Which is it? Are all ethnic groups equally capable of learning hard sciences, or can Blacks only learn math via interpretive dance and organized protests? I’ll get in trouble if I answer that so let’s hear from an accomplished STEM Nogger!
5 ways to use hip-hop in the classroom to build better understanding of science
h ttps://theconversation.com/5-ways-to-use-hip-hop-in-the-classroom-to-build-better-understanding-of-science-160737
By Edmund Adjapong, 3 June 2021
Back when I attended M.S. 101 in the Bronx, I tuned out the science teacher because I didn’t think science was for me. I viewed the subject as something distant and inaccessible. I never saw myself becoming a scientist.
That’s fine. Lots of other things that one can do in life.
Things changed, however, when my physics teacher at Marie Curie High School used hip-hop to make connections with science.
Now there’s a sentence that you did not expect to read today.
We learned about the physics of pendulums by using hip-hop artists. chains as examples and participated in call-and-responses to remember science information.
Once I’d found an approach that finally appealed to me, hip-hop set me on a course to become a science teacher myself.
Those who can, DJ; those who can’t, teach?
But not just any kind of science teacher. Instead, I became a hip-hop science educator. My mission in life is to educate teachers on how to use hip-hop to get more students to have a positive experience with science . something that is imperative in a global economy and at a time when the growth in STEM jobs in the U.S. is expected to outpace non-STEM occupations at a rate of more than 2 to 1 in the coming decade.
Um… I cannot connect those thoughts… “there are no national trade barriers” with “we must teach math via hip-hop”.
Unfortunately, students of color often fail to get the kind of education necessary to take advantage of STEM jobs. Research demonstrates that 18% of first-year Black college students want to pursue a STEM degree, around the same as first-year white college students.
That sounds low for whites.
But only 34% of Black students complete their STEM major, compared to 58% of white students. Reasons for the low percentage of Black STEM graduates include lack of preparation in STEM in high school and feelings of exclusion, isolation and discouraging academic experiences.
Do Blacks enjoy STEM? Serious question. Whites do. There are entire nerd & geek cultures. All of which are pasty-skinned WEIRD-o types.
When I look at Africa, I do not see a love for science… or… anything that might be called “how to make things work”. I do see hip-hop, however. Really great performances.
The problem starts in the classroom, where science is often taught from a Western viewpoint with a focus mainly on the contributions of white Europeans which fails to recognize the contributions of Africans to science.
Consequently, teachers often don’t know how to make science relevant to the students they teach. Many students of color, then, fail to develop a science identity.
Which is it? “We need a science-based identity” or “too much science is cracker-sourced”.
Hip-hop as a way of life
In order to effectively use hip-hop in the classroom, it pays to understand that hip-hop is more than just a music form. Hip-hop is a culture that has influenced and empowered young people across the globe, especially those from marginalized groups, since its inception.
We aren’t talking science anymore. Look, if you can’t sit still in front of a math textbook then you can’t do math. It’s that simple. Mental focus and abstract thought are prerequisite for science like lifting heavy objects is a prerequisite for strength. Whether ‘society needs more scientists’ makes no difference to whether the members of society are capable of science.
Hip-hop can be seen as being built upon five essential creative elements. Those elements are 1) MC’ing; 2) graffiti; 3) break-dancing, 4) DJ’ing and 5) knowledge of self, which includes knowledge of your own character, values, abilities and emotions.
What I’ve found through my research is that hip-hop can help girls of color develop a science identity.
Pretty sure that would be a hip-hop identity.
Girls of color have shared having positive experiences in science when hip-hop was used as an approach to teaching. This has increased their comfort with engaging in science and supported them in developing positive science identity. While most studies focused on using hip-hop in science focus on Black students, I believe that using hip-hop can support all students, as hip-hop is the most popular genre of music in America.
Based on my study of hip-hop in the classroom, here are ways that educators can use the five elements of hip-hop to help students connect more strongly with science.
1. Get on the mic
One of the most prominent elements of hip-hop is to serve as an MC. That’s where rappers take the microphone and perform their lyrical content and control the show verbally, which is an effective way of delivering a message to an audience.
The message of differential equations!
