Demographics
My school is a high-poverty (100% qualify for free and reduced-price meals at school) neighborhood (non-application) high school in Washington, DC. The student body is predominantly black (62%) and Hispanic/Latino (36%). There is a significant international presence at the school. Several west and east African countries including Cameroon and Ethiopia are represented and many of the Hispanic/Latino students emigrated from Mexico and Central America. The school is in the midst of implementing an International Academy (starting with the lower grades), so the newcomer population is set to increase in the years to come. 30 percent of the student population are classified as English Language Learners (ELL). There are several of my students whose primary language is not English. In school, they generally communicate with peers in Spanish or Amharic and only use English to converse with administrators and teachers. Most of the ELL students in my classes have sufficient command of English and require only limited support, but there are a handful who may require substantial support (e.g. dual-language academic resources, translators, tutors, etc.).
Recent standardized test scores suggest significant deficits in English Language Arts, math, and science performance. Student surveys and anecdotal observations reflect a disinclination toward the sciences among the student population. Often the students’ lack of interest in the sciences is a substantial factor in lack of classroom engagement. An expectation for this curriculum unit is to increase classroom engagement by emphasizing the direct connection between the textbook/academic material that students might find abstract or even arbitrary ("Why do we have to learn this?") and the contemporary real-world applications of those concepts. The hope is that students will embrace the idea that the foundational principles being introduced in class are the basis for new, life-altering medical advances impacting the lives of real people. This is a version of a notion I introduce on the first day of school and underscore throughout the year with each new unit; in academia in general, but in science more particularly, the point of learning is not simply to come to know information that others have previously discovered or described, but rather to acquire skills and insight that will lead you to develop new knowledge to be shared with and advance the world.
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