Guest post by Alicia Santiago

When you think about diversity, how does it show itself? When you stand before your students, do the faces looking back at you look like your own? Most likely, your answer is “no.” Classrooms and afterschool programs are becoming more culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse, which is leading to both challenges and opportunities for educators.

Often students and educators do not have the same cultural, ethnic, or social background. Why does it matter, and how can you bridge this disconnect? The cultural divide between educators and students can seriously impede teaching and learning. Educators use their own cultural and experiential filters to communicate instructional messages to students; in many instances, those filters are incompatible with the students’ cultural filters. Have you considered how your culture influences your students?

Culture plays a huge role in education and in everything we do. Culture shapes our values, beliefs, social interactions, worldview, and what we consider important. It also influences how we see ourselves, how we see our students, how we relate to them, what we teach, and how we teach. It is important to recognize that culture is central to teaching and learning, as it plays a key role in communicating and receiving information, and is vital in sparking interest and effectively engaging students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

A way for educators to span the cultural divide between them and their students is to build bridges using culturally responsive practices and creating inclusive learning environments. Educators who approach science teaching and learning with a culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) are effective in bridging that cultural divide. Culturally responsive educators challenge the stereotypical deficit thinking of diverse students (e.g. “culturally deficient,” “at risk,” “low-performing”) by considering cultural differences as assets, valuing students’ strengths and skills and acknowledging each student’s potential.

So how do we engage diverse students in culturally responsive and appropriate ways? Cultural responsiveness is about developing genuine and trusting relationships with students and validating their strengths and interests. A first step to develop these relationships is getting to know your students as individuals and learning about their culture. Find out their interests and the way they operate at home and in their community. This also will help you better understand how to connect STEM to their lives and make learning experiences relevant for them.

To learn about students’ culture, we first must understand our own culture and how it affects the way we relate to students. Educators often believe that they can be neutral and objective, but their life experiences and cultures (e.g., values, assumptions, and beliefs) impact how they relate to students. Sometimes these assumptions and beliefs manifest as implicit biases, which could negatively affect students. We all have implicit biases: attitudes or stereotypes that influence our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious way. We need to examine our sociocultural identities and become aware of and challenge our unconscious biases to better understand ourselves and effectively communicate and work with students.

Another key aspect of CRP is creating an inviting, inclusive learning environment. In such an environment, students believe their contributions and perspectives are valued and respected. They feel that they belong. This positively impacts students’ interest and motivation in STEM.

The need to belong is a basic human need that influences our behavior and motivations. When students feel that they belong in the learning environment, they feel connected to and accepted by their peers and teachers. They feel validated in a way that is accepting and positive, which increases their engagement and motivation. In an inclusive learning environment, educators use teaching strategies that accommodate students’ needs in terms of learning styles, abilities, backgrounds, and experiences.

Analyzing the type of environment you created for your students is a great way to begin transitioning to an inclusive learning environment. For example, do your students feel empowered and capable of discussing concerns or challenges with you or their peers? How do your teaching practices foster a learning community in which each student is valued and considered? What strategies do you use to support diverse learners?

Culture is a key element of every learning environment. It shapes both the learning environment and the experience of each student. Cultural responsiveness is a powerful approach that allows educators to improve STEM engagement and equity. Whichever strategies you use to make the learning environment more inclusive, remember to remain sensitive to and flexible about the ways diverse students think, behave, and communicate. This will help create a supportive learning environment in which students are motivated to learn, and allows them to grow intellectually, socially, and emotionally.

Alicia Santiago, PhD, is a neurobiologist and a cultural and diversity consultant with more than 10 years of experience in informal science education. She collaborates with Twin Cities PBS to develop and implement innovative direct and mass media science and health education national-level programs for the Latinx community. She can be reached by e-mail at santiago554@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared in the March 2020 issue of NSTA Reports, the member newspaper of the National Science Teachers Association. Each month, NSTA members receive NSTA Reports, featuring news on science education, the association, and more. Not a member? Learn how NSTA can help you become the best science teacher you can be.

Are you a science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) teacher seeking a new way to interest students in these subjects? While model railroading is not a new hobby, STEAM teachers can accomplish learning goals while introducing it to a new generation of students.

“Over the last 25 years, model railroading has been going through a significant change from relatively simple analog electronics to more complex digital electronics,” says Greg Maas, a member of the Amherst Railway Society in Palmer, Massachusetts. “Now trains can run independently of [one another] because of the microprocessors installed in the locomotives. And those microprocessors have to be programmed and fine-tuned, which brings mathematics into the arena. Digital electronics has added the whole world of sound to model railroading. LED lighting has brought even more realism to the hobby. Wireless communications and internet technology have made it possible to run trains with a smartphone.”

