Recipient Organization
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
CORVALLIS,OR 97331
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
"Explore and More: Diving Deeper into Tribal Students' Interests" Program is a three-phase framework that guides Indigenous high school students as they look to their own cultures as inspiration, creating original projects that will address community issues related to food, agriculture, and natural resource management. For this project, we propose working with two high schools: Siletz Valley School, a public charter school located in rural Siletz, Oregon, and Chemawa Indian School, an off-reservation boarding school operated by the Bureau of Indian Education in Salem. A majority of the boarding students come from reservations and rural communities throughout the western United States. We expect 10 students per school, per year (N=40), two teachers per school, per year (N=8), and five community member mentors per school, per year (N=20).Students will first "explore" community issues through field trips, hand-on experiences, and conversations with community experts to learn about local priorities and the work being done to address them. These explorations will specifically focus on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), Indigenous food sovereignty and entrepreneurship in the restaurant industry, sustainable agriculture and Native-owned farms, and traditional methods of resource management. Next, students will "create" a unique product that addresses community priorities through research, invention, art, or an interdisciplinary combination of methods. Small groups will work closely with OSU or community member mentors who have been trained in problem-based learning-specific skills and trauma-informed teaching strategies. Finally, students will "showcase" their work in a public forum in their community.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
"Explore and More: Diving Deeper into Tribal Students' Interests" Program is a three-phase framework that guides Indigenous high school students as they look to their own cultures as inspiration, creating original projects that will address community issues related to food, agriculture, and natural resource management. For this project, we propose working with two high schools: Siletz Valley School, a public charter school located in rural Siletz, Oregon, and Chemawa Indian School, an off-reservation boarding school operated by the Bureau of Indian Education in Salem. A majority of the boarding students come from reservations and rural communities throughout the western United States. We expect 10 students per school, per year (N=40), two teachers per school, per year (N=8), and five community member mentors per school, per year (N=20).Students will first "explore" community issues through field trips, hand-on experiences, and conversations with community experts to learn about local priorities and the work being done to address them. These explorations will specifically focus on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), Indigenous food sovereignty and entrepreneurship in the restaurant industry, sustainable agriculture and Native-owned farms, and traditional methods of resource management. Next, students will "create" a unique product that addresses community priorities through research, invention, art, or an interdisciplinary combination of methods. Small groups will work closely with OSU or community member mentors who have been trained in problem-based learning-specific skills and trauma-informed teaching strategies. Finally, students will "showcase" their work in a public forum in their community.The proposed "Explore and More" will develop students' abilities in leadership, research, problem-solving, communication, and teamwork while integrating mentorship and culminating in public presentation of the student projects and honors Indigenous Research Principles as it builds skills that enable post-secondary academic success.This project takes a unique approach to improving high school students' educational outcomes by:Integrating hands-on activities and student education in Indigenous food sovereignty, entrepreneurship in the restaurant industry, sustainable agriculture and Native-owned farms, traditional methods of resource management, and TEKIncorporating Indigenous students, teachers, community leaders, and OSU faculty and staff in the planning process.The final projects are student-driven and students have voice, choice, and agency while creating and presenting tangible the food/agricultural projects to their communityCreating opportunities for students from different schools to join together and share their findings and final projects.Providing culturally relevant, trauma-informed, and problem-based teaching skills through professional development and ongoing support for teachers and community member mentors.Ensuring high school students receive stipends for their participation over the course of a long-term commitment, eliminating a barrier to participation in after-school programming for low-income students.
Project Methods
Professional Development. Teachers and community memberprofessional development includes in-depth training on:Cultural history of the Indigenous Tribes represented by the students in the participating schools, along with learning and practicing culturally responsive teaching techniques.Defining TEK and an overview of Indigenous food sovereignty, sustainable agriculture, and traditional methods of resource management.Understanding trauma, learning Trauma-Informed teaching strategies for student support, and practicing the learnings in various scenarios.Problem-Based Learning overview, how it works in a classroom, applying culturally responsive and trauma informed practices in project design, how to craft a problem statement, how to develop an action plan, and how to support students through activities.Student Programming.The eight phases of "Explore and More":Exploration. Teachers and "Explore and More" staff will support students in exploring topics on TEK, Indigenous food sovereignty, sustainable agriculture and Native-owned farms, and traditional methods of resource management, with the goal of learning about local priorities. Potential methods for learning the topics include content expert speakers, field trips, and/or interviewing community members.Topic Selection. Students will select a topic of interest and will be grouped with students with similar interests, with the goal of the students clearly defining the issue and writing a problem statement. This will be accomplished through iterative brainstorming sessions with the students where themes and ideas are identified and refined. The problem statement is created to address the target population affected, the need of the target population, and why the need is important to them. Mentors will be assigned to groups to help support them through the remaining phases of the program.Choosing a Pathway and Action Plan. After the students have a clearly-defined issue, the students will decide how they want to address it. Student project pathways tend to fall into one of three categories: 1. Diagnose - exploring what impacts this issue is having on the community and/or environment. 2. Prevent - exploring ways to avert or mediate the issue. 3. Treat - exploring ways to heal, counteract, or reverse the negative impacts from this issue. Students will learn about various project formats, such as designing an experiment, an outreach project, creating an infographic, developing a scientific poster, setting up an interactive display, or creating a written document that incorporates oral histories or narratives. The students will reflect on the opportunities and limitations of their idea, with a goal of choosing a pathway and format they believe to be the best fit for their project.Creating a Project Proposal. Students will work through the developing a working project proposal that addresses the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the project. The proposal will have specific details of the project, including a timeline and the actions, supplies, and people needed for the project to be successful.Conducting Background Research. Students will learn the importance of finding multiple reliable sources, what makes a source credible, how their own work will be a part of a greater body of research and work others are doing to address the issue, and how to correctly cite sources. The students will identify what they already know about the food and agricultural issue, what they still need to know, and what aspects are they most curious about.Create! Do the Project. Students will give and receive feedback on their own, and others' projects to refine and finalize the plan. Students will begin and are asked to document their process in a way they can use to easily tell their story later. Students will receive a Project Check-list and student journals to assist this process and will have support from "Explore and More" personnel, their teachers, and project mentor.Synthesize the Work. Students will learn how to organize and group their materials, map out the different parts of the project, and create a draft of a final product for feedback.Showcase. The final phase is for students to share their work and findings with the community. Students are encouraged to create a list of people they would like to include. Early in the program, details for the Showcase will be collaboratively decided on between students, community partners, and "Explore and More" personnel.Local community leaders/teachers at each site will collaboratively develop a scope and timeline with "Explore and More" personnel. Community leaders may recruit mentors directly from their network (older students, retirees) or request to engage mentors affiliated with OSU (undergraduate or graduate students in food and agriculture programs). They will also recruit youth as participants. This project is open to all students, from those who haven't thrived within the boundaries of traditional academic experiences to those craving extended opportunities for academic rigor. Problem-based learning is easily customized in scope; individualized mentorship also provides a means to support students in whichever ways they need it most.Community knowledge is foundational to this project in every phase and inspired by the Indigenous culture of reciprocity. Recruitment will begin by inviting families to crowd-source potential connections, such as unique field trip sites, potential mentors, or showcase event locations. Family members can act as community experts and/or as chaperones during the "Explore" phase. Youth are encouraged to speak with families and garner input about their ideas throughout the process. Finally, the showcase will enable students to move outside the classroom and share their work with the community. Networking for event locations, such as the local library, tribal center, or community space will be a critically motivating component of project design. Finally, students can reach a wider audience through travel to regional conferences, symposiums, art shows, or competitions.Youth Voices in an Engagement Model. For any education effort, the role of the intended audience in the development process can be conceived along a continuum from little or no engagement through full engagement as co-producers and co-authors (Doberneck & Dann, 2019). In much curriculum development, the intended audience may only be engaged by a needs assessment before the process begins or, at most, a formative assessment of various components, and this may negatively influence sustainability and implementation (Couso, 2016). The OSU model is explicitly designed to engage intended audiences as co-producers of the programming rather than simply as consumers. This is particularly essential when conducting engaged scholarship with local and Indigenous communities. We explicitly build in support for a targeted number of both educators, community members, and students as direct participants to collaborate with university and content experts in co-creation activities of research projects.Strategies Encompassing Dimensions of Equity. This framework is founded in multicultural education, activities, and strategies that celebrate the diversity of students. The exploration of community is a form of social justice education, in which students gain tools to understand historical events, policies, and practices, including the interactions of TEK and western science. Finally, the elements of student choice and celebration of diverse forms of communication is a culturally responsive practice as it builds resilience and academic mindsets by pushing back on dominant narratives. When students' own interests and histories are honored, they are motivated to expand the boundaries of their own knowledge in pursuit of a creative goal, and academic growth becomes a seamless part of the experience.