Introduction & Demographics
I have always enjoyed teaching about the Solar System to my students and about how large the Universe really is. The vast nature of space, and all that there is to be learned by it, seems to be highly interesting to them. The demographic of students that I teach in fourth grade for Richmond Public Schools currently is 75% African American, 15% Latinx, 9% Caucasian, and 1% Asian and indigenous students.7 Due to these demographics, it is of the utmost importance that every lesson or curriculum plan I write is done so with cultural responsiveness in mind. I plan to use STEM to address the topic of the Solar System, and to address a seldomly explored topic more specifically within the elementary classroom: the stars. Many students are not aware that the Sun is a star, or what makes up a star, or what its characteristics are. We will discuss this as a class, as well as extensions to the unit on cultural views of stars, and astronomers of varying ethnic backgrounds, and their contributions to science.
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