Scientific modeling can help students use multiple languages to learn STEM
In short: Researchers observing a sixth-grade STEM classroom during a nine-week ecology unit found that scientific modeling can serve as a platform for translanguaging. By using modeling as a way to make meaning, students in an English-dominant classroom were able to use their diverse linguistic resources to engage with science content.
The study examined how modeling and language practices can function as parallel ways of making meaning in science class. The findings suggest that inviting translanguaging alongside scientific modeling helped students engage more fully with ecology content and have their linguistic resources recognized as legitimate tools for scientific thinking.
Because the research followed a single English-dominant classroom over nine weeks, it cannot show whether the approach would work the same way in other schools or with other teachers, but it points to a concrete way to combine language and science learning.
Why it matters: Inviting students to use all their languages during science modeling may help them engage more deeply with STEM content.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Research: Pierson et al. (2021). Scientific modeling and translanguaging: A multilingual and multimodal approach to support science learning and engagement. Science Education.
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