This paper tells the story of four sixth-grade students of mixed race and social class who worked together in a small group.This story is about important connections. In particular it is about how the actions of children are connected to the histories of their families and how the privileging of ideas is connected to that of people and how the practice of science is connected to that of discrimination. Science education reformers may underestimate the difficulty of separating conceptual conflict about ideas from interpersonal conflict about privilege and status.