As teachers launch the school year, they establish relationships with new students and the families and communities that support those students. The OpenSciEd units are designed to help build connections between school and home including letters meant for families that are associated with each unit and home learning activities that encourage students to interview family or community members. Framing students’ families and communities as legitimate funds of knowledge can serve multiple purposes for student engagement. It can:

1. help students feel like they belong in the science classroom by situating their family and community knowledge as productive resources for science;
2. engage students’ families in conversations about what is happening in the classroom; and
3. help students make connections between the science classroom and their everyday lives.

In this webinar, we will explore the resources for supporting these connections built into our middle school units. We will also hear how veteran OpenSciEd teachers have communicated with families and participants will walk away with resources for their back-to-school nights and future communication.