Collaborative Research: GP-IN: Connected to Earth: Cross-Cultural Knowledge Exchange for Advancing Earth Science Learning

该奖项全部或部分由2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。明天的社会将需要解决保护和保护土壤和水等自然资源的问题，应对气候变化和相关问题的日益严重的威胁，并减轻洪水，山体滑坡和沿海风暴等危害。没有任何一种学科方法可以单独解决这些问题。为此，需要与来自不同文化背景的人接触，并在K-16课程中纳入土著观点和不同的教学，学习和了解方式，以便后代能够公平和可持续地应对这些挑战。该项目将汇集K-12教师，教育工作者，地球科学家，来自少数民族背景的本科生，以及来自夏威夷和威斯康星州的坏河和赤壁部落社区的文化知识管理者和资源管理者。与这些合作伙伴一起，PI计划为K-16教室制定地球科学课程和课程计划，这些课程和课程计划与科学和文化意义有关，并与学习者的兴趣，文化背景，生活经历和当地社区的需求有关。参加该项目的学生将拥有自己的教育，并将获得必要的知识和技能，以解决明天的社会问题，并填补劳动力需求在部落，州和联邦资源管理和保护，可持续发展，环境咨询，科学传播和科学教育等领域。该项目将创建一个跨文化的地球科学学习生态系统，在夏威夷和威斯康星州的部落土地上具有文化和科学意义的地点提供体验式学习活动。调查人员与部落长老和知识保管人合作，将领导职前和在职教育工作者的专业发展活动，以支持他们开发与NGSS地球科学和科学与工程实践相一致的课程，这些课程建立在当地知识和地球科学概念的基础上，并解决现实世界的问题。该项目将确定制定和实施基于地方的、与社会和文化相关的STEM课程的有效做法和障碍。具体而言，该项目将：1）招募，授权，并保留来自不同背景的学生，特别是美洲原住民/夏威夷原住民学生，在环境和地球科学; 2）为生活在远离其文化根源的地方的学生和“低背景”学生培养地方感和“与地球的联系”，他们的文化可能与地方没有很深的联系; 3）支持教师开发可重复使用和可持续的相关，以地方为基础的课程，与下一代科学标准（NGSS）保持一致;和4）利用虚拟学习环境远程发展地方感。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过利用基金会的智力价值进行评估，被认为值得支持和更广泛的影响审查标准。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Tomorrow’s society will need to address issues of conserving and protecting natural resources like soil and water, deal with the rising threat of climate change and associated issues, and mitigate hazards like flooding, landslides, and coastal storms. No single disciplinary approach can combat these issues alone. For this there needs to be engagement with people from diverse cultural backgrounds, and incorporation of indigenous perspectives and different ways of teaching, learning, and knowing in the K-16 curriculum so future generations can address these challenges equitably and sustainably. This project will bring together a community of K-12 teachers, educators, geoscientists, undergraduate students from minoritized backgrounds, and cultural knowledge keepers and resource managers from Hawaii and Bad River and Red Cliff tribal communities in Wisconsin. With these partners, the PIs plan to develop geosciences curriculum and lesson plans for K-16 classrooms tied to places with scientific and cultural significance, and are relevant to learners’ interests, cultural backgrounds, lived experiences, and the needs of the local communities. Students participating in this project will take ownership of their own education, and will acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to address tomorrow’s societal issues, and to fill workforce needs in Tribal, State, and Federal resource management and conservation, sustainability, environmental consulting, science communication, and science education, among other fields. This project will create a cross-cultural geoscience learning ecosystem providing experiential learning activities at sites with both cultural and scientific significance in Hawaii and on Tribal lands in Wisconsin. The investigators in collaboration with Tribal elders and knowledge keepers, will lead professional development activities for pre- and in-service educators to support them in developing curriculum aligned with NGSS Earth Sciences and Science and Engineering Practices built upon local knowledge and Earth science concepts and addressing real-world issues. This project will identify effective practices for as well as barriers to developing and implementing place-based, socially and culturally relevant STEM curriculum. Specifically the project will: 1) recruit, empower, and retain students from diverse backgrounds, especially Native American/Native Hawaiian students, in the environmental and geosciences; 2) foster a sense of place and “connection to Earth” for students living in places far from those where their cultures are rooted, and for “low-context” students, whose cultures may not be deeply associated with place; 3) support teachers to develop reusable and sustainable relevant, place-based curriculum aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS); and 4) develop sense of place remotely using virtual learning environments.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.