2. Write big and bold on the board
Just like graffiti is used in hip-hop to convey messages and claim space, students can similarly treat the whiteboard . or chalkboard . as their canvas to illustrate and explain scientific concepts.
For example, in my middle school science class, students drew visual representations of the different layers of Earth’s atmosphere using symbols and characters that represented their understanding.
Valid, but let me point out that this dude self-identified as a visual learner. “Math is white privilege because the book has no pictures!”
3. Have students move around
Just as break-dancing is the kinesthetic aspect of hip-hop culture, the teaching of science offers plenty of opportunities for students to do physical learning activities.
Returning to my previous question, if science needs some interpretive dancing to open up “physical learning activities” then those students are not interested in science. Forcing the issue will not benefit anybody.
For example, when discussing the various states of matter, students can imagine themselves as particles and move around the classroom as particles would when their energy increases or decreases. When energy decreases, students should be moving closer to one another to the point where they are huddled in a fixed position to mimic a solid. When energy increases, students should move around the classroom at a faster speed to mimic a gas.
Hmm… needs basketballs and team jerseys, too. Then the students can go to college on a ‘science’ scholarship.
4. Use music to set the mood
5. Work on socially relevant projects
Just as hip-hop emphasizes knowledge of self and being authentic, students should be given opportunities to work on science projects that are relevant to their lives and make a difference in their communities.
For example, in my middle school science class, students were taught that the Bronx has the highest asthma rates in the nation due to having the worst air pollution levels in the U.S., and decided to raise awareness in the community by creating picket signs with asthma statistics.
“Today in chemistry class, we’re going to learn how to make Molotov cocktails.”
Using hip-hop in the science classroom allows students to develop an increased level of comfort when engaging in the subject and supports the development of a positive science identity. When young people engage in science while making connections to hip-hop, they are able to develop their own understanding of science and feel more prepared and knowledgeable in regards to content.
“science is often taught from a Western viewpoint with a focus mainly on the contributions of white Europeans which fails to recognize the contributions of Africans to science.”
Reminds me of the scene in “Airplane!”
Passenger: Stewardess, do you have any light reading?
Stewardess: I have a pamphlet on famous Jewish sports stars.
Now it can be a pamphlet on the contributions of Africans to science.
“5. Work on socially relevant projects”
It never ceases to amaze me that every single one of these weird ideas always, sooner or later, turns towards “social awareness” (in the woke sense of that term).
Whenever I see a list of African contributions to any intellectual pursuit, it always cites the ancient Egyptians, or Carthage, or perhaps Arabic Muslim texts. I am not aware of any significant intellectual contributions originating from sub-Saharan Africa.
As I understand it, sub-Saharan Africans had …
* No written languages (so no novels, epic poems, sagas, etc.)
* No buildings over two stories tall.
* Had not invented the wheel.
* Had not domesticated animals.
* No real mathematics. (One African language only four “numbers”: One, Two, Three, and Many.)
Of course, there’s Louis Farrakhan’s claims of an ancient star-faring African empire which had invented interstellar spaceships and such, the traces of which were destroyed by Europeans.
I recently read a book on physics. It was full of references to discoveries made by physicists over the millennia, beginning with the ancient Greeks. Almost all the physicists mentioned were Europeans, aside from a few Asians from the past century. No Africans names.
I wonder how long before publishers will be forced to included bogus “brilliant African physicists through the millennia” to make blacks (who tend not to major in the hard sciences) feel better.
As more time goes on, the more I am convinced that the nations that God instructed to annihilate in the OT were comprised of darker-skinned individuals.
Nuke it from beyond the infected atmospheric zones. Wear your masks out there!
Really great performances. The dryness of that required me to have a drink.
Black Africa, like the Muslim middle-east, in all the millenia of recorded history, has contributed to civilization absolutely nothing. Any exceptional individuals, say, celebrated during Black History Month, are ones who have adopted the European ways.
I wonder how long before publishers will be forced to included bogus .brilliant African physicists through the millennia. to make blacks (who tend not to major in the hard sciences) feel better.
I wouldn’t doubt for a second that school textbook publishers whose market is government juvenile day prisons have already been saddled with that mandate.
Maff be hard