Category: Session 1: Native Students– Broadening Participation

• Focus should be on benefiting the community.
• More people should be involved because every is affected, not just indigenous people
• More input from other people and other tribes
• Incorporation of tribal knowledge into the school systems
• Global things that affect local areas:  global warming/invasive species
• Some scientists do research on tribal land and do not give the results to the tribe
• Involve elders that have knowledge in things we encounter in our work
• More involvement from the tribes point of view
• Be proactive—use academic advisors to involve students
• Help broaden understanding of the importance of including Native students
• Build place-based opportunities
• Students:  don’t let others reduce you
• Native students are our next generation of environmental leaders
• Protect your natural resources – be a shield for your place
• Manage landbases
• Humility is important, science can learn from everyone whether they have a degree or not
• Issues researchers could address relevant to Native Communities:
  • South Dakota has many – water quality, agriculture, mining
  • Michigan – Dow Chemicals, Emerald Ash Borer, Air Quality
  • Oklahoma – Wind Farm (problem:  Kills eagles, hawks, and other birds); past ecological damage (i.e., spraying chemicals in 1950s)
  • Arizona – Uranium mining issues

• Start Early:
  • Early start in elementary education
  • Grow our students—hands-on experiences, summer and other informal learning experiences
  • Increased participation of Native students in science fairs; Native science fairs
  • AISES chapters in high schools and middle schools can help students learn to like and understand science
  • Invest in better schools, programs, and teachers
  • Promote students with potential
  • Encourage traditional ecological knowledge
  • Incorporate Elders
  • More school programs and after-school programs
  • Encourage volunteerism
  • Buy in to the importance of environmental science
  • Summer programs
  • One-on-one outreach to students
  • Explain to students why they are well suited to this field
  • Explain to Native students why their background makes them natural geoscientists
  • Better communication about the geosciences
  • Explain how geosciences can help their community
  • Challenge students:  Here is the problem; here is how you can work on it
  • Math:  visual learning, but important not to separate out some students; make math relevant to Native students (use real-life examples, i.e.—basket weaving, beading
  • Teach math in context, applied math
  • Professional development for teachers
  • Break stereotypes of learners
• Relevance:
  • Show relevance of the careers (how can I use this?)
  • What benefits can the student find in this study to their lives?
  • Show how the education is connected to protection and sustainable management of resources (Intro to Sustainable Development class) Make math relevant to something besides “just math”
  • Create more volunteer opportunities in the sciences in the community
  • Educate everyone in the community
  • Incorporate tradition
  • Be open and honest
  • Need to inspire students
  • Incorporate an experiential component
  • Presentation of issues regarding natural resources as impacting future generations
  • Need to recognize that Native students are diverse by geography and level of preparation
  • Climate change issues are urgent and students want to do something about these issues
  • Science needs to be presented as interesting, not a dead-end job, good career mobility
  • Travel—chance to learn and experience other cultures
  • Lab work/field trips excite students
  • Allow students to work in two paths (Native and mainstream science)  — is this getting better?  You see some who are blending both
• Role Models:
  • Get graduate-school-level Native American teachers to teach at tribal colleges or tribal schools (role models)
  • Draw on local expertise
  • Find mentors for kids
  • Peer-mentoring
  • Conversation before leaving safe place
• Support at the College level
  • Distance Learning
  • Do a better job of advertising opportunities and exploring careers
  • Need to have a place online to house all the opportunities, resources, and scholarships related to geosciences
    • agiweb.org
    • Serc.carleton.edu
    • Indigenousmapping.net
    • Geoscience Alliance website – what are the possibilities?
  • Get students connected on campus
  • Better advising so students aren’t told the wrong thing, which can make their academic programs longer and more expensive
  • Student service learning: students play a role in going back to their tribes to publicize their experiences, opportunities for other students, peer mentoring
  • Good mentors; family atmosphere
  • Need more job opportunities
• Place-based Education (at all levels, K-12 and beyond)
  • When teaching Native students, place is foremost/fundamental
  • Don’t limit “place” (i.e., to the reservation)  Think where Native peoples are now and where they have been in the past, connect to history
  • Look at other successful models
  • Find ways to help students make a connection to their place
    • Encourage them to look
    • Connect students to science and scientists on their reservation
    • DNR/resource management on reservation
  • Close textbook and go out into the community to find your problems and issues, and your answers
  • Greater relevance for students
  • Hands-on – students find this important and valuable
  • Field studies don’t show the “ideal” situation that is often in textbooks, but teach the full complexity
  • A return to the old way is important to many—so we need to have teaching support for Native concerns  (example:  GEMscholars learned the Native community approach and knowledge about plants, a two-way exchange of knowledge
• Good programs:
  • Wells Technology—example of a successful business in Bemidji, MN. Give tours to students, apprenticeships.
  • NSF Math and Science Partnerships
  • GEAR UP
  • Research Experiences for Undergraduates

