DEARBORN-The room fills with lots of hum as parents arrive and students wrap up presentations for the FamJam program family night at Stout Middle School in Dearborn.
A group moves between desks cutting cardstock, styrofoam and string. Some of them are drawing and coloring climate change maps. Others build a water system prototype.
The youth co-create their science projects with families, teachers and researchers. They are all part of a community-centered, family-inclusive STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education initiative for middle schoolers, led by the University of Michigan's Marsal Family School of Education.
Most of these students have been affected by severe residential flooding, a recurring issue in their neighborhood. U-M scholars found that science lessons rooted in families' histories and lived experiences, including their experiences of resilience during natural disasters, can deepen engagement with STEM, strengthen STEM identity and motivate local climate action.
Sixth grader Yousef Al‑Ghathie, 12, has turned his family's 2021 flood experience into his school science project, with two main goals: to keep water out of basements and to store it for reuse during storms.
With his dad's help, he designed a model that could redirect rainwater away from a home's basement and into a small filtration system. His project uses a funnel, pipes and a basic filter to show how water could be captured before entering a house, then cleaned and stored for later use.
"I have been thinking about the idea for a long time," Al-Gathie said. "Partly because of what happened to my family and, partly, because many people lack access to clean water."
His father, Saif Al‑Ghathie, said the family's home flooded when sewer water rose through drains during heavy rain on the east side of Dearborn.
"I got a call from my wife saying that there was water coming out of the source into the house and coming up from the toilet," he said. "When I got home, the water was already on the stairs. I went straight to the breakers and shut everything off so there was no electrical connection in the house. We had to wait until about 7 a.m., when the water finally began to go down. And I can say the water inside the home was not clean, it was very bad."
For Saif Al‑Ghathie, tying science lessons to real events helps students understand how systems work and how communities can respond.
"I hope our family project can help raise awareness and encourage people to think about solutions," Yousef Al-Ghathie said. "I believe that with enough people, engineers and the right equipment, communities can reduce future flood issues and help other people avoid the experience my family went through."
Designing space for families
FamJam is designed to help teachers deliver authentic, standards-aligned engineering lessons and make engineering fun, relevant and tailored.
"We call our project FamJam because we're seeking to design spaces for families' rightful presence in their children's middle school STEM," said Angela Calabrese Barton, U-M professor of educational studies and principal investigator. "And we use the term rightful presence to highlight that we want families to be able to be there on their terms, to bring to the table their strengths and assets, in ways that matter to them. School science typically has just siloed itself away from families."
For Calabrese Barton, research has shown how the collaborative design of intergenerational learning environments can support student and family learning in STEM.
"We use a participatory co-design approach to design for a familial rightful presence," she said. "And we conjecture that creating these authentic engagement spaces will support deeper, more meaningful STEM learning among the youth."
With a focus on equity and justice, this year's FamJam includes about 120 students. The project aims to build a collaborative network to explore how to design learning environments that support fair and equitable outcomes.
FamJam started six years ago and builds on prior work focused on co-designing an engineering for sustainable communities curriculum with middle school teachers, in both Michigan and North Carolina. FamJam has reached over 5,000 students in Dearborn, Lansing and Greensboro, North Carolina.
"We designed three eight‑week STEM units under the theme of sustainable communities," Calabrese Barton said. "They focus on engineering for sustainable communities, climate justice, and flooding and activism. Climate change has reached a tipping point and education can help communities build the knowledge to respond. Our partner schools are in communities that have long faced high levels of pollution and the effects of climate change."
From flood stories to climate justice
This is the second year that science teacher Diana Ballout has collaborated with U-M researchers as part of the FamJam project.
"I have always been interested in learning how to incorporate climate change ideas into the classroom," she said. "I knew I wanted to bridge this gap and also make a connection between the kids and the community, and this program was a perfect fit. I started with my 8th grade class last year and I'm working with my 6th grade students on our water cycle unit."
