"Mending the Net" Helping Alaska Natives to Achieve in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics(STEM)

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AbstractIlisagvik College of Barrow, Alaska is the lead college in the Consortium for Alaska Native Higher Education, Inc. (CANHE), a group of six developing tribally-controlled colleges which were established because Alaska Natives have not achieved proportionate success in higher education despite years of effort by mainstream institutions. Alaska Natives are particularly poorly represented in STEM programs and in related professions. Research resulting from a TCUP planning grant in 2002 that clarified the extent of the problem, and lessons learned from the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative, form the basis for CANHE.s .Strategic Plan for Tribal Colleges in Alaska.. CANHE institutions will implement the plan, which includes special efforts in STEM fields, including this .Mending the Net. project. The project.s intellectual merit has two fronts. First, there are new certificate and degree programs which incorporate STEM field learning into training that meets the needs of natural resource development industries. That this learning, for three of the four CANHE institutions, explicitly blends indigenous knowledge with western science to gain a two-perspectives understanding of the natural environment, makes the project interesting. That the training qualifies Alaska Natives for needed employment in economically viable technical industries, makes the project both practical and critical. Second, the project uses regional differences as a strength. The .one size fits all. approach of most colleges and universities fails to employ different instructional techniques pertaining to STEM fields appropriate to each region. .Mending the Net. introduces placed-based STEM programs. Ilisagvik College, for instance, applies local people.s knowledge of the Arctic in an applied science program leading to employment in land management and wildlife biology. The Interior Athabascan Tribal College program, on the other hand, includes Native knowledge of the boreal forestry. The project.s broadest impacts include that because the grant recipient and other CANHE members are tribally-controlled institutions, almost all students involved are Native American/Alaska Natives . vastly underrepresented ion STEM fields. CANHE is a statewide organization with connecting networks to Alaska.s 100,000+ Native peoples. Two of the programs coordinate closely with school districts and will develop program templates for CANHE-district collaborations in other regions. A third program partners with the University of Alaska and includes faculty development trainings that can be replicated throughout the UA System by the three UA Affiliate Members of CANHE. On the industry side, the Bristol Bay Native Association program expands the infrastructure for web-based course delivery to villages in preparation for internships and possible employment with VECO, Inc., a primary contractor on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Some project results, like new academic programs and their curricula, will be available on CDs and the web. Others, like .best practices. in STEM teaching and learning for Native students, will be shared through conference presentations of Native and other educators. Yet other results, like the availability of STEM-trained Native interns in wildlife biology, forestry and fisheries, will be widely publicized, and discussed at industry-related conferences and in the halls of collaborating organizations like the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium.