Join Raks Derival and Dr. Rasheda Likely in their presentation, “Empowering Youth through Culturally Sustaining Science Curriculum.”

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In this presentation, you will hear from two scientist-educator-researchers, both women of color, who investigate the development and implementation of a culturally sustaining science curriculum. High school students participated in an independent project focused on chemistry and social justice.

These activities were aligned with the culturally sustaining framework in the following five ways: content centered in the Next Generation Science Standards 3D framework, centering and following students’ interests, challenging the status quo by focusing on students as experts, sustaining student agency through artifacts and products that students chose and iteratively developed, and multi-modal assessments. Through their project, the students led the entire research process including engaging in several science and engineering practices such as: asking guiding questions, planning and carrying out investigation, collaborating with an expert, analysis of data, and communicating findings.

This project both empowers students to take risks and serves as an example for other educators who are interested in culturally sustaining praxis. Outcomes of culturally sustaining curricula vary widely since students and their interests in the content is the central focus of this framing. Although the ambiguity of implementing such a curriculum that follows students’ interests can be daunting, we firmly believe “You cannot predict the magic”.