The lessons began with a meeting where families shared their personal experiences with flooding. Based on the shared insights, students created a flood map and informational slides, balancing the emotional weight of the topic with the hard facts.
"What did they know about flooding? What were their hopes for flooding?" Ballout said. "We also didn't want it to just be negative and have them be scared. We wanted them to be hopeful and try to come up with creative solutions."
As students see their family histories reflected in the curriculum, Ballout uses demographic charts based on income, age and race to analyze why certain neighborhoods flood while others remain dry. These lessons balance technical facts with the emotional impact of the crisis.
Then, they shift the focus toward civic action. Students learn about different forms of protest and discuss their risks and impacts, applying those lessons to local issues. They also organize fundraising efforts for community causes, helping them see how civic engagement can make a difference.
"For many of these students, this was the first time they explored local issues like flood justice through science," said FamJam facilitator Wisam Sedawi, U-M assistant research scientist in education. "With their families beside them, students were able to ask critical questions, examine the infrastructure in their city and speak out about the environmental challenges affecting their communities. They learned that their experiences matter, their voices matter and that science can be a tool for building more just futures."
Sedawi also explained that students' engagement with flood justice was part of a broader commitment to community-based research grounded in solidarity with families.
"Working in solidarity with families means recognizing that meaningful education must center families' and youths' voices, needs, concerns and aspirations, while being grounded in collective care and shared responsibility," she said.
U-M graduate student Rachel Sherwin, also part of the project, couldn't agree more.
After working as a teacher for about six years in different K-12 classroom levels in Detroit, Portland and Ann Arbor, she decided to apply to the Marsal Family Ph.D. program.
"I am interested in anything that helps make schools more equitable and inclusive for all children," she said. "Also, in finding ways to make teaching and education a better-enjoyed field for teachers. The FamJam project was a great opportunity to conduct research in a school setting on topics I care about, such as climate justice and activities."
Scanning for change: Turning loss into oriented action
Twelve-year-old Mayar Rahibi knows a home should provide safety. But for years, heavy rain brought concern and worry. In 2021 and 2024, water filled her family's basement in west Dearborn, damaging toys, baby photos and a specialized medical wheelchair belonging to her sister.
"I was crying, my four sisters were crying because so many of our toys and part of our house were ruined," Rahibi said. "The second flooding was even worse. It had mud and poop everywhere. We were all scared and sad."
After leaving that house, her family started paying very close attention to disaster metrics before renting.
"I now know that flooding risk must be 1 out of 10," she said. "And in this science program, I am discovering so much more. I learned about groundwater flooding and how aging, clogged pipes caused flooding in our old neighborhood. I want to see improvements in Dearborn, its infrastructure and make sure local officials keep their promises for that region."
After also enduring one of Dearborn's floods about five years ago, Tolen Al-Rawi's family had to remodel their basement, stripping carpets and moving furniture around.
Now, she is working with some classmates to organize a fundraiser to support neighbors displaced by flooding by providing immediate aid while urging city leadership to invest in long-term infrastructure solutions.
The project translates classroom lessons on infrastructure into community action.
"There's gonna be a QR code where you could just scan and give money," Al-Rawi said. "It doesn't matter how much, as long as they're donating. We will also be collecting canned food for regional relief organizations. We hope these funds can secure food, shelter, safety kits and health services for displaced families. We have to work together."
What's next?
Over the next several years, Calabrese Barton, Sedawi and their collaborating students will continue to deepen and expand their partnership with Dearborn schools to further develop and sustain the FamJam approach.
"This next phase of the work will involve bringing new community and school partners into the network, fostering cross-sector collaborations that enhance the reach and impact of FamJam activities," Calabrese Barton said. "We want to maintain a robust and sustainable ecosystem for equitable family and community participation in STEM learning, while generating new research insights into how schools and communities can work together to support youth learning, development and collective community well-being."
The project was funded through a grant from the WT Grant Foundation's program focused on Reducing Inequality. Additional support was provided by the Eileen Lappin Weiser Center for the Learning Sciences.
