FORUM Robotics competitions and science classrooms Gertraud Benke Received: 8 January 2012 / Accepted: 9 January 2012 / Published online: 31 January 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 Abstract This paper looks at the distinctions between science classrooms and the robotics competition described in the article ‘‘Examining the mediation of power in a collaborative community: engaging in informal science as authentic practice’’ written by Anton Puvirajah, Geeta Verma and Horace Webb. Using the framework of ‘‘productive disciplinary engagement’’ and discussing each principle in turn, the article argues that in order to bring the advantages of informal learning environments into regular classrooms we especially need to address student interest through task design and to change curricular requirements to agree with changing educational values. Keywords Productive disciplinary engagement Á Science education Á Informal learning Á Power The article Examining the mediation of power in a collaborative community: engaging in informal science as authentic practice written by Anton Puvirajah, Geeta Verma and Horace Webb introduces a host of interesting questions, which are at the heart of our understanding of language, culture, context and education. In their study they discuss how the context shapes the power relations in and through discourse in a robotics competition in comparison to the regular science classroom. The same students and the same teacher are present in both, yet their interactions, their personas or the identities they draw on, are markedly different (assuming that we all have access to a number of identities, which we engage in in response to a particular context). In the regular classroom, institutional norms impinge on the enacted practices—teachers have to teach a certain curriculum, students have to learn, no one is allowed to walk out, and teachers have to enforce the societal task of educating the young whether they (the teachers This review essay is a critique of Puvirajah, A., Verma, G., & Webb, H. Examining the mediation of power in a collaborative community: Engaging in informal science as authentic practice. Cultural Studies of Science Education. doi:10.1007/s11422-012-9394-2. G. Benke (&) Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Austria e-mail: Gertraud.Benke@aau.at 123 Cult Stud of Sci Educ (2012) 7:417–423 DOI 10.1007/s11422-012-9400-8