Collaborative Research: GP-IN: Traditional Knowledge In Geoscience: Policy and Research Practices

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This project engages in geoscience research, education, and policy training to align and braid Traditional Knowledge (TK) from Native American/Alaska Native (NA/AN) communities with Western science disciplines. The project encourages participation of underrepresented students (i.e. Indigenous, African American, Hispanic) into geoscience and policy research in an effort to demonstrate the diversity and potential for STEM careers and to provide rigorous geoscience research projects that are place- and community based in collaboration with NA/AN communities. The project builds upon multiple scientific paradigms blending biology, math, oceanography, chemistry, and environmental sciences with TK to encourage student interest in STEM. The program seeks to pointedly improve retention of NA/AN students in geoscience by fostering the creation of peer and mentor networks through collaborative research between tribal communities and academia. The PIs seek to develop an innovative and culturally aligned research program through the development of culturally aligned geoscience research and teaching models and by building on research in STEM education that provide theoretical and empirical justification for the project. The project investigates the impact of a culturally aligned geoscience research program to increase NA/AN students self-efficacy as scientists. The PIs believe that by acknowledging TK and STEM knowledge systems as valid modes of communicating science in the context of place, language, and culture the project effectively fosters intellectual justice and equal access to geoscience research and education. This program introduces a new model for undergraduate research by incorporating place- and community-based research coupled with TK and western knowledge systems, and through the incorporation of policy practices and drivers at both a federal and local scale. The program seeks to enhance the diversity of the geoscience workforce.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.