Engaging Native Alaskan Students and their Community in Local Hot Springs Research

地球科学家，教育工作者，并在波特兰州立大学职前K-12教学的学生将与东南阿拉斯加原住民高中学生，他们的老师，部落长老，以及当地政府和商界领袖合作，围绕当地温泉生态系统的研究开发一系列创新的高中地球科学课程模块。课程将通过实地和实验室经验的实践来吸引学生，这些经验建立在他们对这种当地自然资源的文化知识和经验的基础上。在这个基于探究的研究项目和课程开发中纳入社区成员是激励学生学习地球科学相关概念和问题的关键。传统的阿拉斯加原住民知识包括对地质环境的理解，作为生态社区的栖息地，提供了许多农业，自然资源和医药机会。在温泉中，微生物群落可以改变它们的环境，增加渔业资源，并集中矿产资源。这些群落的遗迹--当保存在温泉烧结沉积物中时--可以记录与之相关的细菌、植物和动物物种的历史。温泉矿藏被土著社区用于各种仪式，其药用尚未记录。一个主要的项目目标是提供一个机会，为一个相对简单的（极端和矿化）生态系统的跨学科研究，这将激起这些高中学生在地球科学的教学和研究生涯的兴趣，并帮助保护科学和文化上重要的自然资源为阿拉斯加土著部落社区。

Geoscientists, educators, and pre-service K-12 teaching students at Portland State University will collaborate with Southeast Alaska Native high school students, their teachers, tribal elders, and local government and business leaders to develop a series of innovative high school geoscience curriculum modules around the study of local hot spring ecosystems. The curricula will engage the students through hands on field- and laboratory-based experiences that build upon their cultural knowledge of, and experiences with, this type of local natural resource. The inclusion of community members in this inquiry-based research project and curricular development is key to motivating students to learn about geoscience-related concepts and issues. Traditional Native Alaskan knowledge encompasses an understanding of a geological setting as a habitat occupied by ecological communities that provide a number of agricultural, natural resource, and medicinal opportunities. In hot springs, microbial communities may alter their surroundings, enhance fishery resources, and concentrate mineral resources. The remains of these communities - when preserved in hot spring sinter deposits - can record a history of bacteria, plant and animal species associated with them. Hot spring mineral deposits have been used in a variety of ceremonial ways by indigenous communities, and their medicinal use has not been recorded. A major project goal is to present an opportunity for interdisciplinary study of a relatively simple (extreme and mineralizing) ecosystem that will pique the interest of these high-school students in teaching and research careers in the geosciences and help preserve a scientific and culturally important natural resource for Native Alaskan tribal communities.