It was very interesting to see that this chapter was addressing the fact that people from low-income areas, often people of color, have limited access to science education. Thus, it is important to find ways to include them in the science discussion through informal settings. I was a bit surprised by the book’s preference for using the terminology of “dominant” and “nondominant groups” instead of saying “white” and “non-white” (except for in a couple of places). It seems a bit counterproductive to a discussion about race if you’re not going to name the races in question, but that’s neither here nor there. The Native Waters project seems like a very good way to introduce Native peoples to an informal science setting, by relating it directly to aspects of their culture. I was really happy to read the quote on page 120: “However, simply exposing individuals to the same learning environments may not result in equity, because the environments themselves are designed using the lens of the dominant culture.” This is so true! It’s impossible to simply transplant teaching practices for one group of people to another group of people, because cultural, ethnic, class, gender, and racial lines are drawn so deeply and are so divisive that people’s ways of thinking and learning are divided by these same lines as well. To integrate education by bringing educational practices from one place to another in the same exact form is an exercise in futility. I also liked how the text acknowledged that the term “outreach” can contribute to the feeling of excludedness felt by poor people/of color when it comes to education. The practice of feeling othered by institutions has been practiced historically throughout the history of the nation. Neither science nor education are exceptions.

The story of the Vietnamese outreach program at the museum was interesting to read about because it showed that while cultural difference is a difficult hurdle to jump in and of itself, an even more difficult one is economy, because, as an institution that needs money to exist, there’s a lot less you can do to make the event more affordable, especially since you have no control over another person’s finances. Nonetheless, the cultural additions, like bamboo, the round boat, and the rice sieve were a nice touch. In contrast, I wouldn’t say that the Making Models program for disabled people was necessarily a form of cultural expansion. That’s because I don’t believe it’s appropriate to call being disabled a culture per se. It’s definitely an identifier that results in the exclusion and underrepresentation of certain people, but it’s not what one would commonly call a culture. That being said, it’s good that a program exists with intentions to include disabled people. The fact that they chose staff who themselves were disabled is perfect for trying to find common ground between the educators and the educatees. This way there’s no sense of “talking down” or alienation between the two parties.