HiSPARC provided the initial infrastructure for Dr. Nyawelo and his collaborators to imagine new research opportunities in K-12 science education. There are currently two projects funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) that deploy HiSPARC cosmic ray detectors with high school students and teachers in Utah: 1) The InSPIRE Program (Investigating the Development of STEM-Positive Identities of Refugee Teens in a Physics Out-of-School Time Experience); and 2) A Research Experiences for Teachers (RET).
InSPIRE
Investigating the Development of STEM-Positive Identities of Refugee
Teens in a Physics Out-of-School Time Experience
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Teens in a Physics Out-of-School Time Experience
Research Experiences for teachers (RET)
RET seeks to integrate high school education with
professional scientific research in experimental cosmic-ray physics
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professional scientific research in experimental cosmic-ray physics
Research Contributions
- Developed pedagogical tools for identifying diverse students’ funds of knowledge and welcoming aspects of students’ multifaceted identities into STEM learning spaces when the STEM topics themselves are more abstract (e.g., cosmic ray physics).
- Unpacking how refugee-background youth experience (or do not experience) identities as "refugees" and questioning how this term is applied to learners in K-12 settings.
- Identified the importance of play as a sign-post of relationship building and as a possible pillar of culturally sustaining science pedagogies among diverse groups of students.
- Unpacking and offering portraits of how instructors and mentors enact culturally sustaining learning environments that leave doors open for identity development through their uses of various discursive practices.
- Examples of different kinds of translingual practices and students’ commentary on their language practices within an ISL environment.
- Identifying design principles for enacting asset-based pedagogies for refugee-background youth in online learning through examining the emergence of thirdspace (during COVID-19 pandemic).
Access to Our Published Work and More!
Click here to learn about all our published papers and academic presentations, as well as those at various stages of the publication process.