Peter Rillero

This study examines a seven-week informal familycentric rocketry pilot program designed for Latina girls in grades 5 and 6 and their parents. Grounded in Community Cultural Wealth and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, the program integrated Family Problem-Based Learning to position families as co-educators in science learning. Through activities such as designing NASA-style mission patches, constructing egg-drop devices, and launching rockets, the program sought to center family knowledge, bilingual practices, and cultural values within physical science experiences. Data reported here were collected through mid- and post-program surveys with both parents and daughters. Responses indicate strong engagement from families, with parents reporting increased high confidence in supporting their daughters’ science learning and daughters expressing enjoyment and strong interest in science learning. Both groups valued the use of English and Spanish and the program’s emphasis on collaborative, family-centered participation. Responses highlight the potential of culturally sustaining, familycentric approaches to address the underrepresentation of Latina women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) by fostering a sense of belonging. This study contributes to informal science education by demonstrating how families can be centered in a program focused on physical science. School-based outreach of this kind may also strengthen families and parent–child relationships.

This research study was conducted to pilot an out-of-school family science program for fifth- and sixth-grade Latina girls and their parents. Program goals included encouraging parents in supporting their Latina daughters in science, increasing the girls’ interest in science and increasing the families’ participation in science experiences together. The 41 families participated in a 7-week Saturday program on either rocketry or gardening. Each week, the parent–daughter dyads engaged in hands-on Family Problem-Based Learning activities together and then the parents and daughters met separately in Conversation Groups. To measure the impact of the program, surveys were administered to the parents and daughters separately at four points: pre-, mid-, post- and delayed-post (three months after the program). Parents reported increases over time for several aspects of their support for their daughters in science and also increases in frequency of science experiences with their daughters. The daughters reported increases over time in their science identity and their discussions with their parents about jobs in science. In addition, the examination of video-recordings of a subset of the parent–daughter interactions during the activities revealed that parental and daughter behaviors evolved over the course of the program. Implications for engaging parents in science education are discussed.

This study examines the impact of a culturally responsive, garden-based STEM program designed for Latina girls (grades 5–6) and their parents. The “Our Plot of Sunshine” project integrates Family Project-Based Learning with garden education to create meaningful STEM engagement opportunities. Drawing on the science capital, science identity, and community cultural wealth frameworks, the program leverages families’ cultural and linguistic resources while developing science knowledge and identity. Nineteen families from low socioeconomic schools participated in three pilot implementations across two Western U.S. cities. Using a mixed-methods approach with repeated measures over 19 weeks, the study tracked changes in participants’ science identity, interest, and career aspirations. Results showed significant increases in science identity and career aspirations, with effects maintained at three-month follow-up. While interest/enjoyment showed positive trends, changes were not statistically significant. Parent ratings of program elements were consistently higher than daughter ratings, though both groups reported strong engagement. The successful integration of bilingual instruction emerged as a particularly valued program component. These findings suggest that family-centered, culturally responsive garden education can effectively support Latina girls’ STEM identity development and future orientation, while highlighting the potential of leveraging family and cultural resources in STEM education.

This paper presents the implementation of a professional development program that aims at enhancing instructional practices to foster student-centered teaching approaches among engineering faculty at two universities in Pakistan. The program was guided by the theoretical perspective of enactivism and involved an initial three-day workshop, online modules, and reflective implementation assignments. The paper provides a detailed account of the program’s framework, design, and evaluation. The research questions addressed are: What are the perceptions of faculty members regarding (a) the benefits of the program topics and (b) changes in their actions as a result of the program? Likert-item survey instruments with retrospective items were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired t-tests. As the program moved from being required to voluntary, participation was declined. Faculty who participated in this engineering pedagogy project reported positive attitudes and significant growth in utilizing student-centered strategies. The three-day workshop was perceived as the most beneficial of the components. The module was perceived to be of the highest benefit when focused on writing effective questions for high-level thinking. All the pre-to-post retrospective items showed statistically significant increases, with the two largest being the use of student response systems (SRS) and the focus on big ideas in teaching. The combined approaches show promise for faculty who persist in long-term professional development projects, catalyzing changes in perceived value and the implementation of active learning techniques.

Problem-based learning via virtual exchange affords opportunities for students to learn biology while developing abilities to learn about and work with diverse others. We describe an activity using these methods, with goals for students to develop useful cell structure analogies, analyze how analogies are not perfect representations of target concepts, practice working with diverse others, deepen cell structure knowledge, and learn about people from another culture. We explain the framework for the activity and share student evaluation data. The activity had U.S. and Egyptian high school girls compare their Phoenix and Cairo homes, create an imagined combined home, construct an analogy for how cell structures and organelles are like parts of this home, and then analyze their analogy to see where it breaks down. The activity does not require special materials, only internet access through a computer or mobile phone and access to Google Docs. Students used critical and creative thinking, first to construct their analogies and then to analyze those analogies. Evaluation data suggest that students learned from the activity, enjoyed it, and appreciated the opportunity to work with someone from a different culture.

Palestine has great potential for solar energy use because of its status as an occupied territory with accompanying energy challenges and the area’s ample amounts of sunshine. Solar energy education and the incorporation of active-learning methods can promote learning about key scientific concepts, environmental benefits, and uses of solar energy, while developing problem-solving and inquiry abilities. A grades six to nine curriculum on solar energy for Palestinian schools is described, which uses structured inquiry, problem-based learning, and multimedia animated videos. The format for the activities is exploration occurs first followed by concept formation using the videos and discussions. A three-day teacher workshop led participants through the experiences. A subsequent implementation in schools was observed. Participants had overall positive attitudes toward the curriculum, the active-student learning methods, their abilities to implement, and the positive effects the program would have on student learning.

This column describes creating a classroom culture for engineering. A problem-based enhanced language learning experience is discussed.

Teachers’ problem-based learning knowledge, abilities, and attitudes are important factors in successful K–12 PBL implementations. This article describes the development and use of a free, online module entitled Design a Problem-Based Learning Experience. The module production, aligned with theories of andragogy, was a partnership between the recipients of a grant using PBL to enhance English language learner education and the Sanford Inspire Program. A multistage evaluation design was used in the iterative process of module creation. Starting with an initial white paper, the module’s conceptualization, development, pilot testing, and refinement are described, along with the current use statistics. The URL for the new, easier to access location for the module is provided, along with suggestions for its use in teacher education.

In Problem-Based Learning (PBL), a problem is posed before students have learned how to solve it. Language and PBL pair well for effective learning environments. Informed by language-based theories of learning and strategically adding methods for working with English Language Learners (ELLs), we developed an approach called Problem-Based Enhanced-Language Learning. In this article, we provide the background for the approach and explain the specifics of implementing Bears in a Boat, which we have used in many contexts including a second-grade urban classroom and a third-grade US-Mexico border classroom with significant numbers of ELLs. The science content learner outcomes are that students will be able to: (a) describe what it means to sink and float and (b) explain that the more weight you add to a boat, the deeper it will float.