JEDI-ing Your Science Classroom
By CASE DEI Committee members Tara Sikorski, Bree Barnett Dreyfuss, Nishat Alikhan, & Nicole Bylsma
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
…there came a time of change, when the CASE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee united in a mission to ensure each and every student thrives within a Science classroom.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t that long ago or in a distant galaxy, but some days it certainly feels like it. Since the CASE DEI committee’s formation in 2021, our committee has held many discussions as to what success in science might look, sound, and feel like for students who traditionally have not experienced that in their educational experience and how to make that success a reality for each and every student. We shared some of those insights and ideas with the broader CASE community through our sessions titled JEDI-ing your Science Labs and Return of the Science JEDI at the 2023 and 2024 California Science Education Conferences respectively.
The JEDI way calls us to seek out moments where we can embed Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion into our daily practices within our Science educator contexts in order to create engaging learning environments that are student-centered and foster a sense of belonging in Science. Drawing inspiration from the Social Justice standards created by Learning for Justice and the STEP UP program’s Everyday Actions Guide , the DEI committee facilitated a learning experience that supported educators to feel the force of a JEDI’ed learning experience and identify the various strategies embedded within. Knowing that not everyone was able to attend, we wanted to share that learning with the broader CASE community.
The JEDI way
Whether you’re an educational JEDI padawan, knight, or master, let’s take a moment to explore each letter of the acronym individually. We’ll explore its meaning within our context of science education and provide strategies that will help you incorporate the JEDI way into what you are already doing within your learning environment.
Justice - fairness in the way people are treated and the opportunities they have
Many tweens and teens have an acute sense of fairness and will be quick to call out “That’s not fair!” when they feel like they aren’t being provided the same opportunities as others. We can tap into this developing sense of justice by pivoting our lessons and/or phenomena to be centered in issues of social, environmental, or distributive justice. For example, we launched our most recent JEDI experience focusing on MS-ESS3-3 & MS-ESS3-4 by having folks look at different maps of the Sacramento area that showed risk of flooding with overlays of income, rental prices, and race and identify their noticings and wonderings. This initial investigation surfaced that many areas with increased poverty had increased risks of flooding and we also noticed that there were some areas that were predominantly white and wealthy that also had increased risks of flooding. Some of our wonderings included “What is the history of the different areas?”, “What types of soils are in each area and how does that affect flooding?”, “How much infrastructure is available in the different communities along the river?”, and “Do folks know that they are renting or buying into flood prone areas?”. These maps not only generated a wide variety of questions to drive the rest of the learning sequence and they also created a deeper why behind the learning centered in the social, environmental, and distributive justice issue of flooding in the Sacramento area.
We can also tap into aspects of justice by embedding opportunities for students to reflect on who has access to what materials or the production of those materials. This could be in the content of different groups having access to different materials during an investigation or engineering design challenge; availability of and access to resources across your school site or district; or even a broader context of different communities or nations. In our 2023 JEDI-ing your Science Labs workshop, participants were asked to compare photographs from the day of and a few days after major earthquakes of the same magnitude. Participants noticed that rebuilding had begun in one community, while in another rescue missions were still underway. Asking students “What will the community look like after” a natural disaster has a very different answer when they consider access to resources, existing infrastructure, global allies, etc. Or we can facilitate a student discussion of how and why different people might use the same materials and get different results during an investigation or design challenge. Asking students about the construction of buildings and public roadways where they live compared to other places they have visited makes for a richer discussion in which students are critically thinking about science in the context of their world. We know that we live in a world that is not fair or just, and we can support students in naming situations of injustice so that one day we might dismantle and rebuild to a more just and equitable society.
Equity - every person has the resources to succeed and no one has an unfair advantage
Students will come with a variety of previous experiences when they enter your science classroom. Part of our job as science educators is to determine and build on these previous experiences to increase their science knowledge in the time we teach them. But what do you do when there is a vast difference between what the students know at the start of the year? You can still level the playing field by creating new common experiences for students in your classroom, regardless of what they have done before. Hands-on activities don’t have to be elaborate lab set-ups and can help students develop common language around the phenomenon they are experiencing. As much as possible, letting individual or small groups of students touch, hold, and look at the phenomenon up close will ensure that all students can call back to those experiences as they learn more.