Maas also points to “the shift to building model railroads in sections that conform to track and electrical specifications (modules). Then modules can be combined to form a working model railroad.” Model railroad modules, he contends, “are ideal for high schools and middle schools where space is limited. It is relatively easy to take modules apart and store them in limited space. Yet in building modules, students are learning and using all the model railroad skill sets.”

Many model railroaders believe “it is important to include the A (Arts) in STEM education. Scenery planning, design, and execution [are] an important part of model railroading that often takes a back seat to the technology. It shouldn’t,” Maas maintains.

Julia McMeans, director of education for the San Diego (California) Model Railroad Museum, has developed preK–8 STEAM programs for the museum. As a former elementary and middle school teacher and K–12 curriculum writer, McMeans notes that while model railroading is not part of content standards, it has “meaningful connections with content standards,” the Common Core and the Next Generation Science Standards. She says her programs “are designed to support and enrich and extend what teachers are doing in school,” providing “standards-aligned experiences for students” that many teachers can’t do because of a lack of time and resources.

In the Working With Scale program, for example, students in grades 6–8 build scale models “to address the math that rail modelers would use,” McMeans explains. Students measure their scale models “and use math to scale real-life objects up and down. For example, we scale the Statue of Liberty down to a factor of 1:15. They can see the real-world implications of how scale would be used,” she asserts.

Students in grades 3–8 in The Able Arch and the Trusty Truss program learn about the physical science and history of arch and truss bridges and what makes arches and triangles so strong, “why those shapes are attractive to civil engineers,” McMeans relates. K–2 students in Communities Then and Now: Making a 3-D Model explore model train layouts of the past and present to learn about science topics like friction, the shape and stability of structures, and properties of matter, along with social studies and history. “They build an actual 3-D model of their community,” she notes.

The museum has free resources at http://bit.ly/2HkNtmM that teachers can use in conjunction with a museum visit or as a supplement in their classrooms.

More Curriculum Connections

Stacey Walthers Naffah, president of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, model railroad supply company Walthers, suggests other STEAM topics students can learn through model railroading. “Electrical currents make trains move, something that kids can actually see. Speed can regulate movement in a miniature world just as it can in the real world,” and students can control it “through a digital controller…People can run their railroad like a real one. Wiring a layout for operations helps to create a truly great model railroad.”

Model railroading teaches students about how things work, such as gears in a locomotive or steam engines versus diesel engines. “Students can see things in miniature and take things apart to see how they work,” says Walthers Naffah.

To make a scene look realistic, knowledge of depth of field is required. “It gives the illusion you can see far off in the distance because you don’t have unlimited space [in a train layout],” Walthers Naffah relates.

Students also learn about city planning. “Discovery World [Science and Technology Center in Milwaukee] developed a curriculum for a summer camp called Design Your City…In one week, kids designed and created a small city,” as model railroaders do for their layouts, Walthers Naffah reports. Creating scenery brings in art, “which is a very valuable skill,” she asserts, and the teamwork and collaboration the children experienced while working on the city helped develop those soft skills.

In addition, students learn about “the economics of our country and how railroads are a part of it, moving people across the country and moving food and other goods. There’s a lot to learn about how things are moved around, and the importance of railroads in connecting our country,” Walthers Naffah contends.

She suggests teachers visit the World’s Greatest Hobby website, which features free resources on model train basics.

Blaine Holbrook, treasurer of the Salt Lake City Northern Utah Division and Rocky Mountain Region Director of the National Model Railroad Association, runs the Pizza Box Model Railroad Group for children and their families. “We give kids extruded foam and a track, and they can use their imagination and build” a train layout with scenery, he explains. “It’s a wonderful family activity.”

One STEM-related thing children learn is “we had to start cooperating with nature. You don’t put tunnels on steep inclines due to erosion, [for example]…Conservation, where to plant trees, how mountains are formed can all be incorporated into the build,” he contends.

“How much track do you need? [That brings in] math, circumference,” Holbrook notes. The extruded foam that children work with “lasts a long time and can be reused and recycled easily,” which offers a lesson on the environment.

At group events or during Holbrook’s school visits, children can learn skills like 3-D printing, airbrush painting, design, and planning. Creating scenery allows children to learn about shapes, carving and soldering (with adult supervision), and painting, among other skills. “Building is how students get creative and think,” Holbrook maintains.

This article originally appeared in the March 2020 issue of NSTA Reports, the member newspaper of the National Science Teachers Association. Each month, NSTA members receive NSTA Reports, featuring news on science education, the association, and more. Not a member? Learn how NSTA can help you become the best science teacher you can be.