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This article offers practical suggestions to those who teach Hispanic students or are interested in increasing their use of culturally relevant examples in their teaching. It is based on the collaborative experience of two authors, one from the midwestern United States and one from the Caribbean. As we jointly prepared materials for our general chemistry courses, we observed that (i) using real-world examples drawn from a variety of cultural settings should benefit all students; (ii) chemistry instructors on the mainland tend to have minimal knowledge about the lives of those in Puerto Rico, and might benefit from increased knowledge about the culture of the island; and (iii) language difficulties experienced by Puerto Rican students are important to recognize and are generalizable to other English as a second language (ESL) students.
A review of Hispanics in higher education is first presented. Next, examples of chemical concepts are described that have different cultural twists, depending on whether one lives in Wisconsin or in Puerto Rico. Several examples from a larger Hispanic context are then offered to the reader. To conclude, we present suggestions for better supporting Hispanic students in their study of chemistry; these are applicable to other ESL students as well.
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