Rooted in sociocultural learning theory and stemming from Luis Moll’s research, this study explores how educators can apply students’ out-of-school lives to secondary science content. This inquiry was conducted as a collaborative ethnographic study of a teacher and her class of students who “would not typically take chemistry in high school.” It focuses on how the teacher built a learning community that incorporated diverse students’ funds of knowledge. Rather than just getting her students to pass the class needed for college admission, this study shows how the teacher was able to move her students from the margins of science learning toward the epicenter of a science-understanding community.

JoAnn Crandall, Chair

Nancy Rankie Shelton, Co-Chair

Susan Blunck 

Jennifer Maher

Luis Moll

The public is welcome to observe.