In our conference session, participants formed into groups of three and saw group roles including a Facilitator/Reader/Monitor, a Reporter/Recorder and a Materials Manager/Builder. By offering roles that can work with each person’s strengths, the group can focus on their collaboration. Each person becomes responsible for their share in the cooperative task, each person being an integral part of their success. With the groups in place, they were able to select from a series of four investigation tasks that allowed for multiple entry points. Some tasks were computer based while others allowed for teams to design and conduct their own investigations for a specific purpose. Rather than giving each group an allocation of materials, there were a wide variety of materials available for groups to choose from and some suggestions on the task cards for those groups that needed a starting point. The result was that each group created a unique investigation that helped to deepen their understanding of how runoff might lead to flooding. By creating open-ended tasks that have clear success criteria, students can develop agency and autonomy in their authentic investigations and it allows us to scaffold towards multiple visions of success.
In the week after the California Science Education Conference, physics teacher Bree Barnett Dreyfuss applied the idea of equitable access to change a traditional lab format. To investigate which factors affect the magnitude of the force of friction, usually her students complete a long tab to test each aspect one at a time. “Having just come back from the CASE conference the day before, I didn’t want to revert to old habits. Instead I put out the same materials I always use, but asked the students to determine what they wanted to test. I pointed out a few things for them to notice like the fact that the brick had three different surface areas depending on which side they used. The students were highly engaged, fully invested since they got to choose what they wanted to investigate. They changed their minds, revised their methods, split up the workload, and worked together to test something that they were interested in.” Many students still ended up testing the “traditional” things like changing the surface underneath the brick, seeing if more bricks took more force, etc. After the lab was complete, each group took turns sharing what they studied and what results were so that each student could hear about the results of more than one investigation. This small shift not only allowed for student agency and choice, and it also created additional opportunities to recognize and celebrate individual student’s contributions to whole class discovery and learning.
Diversity - the wide variety of humans and their identities in the world
Consider the fact that when we show up in front of our students each day, or any space for that matter, each person in that space has had their own unique journey to that shared moment in time. We each bring our own multifaceted identity with a wide range of experience to each interaction we have. It’s pretty mind blowing when you stop and think about it. Diversity is a simple term that attempts to capture this wide variety of human identities and the impact that it has on how we view and experience the world around us.
We saw diversity in action during the JEDI session with the wide variety of participants’ background knowledge and experience regarding natural and human influenced flooding as well as the history of the Sacramento area that surfaced during the initial noticing and wondering discussion. By strategically embedding opportunities to share prior knowledge and experience, we were able to highlight that people have different lived experiences. Our discussion was better than it would have been without these contributions. As one participant shared during the learning sequence debrief “our lived experience brings value” to the learning and highlighting the diversity of experiences increases our “disposition to think about people.” There were things about the local area we could not have learned from the maps, but learned from speaking to local educators.
Just as our discussions are improved by giving space for all to share, we can uplift diversity of the scientific community by spotlighting scientists from a wide variety of identities and sharing their unique path to doing science. Many practicing scientists took non-traditional paths, sharing these personal stories opens up a world of possibilities to your students.
We can also embed opportunities for students to consider how different groups of people might experience the same phenomenon differently. For example, a 6.5 magnitude earthquake is going to be a different experience if you are in California vs. Philippines vs. Afghanistan. The same facts about scientific discoveries and accomplishments look different from the points of view of those involved. Each forgotten scientist and their contribution that are “rediscovered” expands the universe of science our students can draw inspiration from.
Inclusion - a sense of belonging
Inclusion is the practice or policy of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded. In the science classroom, a student’s authenticity should be expressed in a variety of methods. To help students feel included in the science classroom, the teacher is the best and fastest way to let students know they belong. The teacher can strive to create a safe space. In this space, discussion and building rapport helps the student feel included. The greatest success at making your students feel included is to get to know things about them rather than just academically. Even short conversations during transitions of activity can be enough to show your students that you care about them as unique individuals. Learning what you can of their personal history makes you better equipped to help them strengthen their scientist identity.
Relating the science content to your students’ lives, like whether their neighborhood is in a floodplain or what infrastructure is in their community to help people after a natural disaster, makes the abstract science content concrete. We want students to be not only well versed in scientific facts and theories but to have the skills to apply scientific thinking and problem solving to their lives, for the long term. Making science a part of their everyday life makes it something they do and not just try to learn. As Yoda says, “Do or do not, there is no try.”
You’re our only hope.
The journey toward justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in science education is far from complete—but it is one worthy of embarking upon. The JEDI way calls each of us to reflect on our practices, challenge inequities, and create spaces where every student feels seen, valued, and empowered to succeed. The CASE DEI committee has created a single point rubric to support you in this journey whether you’re just beginning this work or already weaving these principles into your teaching. Remember that every action, no matter how small, contributes to a larger movement. Together, we can transform science classrooms into environments that spark curiosity, foster belonging, and inspire all students to see themselves as scientists. What will your next step in this journey be?