The Lowell Observatory Native American Astronomy Outreach Program: Completing the Kayenta Unified School District collaboration

该项目将资助与亚利桑那州北部纳瓦霍民族的Kayenta联合学区的4-8年级教师合作的最后一年，作为2020-2021学年洛厄尔天文台纳瓦霍-霍皮人天文推广方案的一部分。教师与洛厄尔天文台的一名天文学家/教育家配对，后者定期访问天文台。明星聚会是与传授传统知识的部落教育者合作举办的，学生们参观洛厄尔天文台是一次终极体验。在2021年春天，NAAOP和KUnited资深教师将举办一次纳瓦霍全国教师工作坊，以便与其他人分享课程和对文化联系的看法。该项目将为4-8年级每个年级开发、测试和修改以天文学为中心的课程单元。课程使用基于项目的学习，并与亚利桑那州、共同核心、下一代科学和纳瓦霍部落标准保持一致。在为期三年的合作过程中，学生被作为一个队列保持在一起，并通过学生调查每年评估他们对STEM和STEM职业的兴趣。结果将在项目结束时进行统计，并通过期刊与利益攸关方以及教育和外展界分享。教师研讨会的结果也将与教学和外展社区分享，课程将以教师友好包的形式放在网上，可以下载。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The project will fund the final year of a partnership in collaboration with 4th-8th grade teachers in the Kayenta Unified School District (KUSD), located in the Navajo Nation of northern Arizona, as part of the Lowell Observatory Navajo-Hopi Astronomy Outreach Program (NAAOP)in the 2020-2021 school year. Teachers are paired with an astronomer/educator from Lowell Observatory who regularly visits the observatory. Star parties are held in partnership with tribal educators who present traditional knowledge, and students visit Lowell Observatory as a culminating experience. In the spring of 2021, the NAAOP and the veteran KUSD teachers will hold a Navajo Nation-wide teacher workshop in order to share the curriculum and perspectives on cultural connections with others.The project will develop, test, and revise an astronomy-centered curriculum unit for each of the 4th-8th grade levels. The curriculum uses Project Based Learning, and is aligned to Arizona, Common Core, Next Generation Science, and Navajo tribal standards. Students are kept together as a cohort over the course of the three-year collaboration, and their interest in STEM and STEM careers is assessed annually through student surveys. Results will be tallied at the end of the project and shared with stakeholders and the education and outreach communities through journals. The results of the teacher workshop will also be shared with the teaching and outreach communities, and the curriculum will be put online in a teacher-friendly package that can be downloaded.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.