Native Cases Initiative

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INTERDISCIPLINARY (99)The Native Cases Initiative Project involves Evergreen State College, Northwest Indian College, Salish Kootenai College, Grays Harbor College, and Washington Online, the state's distance learning consortium. The project addresses a void in the literature in STEM curriculum focusing on American Indians. In addition, the project promotes scientific literacy through development and use of Native case studies with an emphasis on science for non-majors. Culturally relevant educational materials are important in improving the participation and graduation rates of Native students. This project expands a previous project which demonstrated that embedding disciplinary learning into contemporary Indian issues was a successful strategy. The project deeply embeds existing cases in the partnering institutions' curricula and is developing 16 new cases specifically focusing on scientific literacy and quantitative reasoning. The project also involves large numbers of science faculty, and disseminates the products. These cases focus on interdisciplinary topics and issues confronting Native American people and communities such as the environment, sustainable development, natural resources, and health and wellness. Detailed teaching notes describe how to teach interdisciplinary cases in different modes of delivery (face-to-face and online) and from different disciplinary perspectives. Workshops enable faculty at the partner institutions to develop expertise in writing and applying case study methods. Workshops are also offered at other colleges with substantial Native enrollments. Other dissemination methods include a website and dissemination through NSF's Digital Library and Washington Online.