In order to create a linguistically inclusive environment for multilingual learners’ meaning making of nature of science (NOS), it is important to allow students to freely mobilise different linguistic and modal resources for meaning making. In this single case study of a Hong Kong seventh-grade linguistically diverse classroom, we characterise two types of translanguaging spaces for meaning making of NOS: NOS-negotiation space and NOS-inscription space. Furthermore, we articulate how linguistically diverse learners navigate within and across these two translanguaging spaces. Our findings indicate that the teacher and students discussed a network of NOS ideas using gestures, different named languages as well as visual resources within the NOS-negotiation space. Students co-learnt metalanguages of NOS and created a multimodal ensemble of NOS within the NOS-inscription space. We also identified factors that facilitate or impede students’ connection of NOS ideas across two translanguaging spaces. Research reported in the paper calls for science educators to explicitly design translanguaging spaces to foster an inclusive environment for linguistically diverse learners’ meaning making of NOS. Copyright © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

In this article, we use the family resemblance approach as a framework to contribute to the debate about the similarities and differences between the constituent disciplines of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) and to explore the implications for education. The family resemblance approach has been used in science education in various ways, for instance, in teacher education and undergraduate teaching and as an analytical tool for examining science curricula and assessments. The relevant sense of application of the family resemblance approach for our purposes in this article is that it is a framework that has the potential to differentiate the disciplines underpinning STEAM. We explore the utility of the family resemblance approach for clarifying what is meant by the nature of STEAM and, subsequently, we elaborate on some practical examples drawn from a project conducted in Hong Kong with Year 7 (12–13-year-old) students to illustrate how the use of the family resemblance approach can help articulate a contrast of nature of science and the arts in school activities. Copyright © 2024 Sibel Erduran and Kason Ka Ching Cheung.