Abstract
This paper uses socio-semiotic analysis to detail the activity processes of interaction among diverse participants in a summer camp dedicated to the theme of mosquitoes and public health. It describes how a particular strategy, the Morning Circle and its routines, construed activity processes that nurtured community, including moments of orchestrated synchronization. It further proposes that the activity processes characterizing the emotional climate of Morning Circle reverberated into subsequent Science Time, making possible moments of emergent synchronization. The paper describes the phenomenon of synchronization in relation to experiential personhood, or becoming-together. It asserts that synchronization has utility, especially with youth populations historically-excluded from science, in implementing and examining science programming through a social justice lens. It encourages more attention to the interactive processes from which synchronization occurs and the relationship between these processes, personhood possibilities, and science identity and outcomes. The paper concludes with directions for future research and planning implications for practitioners.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Informal Science, Underrepresented Youth, Inquiry Learning, Emotions, Activity Processes
