Board 219: Asset-Based Practices in a Steam Middle School: Lessons Learned from Teachers' Perspectives

Abstract

This NSF-funded study sought to explore the ways in which middle school teachers developed an understanding and appreciation for funds of knowledge. The study provided teachers with opportunities to collaborate with a group of researchers with expertise in bilingual education, engineering education and learning sciences to create activities that integrated a funds of knowledge approach to their teaching. That is, the teachers explored the ways in which funds of knowledge could be used not only as a theoretical framework but also as a way to facilitate conversations in the classroom where students' ways of being, knowing and doing could be acknowledged and valued. Another aspect of this approach was to think about how funds of knowledge could be used as a tool to mediate access to science and engineering content. To counter the idea that language and STEM content are mutually exclusive, we also sought to challenge deficit models in STEM by co-constructing learning experiences with teachers and acknowledging the wealth of knowledge that Latino/a/x students possess. In this paper, we focus on the lessons learned from this project as the middle school teachers considered aspects of funds of knowledge and STEAM to develop and implement an engineering-related activity in their classes.