This critical ethnography focused on five urban African American students, coming from economically disadvantaged homes in Philadelphia, who were considered at risk with regard to their position within society as well as within the small learning community of their low-academically performing school. As participants in the study, they were employed from June 11, 2001 from 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM and continuing until September 7, 2001 at $7.50 per hour under research grants from the Spencer Foundation and the National Science Foundation. Through this study, these five youth were provided with traditional and nontraditional opportunities to build understandings of some of the most essential concepts of physics as learners. Moreover, they also had the chance to work as research assistants, teacher educators and curriculum developers. This research was unique in that it took place within the setting of the University of Pennsylvania rather than their urban high school. The objective was to create a work environment that included a wide range of tasks that were both “school” and “non-school”-related. The artifacts produced by the students included the DUS Sound Movie, ethnographic projects in the form of PowerPoint, video footage and oral re-presentations – in addition to journal entries, documents of analyzed data, transcriptions and audio-taped/video-taped interviews. The findings of the research conclusively reveal that African American, urban
youth from some of the most challenging situations are capable of learning physics concepts. Moreover, the most success resulted when students’ strategies of action were directed towards the objective of learning although, in the process of meaning-making, their personal goals unrelated to science were also met.

In addition, the research results also show that urban African American students come to school with strategies of action replete with cultural practices, symbols and their underlying meanings from fields outside of school including both the home and the neighborhood. In accordance with Sewell’s notion of culture having weak boundaries, the experiences of African Americans as an oppressed minority has allowed the street culture to become the greatest cultural force upon African American youth. In other words, regardless of whether strategies of action have street or decent influences, the outcomes or goals being sought by urban youth are deeply aligned with the street contest for respect. These cultural resources, when triggered, then become apparent within learning environments and can powerfully assist learning when the desired outcomes of the student(s) are in tune with the objective of learning physics.
Through the physics teaching and learning that occurred within this study, as well as their work as researchers, teacher educators and curriculum developers, the youth had opportunities to utilize their cultural capital to build new knowledge schemas and to develop access to new resources. Consequently, evidence of agency on multiple levels was found to arise in conjunction with the youth’s production of their DU?S sound movie.
For example, for all of the youth, their participation in the research was beneficial on a personal level, in terms of the scientific understandings built and the technological skills gained. On the community level, already, the movie has made an impact at their high school. May, Ivory, Shakeem, Randy and Tim have demonstrated that poverty stricken African American urban youth can be changed by science and science too can be changed by them.