Reconfiguring science education through caring human inquiry and design with pets

ABSTRACT

Background

Natureculture (Fuentes, 2010; Haraway, 2003) constructs offer a powerful framework for science education to explore learners’ interactions with and understanding of the natural world. Technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) designed to reveal pets’ sensory worlds and companionship with pets can facilitate learners’ harmonious relationships with significant others in naturecultures.

Methods

At a two-week virtual summer camp, we engaged teens in inquiring into dogs’ and cats’ senses using selective color filters, investigations, experience design projects, and understanding how the umwelt (von Uexküll, 2001) of pets impacts their lives with humans. We qualitatively analyzed participants’ talk, extensive notes, and projects completed at the workshop.

Findings

We found that teens engaged in the science and engineering practices of planning and carrying out investigations, constructing explanations and designing solutions, and questioning while investigating specific aspects of their pets’ lives. Further, we found that teens checking and taking pets’ perspectives while caring for them shaped their productive engagement in these practices. The relationship between pets and humans facilitated an ecological and relational approach to science learning.

Contribution

Our findings suggest that relational practices of caring and perspective-taking coexist with scientific practices and enrich scientific inquiry.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the National Science Foundation for supporting this work (see Funding below). We are grateful to Mike Eisenberg for inspiring us and for collaborating with us on the early stages of this project. We also thank Annie Kelly, Christine Chang, Christian Hill, Gabriella Johnson, Mary West, and Mary Yoder for their contributions to the project’s research and development. We are grateful to the human, canine, and feline participants in the Secret Lives of Pets camps for their engagement and sharing their experiences with us. Finally, we deeply appreciate all that our own pet companions, past and present, have taught us about living in caring relations with nature and one another; special thanks to Bella, Admiral Grace Hopper, Dr. Bones, and Kevin, Dobby, Josh, Waldo, Lula, and Momo Max.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2023.2228990

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Science Foundation [1736051].