• Racism:
  • Sub-oppression
  • Oppression
  • economic disparities
  • misuse of federal dollars,
  • cultural leaders being ignored
• Resources:
  • Money
  • Getting help (financial and other) that is available at the global level accessible at the local level (for example, knowing what is out there; knowing how to bring resources to the local community)
  • Lack of Role Models
  • Lack of exposure to STEM during K-12 years
  • Lack of infrastructural support:  Child care, jobs
• Academic Issues:
  • Students don’t know how to apply to academic programs.
  • Lack of access to computers or not understanding how to apply on line keeps students out of academic programs and internships
  • Paperwork of application process is intimidating
  • Don’t understand what a bio is
  • Application processes are often too expensive
  • Students don’t understand financial aid process
  • Students are intimidated by the essay that is often required on applications
  • Don’t know about scholarships
  • Criteria keep students out:  GPA, Tribal membership
  • Lack of excellent geoscience teachers/instructors in the local community.
  • Lack of recognition of students as a potential source of STEM students
  • Mathematics aren’t taught in a way that works for native students (more beneficial when taught visually or hands-on)
  • Mathematics are taught too abstractly; more applications would help
  • Math example:  school failing 50% of students in Math
  • Math is a gatekeeping class
  • Problem:  Math by mathematicians
  • Teaching styles vs Native learning styles
  • Fragmented curriculum, scheduling, and standards
  • Lack of individualized instruction:  all people are taught in the same way but some people have different learning styles
  • Students aren’t academically ready for college when they come out of high school.
  • Science classes are boring—they could be made more interesting if they were more relevant to the students (good example of relevance is sustainability program at College of Menominee Nation)
  • Students aren’t aware of possibilities and opportunities
  • Lack of confidence in quantitative science
  • Fragmentation of curriculum and lack of connection between disciplines (due to testing requirements)
  • Middle school doesn’t have earth science (or not enough)
  • Students’ stereotypes of math and science:  they are not smart enough; have to be super-intelligent to go into a science field; these careers are dry and boring, no creative side, need to break these myths
• Difficulties if students need to move:
  • Children who need care
  • Don’t feel comfortable in the city
  • Difficulty in transferring from tribal college to other institution
  • Hard to be away from home
  • Hard to find a place that feels comfortable
  • Knowing that there are other Native students where you are going is important
  • AISES group is really helpful
  • Sometimes leaving the community for education is not an option because of ceremonial reasons
  • It’s hard to participate in internships if you have a family
  • Length of time of internships can also be a problem—it would help if sometimes you could split up the internship into shorter blocks of time or allow students to return home for ceremonies

Attitudes within Native community about science

• There is the (false) notion that what you are learning has nothing to do with your people (this is not specific to Native American students)
• Lack of connection to the tribe
• Students don’t have an idea what comes after college—what will they do with a geoscience degree?
• Lack of community support
• Education may be viewed as assimilation into white culture
• Students struggle to get a degree and then it may be hard to come back into the community
• Conflicting messages about what education means
• Pushback from elders/parents
• Challenge:  feeling used; guilt of leaving family