Bring Mars Data Into Hawaii's Classrooms: An Exercise in Cultural Adaptation, Inclusivity and Partnership

Details Bring Mars Data Into Hawaii's Classrooms: An Exercise in Cultural Adaptation, Inclusivity and Partnership Bring Mars Data Into Hawaii's Classrooms: An Exercise in Cultural Adaptation, Inclusivity and Partnership

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmed43b0933b&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #ED43B-0933

Computer Science

Performance

0805 Elementary And Secondary Education, 0820 Curriculum And Laboratory Design, 0855 Diversity, 6225 Mars

Scientific paper

Through a NASA Education and Public Outreach grant linked to a Mars Fundamental Research Program proposal, we are developing standards-based, hands-on 5-12th grade Mars science curricula that are culturally relevant to Hawaii. Our approach is both to develop new curricula based on authentic Mars data as well as to tailor existing curricula to make the content and teaching methodologies culturally relevant. Although we believe our curricula will benefit all of Hawaii`s students, we are specifically targeting Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPI), who have among the poorest educational performance when compared to other ethnic and racial groups in Hawaii. One of our curriculum projects is an eight-lesson unit entitled Life in Hawaii, Life on Mars, currently being developed in partnership with 5th and 6th grade teachers at Laie and Makaha Elementary Schools in rural O`ahu. Both schools have high NHPI enrollment, so establishing cultural relevance during the introductory sessions is a high priority. We plan on beginning the unit with Life in Hawaii, an examination of what people and plants need to live, followed by Hawaiians as Space Explorers, which draws parallels with Polynesian voyaging tradition. The next four sessions, in which students analyze Mars data and conduct laboratory experiments, are aimed at determining how people could survive on Mars. Topics include: Is There Water on Mars?, Building biospheres (double-session), and Choosing a Biosphere Location on Mars. The final two sessions involve student-scientist interaction. In Meet the Mars Scientists, scientists give feedback as students share their biospheres and ideas of where to put them. In the final lesson, You can be a research scientist!, students help scientists with their research by taking simple planimetric measurements of volcanic features on Mars. Our ultimate goal is to interest all (but particularly NHPI) students in a science career. We believe the successful features of this program include: a customer-driven approach, culturally relevant materials and teaching methodologies, and close interaction among students, teachers and scientists.

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