  Research has documented a sharp decline in students' interest and persistence
in science, starting in middle school, particularly among students from
underrepresented populations. In working to address this problem, we can learn
a great deal from positive examples of students getting excited about science,
especially students who were previously disengaged. In this paper, we present a
case study of Estevan, an 8th grade student who came into Ms. K's science class
with a reputation as a potential "problem student," but left as a leader of the
class, even making plans to pursue a career in science. Through analysis of
interviews and classroom interactions, we show how Estevan's love of science
can be partially explained by an alignment between his identity as a lover of
challenges and his epistemology of science as involving the challenge of
figuring things out for yourself. This alignment was possible in part because
it was supported by his caring teacher, who attended to his ideas and
constantly challenged him and the rest of her students to figure things out for
themselves instead of just "giving them the answers."
