10/3/22 Leveraging Science Curriculum to Engage Youth in the Exploration of Real-life Issues of Environmental Justice
I (Woody Moses) run a monthly online speakers series for the Northwest Aquatic and Marine Educators (NAME). Our next talk will be October 3 at 6:30 pm via Zoom. Dr. Mindy Chappell will speak about engaging youth in environmental justice. As Dr. Chappell puts it, ” This talk is meant to be an avenue of hope for educators who want to leverage their agency and curricular resources to teach science from a social justice or justice-centered science pedagogy.” While this presentation is focused on environmental science, the issues that Dr. Chappell covers will be relevant to instructors in all disciplines. If you are interested in joining us, please register at this link. Thanks!
In this talk, learn how I leveraged the chemistry curriculum in collaboration with the Youth Participatory Science Collective to study heavy-metal contamination as an issue of environmental justice. Acknowledging that environmental issues are context-based, the focus of this talk will rely on personal experiential reflection and non-prescriptive strategies to help teachers and students navigate some of the challenges they might encounter when exploring issues of environmental justice in science classrooms. This talk is meant to be an avenue of hope for educators who want to leverage their agency and curricular resources to teach science from a social justice or justice-centered science pedagogy (Morales-Doyle, 2017).
Bio:
Mindy Chappell is a native of East Saint Louis, Illinois who currently resides in Oregon where she serves as an Asst. Professor at Portland State University. She obtained her PhD in Science Education from the University of Illinois Chicago. She is a former Chicago Public Schools science teacher and an alumni Ella Baker Trainer with the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom Schools program. Mindy is committed to fostering curricular and pedagogical practices that support youth’s development as change agents who use the knowledge and skills acquired in their science classes to advocate for their community and transform their world. Her primary research explores the affordances of ethnodance, an arts-based embodied representation of one’s narrative, as a tool to study Black student’s science identity construction and authoring. She attributes her professional and personal accomplishments to having supportive, caring, and inspiring lanterns throughout her life.