Chapter Seven reflects on the challenges of engaging nondominant groups in the sciences such as inadequate science instruction in most elementary schools, especially those serving children from low-income rural areas. To address this issue, we must rethink equity, striving to provide better access to opportunities already available to dominant groups. The problem however is that providing the nondominant groups with the same kind of learning experiences as the dominant groups, will still not result in equity, due to the fact that the environments themselves are designed using the lens of the dominant culture. I completely agree with this, since almost all schools follow their own course curriculum, which is usually based on how well their students score in certain areas. This is definitely a problem, since nondominant groups exposed to such curriculums will struggle to keep up, due to the fact that these programs expect children to have prior knowledge. One solution that I can think of is to implement a self-tailored program, which begins with the basics and allows students to pick and choose what they would like to focus on, slowly but surely allowing them to work at their own pace and complete the course. Another solution is the promotion of collaboration, partnership, and diversity in ownership may provide non-dominant groups with a chance to analyze their own frame of thinking based of what they have learned in informal settings.

Chapter Seven also happens to reflect on the challenges of designing informal science experiences for people with disabilities. This is another group that is often excluded in informal science settings, which is quite troubling considering that people with cognitive, physical, and sensory disabilities make up around 18 percent of the population. The two dominant barriers that people with disabilities face are cultural and physical. One solution that exhibits and programs have come up with is “universal design”, which is the practice of accommodating all visitors regardless of their ability levels. Even though the reports about the results of this design had some negative points, there was still a large amount of people with disabilities who were able to engage with the exhibits and to learn some of the science. I think that this is a brilliant idea with a step in the right direction, the only problem is that there wasn’t enough time and investment put into this design, which is why some of the disabled visitors had trouble with some of the displays. However, with due time and hopefully more careful collaboration, these “universal designs” could inspire the next Steven Hawking.