences of our research population. Our research population, of urban girls in high poverty schools, are traditionally underrepresented in the sciences and have recieved less representation in the primary science education research. Our research focuses on three partnership school in the South Bronx and Harlem areas of New York City and represent a range of sizes and school focus, inclusive of both small and large urban middle schools. All three share a committment to equity, the adoptation of reform-based, NSF funded ( communicable diseases) and NIH funded (farm to store) curricular units, and a majority enrollment of African American and Hispanic Students. Two of the schools have a free lunch program catering to more than 90% of the student population while the other has a similar progam serving more than 75% of students. Conceptual Framework Students draw upon a diversity of resources to learn science, many of which are viewed as traditional science practices. Science practices are the means by which one engages in science and the reasons and motivations for doing so. Science practices, which can be understood at both a macro and micro analytic level, are deeply grounded in the context of students’ ‘figured worlds’. We have begun to operationalize these practices through three constucts (1) resources, (2) strategies, and (3) spaces while attempting to understand the relation of the constructs to authority and identity in the process of meaningful science learning. Abstract In this research project, we seek to investigate the science practices in which high poverty urban middle-school girls engage in their science classrooms, to understand how these practices are supported by reform-based pedagogical strategies, and to explore the relationship between girls’ science practices and science learning. In our second and third years we plan to disseminate our finding to align teacher practices with effective student practices that we have identified. Urban girls participating in the class room Urban girls engaging in group work in the classroom Figured world(s) (Spaces)  Small group  whole class  outside of class Understanding/Meaning making (strategies?) Identity (resources?) Dissemination of Findings Our dissemination plan is focused on providing theoretical and practical insights to research, policy, curriculum development and practice communities. Year 2-begin to present our findings (or findings in progress) at three international research meetings:NARST, AERA, ICLS - publish findings in both research (JRST,WMSE) journals & practitioner journals (Science Scope) Year 3-present findings in workshop format for NSTA Others-keep electronic archive of digital examples of girls’ science practices for sharing with other researchers - incorporate findings into key science education courses at TC for both pre & in-service teachers