Sample Research-informed & Negotiated Action (RiNA) Projects
This page provides teachers and students with examples of kinds of RiNA projects (e.g., more propositional vs. materialist) that have been designed & conducted by school students to help overcome STSE harms of students’ concerns. Sample projects below are meant to inspire students to develop and implement similar – although perhaps somewhat unique – such projects.
Purpose & Characteristics of RiNA Projects
Given persistence of many STSE harms, it seems obvious that school students need to be educated to critically analyze & evaluate processes & products of science & technology – particularly in terms of their relationships with (powerful members of) societies & environments (STSE) and to eventually independently develop & implement sociopolitical actions to overcome harms of concern to them in such relationships. As well as being educated, such as having experienced 3-phase STEPWISE apprenticeship lessons & activities, students’ sociopolitical actions should be well-informed by (secondary & primary) research, along with influences of their personal preferences and social negotiations. As illustrated at right/below, after STEPWISE apprenticeships, students could learn more about climate change through their secondary research (e.g., via the Internet) and primary research (e.g., a correlational study of peers’ shower lengths). Using such data and influences, their actions can/should be networked – forming a dispositif; i.e., a co-supportive assemblage of living, nonliving & symbolic actants.
Educational Actions
Many students have designed & conducted research into STSE relationships and developed educational actions – such as those depicted in the following videos. Theoretically, such RiNA projects involve – regarding the schema below – World –> Signs translations and then propositions for possible Signs –> World translations.
Students, like others, can express themselves in different ways. Indeed, it often is best to try creating a network of co-supportive actions (i.e., a dispositif). An excellent media type to include seems to be those using formats used at RSA Animate. Perhaps more simply, a video of an interview of a prominent official (a CEO) can work well. But, perhaps very enjoyable for students are different role-playing scenarios.
French-language Educational Actions
After reading about Iqbal Masih, a child labourer, turned activist, in Pakistan, and after experiencing STEPWISE-informed lessons & student activities, sixth-grade students in a French-as-a-Second Language course in a Canadian private school developed videos to educate people about problems associated with common commodities. Reading about oppressed children like Iqbal Masih seemed to generate much empathy for such children among these advantaged students.
WISE Engineering Actions
Rather than ‘just’ proposing changes (which is still positive) to the World regarding the World <–> Signs schema above, students may use their research findings & education, etc. to design & implement more ecojust (‘WISE‘) materialist engineering designs as Signs –> World actions, like those depicted in the videos below. In all three cases, students chose to use biodegradable material for their 3D-printed products and agreed to share their designs.
A 3D-printed school bag hook
3D-printed supports for parallettes
3D-printed customized mouse grip
App for detecting garbage
WISE Engineering Design & Mobilization
Although teachers using STEPWISE pedagogy have been able to encourage & enable students to develop innovations (and, in some cases, inventions) like those above that are designed to work well and promote outcomes for wellbeing of individuals, societies &/or environments (WISE), students often have struggled to ‘mobilize’ (popularize) values inherent to them. As suggested by the video at right/below, however, a teacher has been able to achieve this – apparently by focusing on teaching about dispositifs – and, particularly, through use of language, like alliances, more familiar to students.
Students’ Reports in JASTE of Their RiNA Projects
Secondary school students, with supports from science teachers, have written summaries of their school-based RiNA projects in three (to date) issues of the Journal for Activist Science & Technology Education. Links to these 3 issues are provided via the graphic at right/below. Student project types vary across the model for RiNA projects above.
STSE-RiNA Fairs
An excellent way to motivate, celebrate & advertise student RiNA projects to overcome harms they have determined in STSE relationships is to facilitate an STSE-RiNA Fair – engaging other teachers, students, parents and others.
Links to STEPWISE Framework Elements:
