Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:? The target audience through this New Beginning for Tribal Students grant project is tribal communities in Wisconsin which includes a focus on youth, Elders, K-12 teachers, college and potential college students. The broad reach for this project is accomplished through the partnership between the 3 land grant institutions in Wisconsin - Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University (lead institution for this award and 199 land grant); the University of Wisconsin - Madison (1862 land grant); and the College of Menominee Nation (1994 land grant). There are 11 federally recognized Tribe's in Wisconsin and 1 nonfederally recognized community (Brothertown). Regular communications are provided to all the Tribe's Education Departments, Johnson O'Malley liasons in the K-12 public school systems, pre-college networks, the Native Nations working group through UW-Madison, and many other connections and partnerships to provide the services and programs as provided through this grant funding. Changes/Problems:The previous project director was LCOOU's biology faculty who resigned in June 2024. Current PD, John Patrick, LCOOU NAS Faculty has been working with college coordinators facilitating the grant until a new biology faculty member is hired. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project brought together faculty and professors from each land grant institution to meet on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to create a 45 hour intensive credit based course entitled "Indigenous Land Stewardship." The course was co-hort based with students from LCOOU, CMN, and UW-Madison attending; along with professors from each institution that shared in the course presentations, hands-on experiential learning, and field trips. Below please find the evaluation report and outcomes for this objective. Evaluation Question #3B: How do opportunities including leadership, mentorship and field experiences effectively contribute to increasing Native students' engagement in STEM careers? Outcome: Native students report greater awareness of natural resources, conservation, agricultural and other STEM careers. Outcome: Native students report greater perceived knowledge of and relevant skills for STEM careers. In important examples of multi-stakeholder collaboration, NB II afforded two distinct undergraduate learning experiences. First was the development of a first-year interest group (FIG) at UW-Madison, or freshman cohort taking three courses together, including a main seminar based on Indigenous Arts and Sciences taught by EP staff and IAS partners. Second was the development of the first ever inter-institutional field course involving faculty and students from the three land-grant institutions. While an in-depth focus on undergraduate coursework is not part of the current evaluation focus (see Figure 1), we do present some preliminary findings here from experiences of undergraduate students and their instructors during the Summer 2022 LCOOU-CMN-UW-Madison joint field course. For one week in June 2022 on the Menominee Reservation, students learned about various environmental educational fields and careers and community sustainability initiatives, including agricultural experiments with biochar, timber harvesting, lake sturgeon ecology, ethnobotany, archeology, and how all these fields interact with tribal sovereignty, an authentic curriculum component. As a new course, the first of its kind to involve instructors from all three land-grant institutions, findings on the impact of the course are preliminary. It is contextually important to note that structuring and providing youth education, for high school youth or college students, is also a method of professional learning for the instructors involved as they engage in multi-stakeholder collaboration across institutions. In the words of two instructors: ? I have never co-taught with so many other instructors. I enjoyed learning from the other instructors. I also never have taught a course that incorporated so much conversation. (Source: Instructor Questionnaire) ? This field course is in many ways an extension of the methodology/pedagogy I use in working with others...education is a two-way process and does not place me at the helm. (Source: Instructor Questionnaire) Another instructor mentioned the importance of educators coming together from a wide variety of teaching and career backgrounds, and also how the students themselves engaged in collaborative learning (Note: An important limitation of these findings is that it is not clear from the data which students identify as Native. The comments below can be read as describing the importance of field-based educational experiences for all students, but some explicit connections to Native identity are apparent): ? It was a pleasure and honor to be immersed in learning from instructors, resource managers and community members...Students from all three campuses ate together, explored, learned, and worked in teams to present their thoughts on the interplay of Western and Indigenous science and management. I'm grateful to have been part of this experience. (Source: personal communication with Instructor) ? I feel invigorated seeing other young people involved and concerned about our communities. We have been given more tools to help shape and improve our ecosystems. We have built a great network of peers with a common goal of creating positive impacts in the world. (Source: Course Evaluation Student Survey) Field course students appear to have been positively impacted by the exposure to communication and learning from community members, in the field, and via real world applications of science. Their comments indicate that they were making explicit connections between the learning experiences that they enjoyed, the community values and tribal sovereignty that was being explained, and actual career paths and educational fields: ? The sustainable logging method Menominee Tribal Enterprise practices is fantastic and inspiring to learn about. This class really strengthened my connection with the natural world and emphasized the importance of ethical/sustainable land management. (Source: Course Evaluation Student Survey) ? Unfortunately, I had the initial impression that Indigenous people were undeveloped in their management but this has taught me that that is not the case. They rather pay more attention to the spirit and adopt a holistic, more conservative technique to agriculture, health and science. (Source: Course Evaluation Student Survey) ? This enhanced my stewardship and resilience by teaching me how to better manage resources. I am going to try to implement their farming tactics into my small-scale farming as well as utilizing as much of a plant or product as I can. (Source: Course Evaluation Student Survey) In several cases, students made a direct connection between the pursuit of a scientific career and their individual and/or community identity formation, a critical aspect of understanding and strengthening Native education pathways in a holistic way: ? I knew that we have to respect and care for our land for our future generations but I also learned how modern science can assist us! Learning about the sturgeon had a very special meaning to me because I am from the Sturgeon Clan. (Source: Course Evaluation Student Survey) ? Seeing so many good people working so hard on our reservation [was memorable or meaningful to me]. It's easy to lose sight of the good people and good work with the many difficulties we face. (Source: Course Evaluation Student Survey) These impacts speak to the importance of field-based learning and career exposure in making the connections clear between science education and skills, Indigenous culture and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and personal and community identities and values. The current findings speak to attitudes and intentions among students. In the next project year, an important direction for EQ#3 will be to assess outcomes directly related to increases in participation in STEM majors among Native students. The three partnering institutions planned and coordinated interviews with students to create recruiting video clips for potential new students. A video photographerwas hired. There was oneLCOOUstudent that attended anAISES conference inSpokane, Washington2023.? How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Each partnering land grant institution maintains a Website with a News section including summaries, photos, or articles about events. PI John Patrick with LCOOU has been attending monthly meeting with the New Beginnings grants. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?LCOOU is in the process of hiring a new biology instructor that vacated the position at the end of June 2024. The farm director and Dean of Careers and Tech Ed will be working with the new hire to process this new grant.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
LCOOU recently hired a pre-college coordinator during this reporting period, who is working with CMN on programs to enhance education readiness and retention thatattract students in STEM majors. There was a summer program in 2023 wherehighschool youth participated in "Grow Ojibwe" for a6 week long program at LCOOU. LCOOU hosted a harvest festivle at LCOOU's Land Grant Farm summer 2024, in which youth participated. 6 LCOOUstudent participants attended a summerevent in Madison, WI where they participated a NAT 300 course water drop exercise. A total of 8 elementary participated in a FANH fan club and a total of 17 middle school students participated in June 2024 summer fan club. Their activities were related to agriculture, health related (10CPR, first aid training red cross certified) andnatural resources. Outcome: Native students report greater awareness of natural resources, conservation, agricultural and other STEM careers. METHODS: Data collection methods consisted of an interview with a former FIG student (n=1); field course post-survey (n=15); and a field course instructor focus group (n=). Note that interview, focus group, and open-ended survey comments have been lightly edited for clarity and length. Field course post-survey and focus group instruments can be found in the Appendix. Undergraduate courses provided through the NB project expose students (Native and non-Native) to a variety of STEM careers, moving beyond "awareness" to inspiration and deeper meaning for careers, specifically in land stewardship. Students make connections between their values, learning goals, and thoughts for overall life journeys when considering how their coursework experiences are informing their potential future plans. [The course] emphasized how critical / beautiful / fun / important land stewardship is. [The course] has shown me how diverse the field is and how much work is being put into it. It has definitely highlighted to me the importance of this work as well. This course influenced and inspired my aspiration in terms of career and lifelong goals. (June 2024 Field Course / Native student participants)
Publications
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience through this New Beginning for Tribal Students grant project is tribal communities in Wisconsin which includes a focus on youth, Elders, K-12 teachers, college and potential college students. The broad reach for this project is accomplished through the partnership between the 3 land grant institutions in Wisconsin - Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University (lead institution for this award and 199 land grant); theUniversity of Wisconsin - Madison (1862 land grant); and the College of Menominee Nation (1994 land grant). There are 11 federally recognized Tribe's in Wisconsin and 1 non-federally recognized community (Brothertown). Regular communications are provided to all the Tribe's Education Departments, Johnson O'Malley liasons in the K-12 public school systems, pre-college networks, the Native Nations working group through UW-Madison, and many other connections and partnerships to provide the services and programs as provided through this grant funding. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project brought together faculty and professors from each land grant institution to meet on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to create a 45 hour intensive credit based course entitled "Indigenous Land Stewardship." The course was co-hort based with students from LCOOU, CMN, and UW-Madison attending; along with professors from each institution that shared in the course presentations, hands-on experiential learning, and field trips. Below please find the evaluation report and outcomes for this objective. Evaluation Question #3B: How do opportunities including leadership, mentorship and field experiences effectively contribute to increasing Native students' engagement in STEM careers? Outcome: Native students report greater awareness of natural resources, conservation, agricultural and other STEM careers. Outcome: Native students report greater perceived knowledge of and relevant skills for STEM careers. In important examples of multi-stakeholder collaboration, NB II afforded two distinct undergraduate learning experiences. First was the development of a first-year interest group (FIG) at UW-Madison, or freshman cohort taking three courses together, including a main seminar based on Indigenous Arts and Sciences taught by EP staff and IAS partners. Second was the development of the first ever inter-institutional field course involving faculty and students from the three land-grant institutions. While an in-depth focus on undergraduate coursework is not part of the current evaluation focus (see Figure 1), we do present some preliminary findings here from experiences of undergraduate students and their instructors during the Summer 2022 LCOOU-CMN-UW-Madison joint field course. The 2022-23 report will provide a more in-depth evaluation of these courses and their impacts for Native education pathways. For one week in June 2022 on the Menominee Reservation, students learned about various environmental educational fields and careers and community sustainability initiatives, including agricultural experiments with biochar, timber harvesting, lake sturgeon ecology, ethnobotany, archeology, and how all these fields interact with tribal sovereignty, an authentic curriculum component. As a new course, the first of its kind to involve instructors from all three land-grant institutions, findings on the impact of the course are preliminary. It is contextually important to note that structuring and providing youth education, for high school youth or college students, is also a method of professional learning for the instructors involved as they engage in multi-stakeholder collaboration across institutions. In the words of two instructors: ? I have never co-taught with so many other instructors. I enjoyed learning from the other instructors. I also never have taught a course that incorporated so much conversation. (Source: Instructor Questionnaire) ? This field course is in many ways an extension of the methodology/pedagogy I use in working with others...education is a two-way process and does not place me at the helm. (Source: Instructor Questionnaire) Another instructor mentioned the importance of educators coming together from a wide variety of teaching and career backgrounds, and also how the students themselves engaged in collaborative learning (Note: An important limitation of these findings is that it is not clear from the data which students identify as Native. The comments below can be read as describing the importance of field-based educational experiences for all students, but some explicit connections to Native identity are apparent): ? It was a pleasure and honor to be immersed in learning from instructors, resource managers and community members...Students from all three campuses ate together, explored, learned, and worked in teams to present their thoughts on the interplay of Western and Indigenous science and management. I'm grateful to have been part of this experience. (Source: personal communication with Instructor) ? I feel invigorated seeing other young people involved and concerned about our communities. We have been given more tools to help shape and improve our ecosystems. We have built a great network of peers with a common goal of creating positive impacts in the world. (Source: Course Evaluation Student Survey) Field course students appear to have been positively impacted by the exposure to communication and learning from community members, in the field, and via real world applications of science. Their comments indicate that they were making explicit connections between the learning experiences that they enjoyed, the community values and tribal sovereignty that was being explained, and actual career paths and educational fields: ? The sustainable logging method Menominee Tribal Enterprise practices is fantastic and inspiring to learn about. This class really strengthened my connection with the natural world and emphasized the importance of ethical/sustainable land management. (Source: Course Evaluation Student Survey) ? Unfortunately, I had the initial impression that Indigenous people were undeveloped in their management but this has taught me that that is not the case. They rather pay more attention to the spirit and adopt a holistic, more conservative technique to agriculture, health and science. (Source: Course Evaluation Student Survey) ? This enhanced my stewardship and resilience by teaching me how to better manage resources. I am going to try to implement their farming tactics into my small-scale farming as well as utilizing as much of a plant or product as I can. (Source: Course Evaluation Student Survey) In several cases, students made a direct connection between the pursuit of a scientific career and their individual and/or community identity formation, a critical aspect of understanding and strengthening Native education pathways in a holistic way: ? I knew that we have to respect and care for our land for our future generations but I also learned how modern science can assist us! Learning about the sturgeon had a very special meaning to me because I am from the Sturgeon Clan. (Source: Course Evaluation Student Survey) ? Seeing so many good people working so hard on our reservation [was memorable or meaningful to me]. It's easy to lose sight of the good people and good work with the many difficulties we face. (Source: Course Evaluation Student Survey) These impacts speak to the importance of field-based learning and career exposure in making the connections clear between science education and skills, Indigenous culture and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and personal and community identities and values. The current findings speak to attitudes and intentions among students. In the next project year, an important direction for EQ#3 will be to assess outcomes directly related to increases in participation in STEM majors among Native students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Each partnering land grant institution maintains a Website with a News section including summaries, photos, or articles about events. PI Amber Marlow meets with Johnson-O'Malley board members in Lac Courte Oreilles. UW-Madison Earth Partnership Tribal Liaison Rachel Byington meets monthly with the Wisconsin Indian Education Association board. PICherylBauer-Armstrong provides updates to David O'Connor the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction American Indian Studies Consultant. Amber Marlow, PI Brandon Frechette and Rachel Byington presented about NBTS at the Seven Generations Inter-Tribal Summit in October 2021. UW-Madison partners provide quarterly updates to the Native Nations Working group. UW-Madison partners presented to the USDA Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee on July 5, 2022.? What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In this project the Wisconsin Tribal Conservation Advisory Council (WTCAC) was added as a formal partner. The institutions will communicate more to assist with facilitating and reviewing WTCAC's role within this project. The videos and mentorship programs will be created and implemented. Objective 1: Activity 2: Create three video-vignettes per Institution of Native alumni's personal pathways to college and career that would be available on UW, CMN, and LCOOC web pages for use in High School college readiness and campus recruiting programs. Activity 3: WTCAC will coordinate USDA career days annually at two to three high schools to build awareness of USDA career opportunities, internships and degree requirements. Activity 4: Twenty-four students per year will shadow Tribal natural resources staff. Examples include tracking radio-collared wolves or elk; assessing tree regeneration; and planting and weeding for regenerative agriculture. These students will also receive mentorship on their community-based learning projects. Objective 2: Activity 2: Develop and produce a professional development webinar for college faculty and staff with the goal of improving success in teaching and mentoring Native students through discussion of a) importance of relationship building, b) perspectives on Native student commitments to family and community, c) identifying and avoiding microaggressions, and d) ideas for integrating Western and Indigenous ways of knowing in courses. Activity 3: WTCAC provides information to students about the USAJobs and Pathways Internship application process for federal government career and internship opportunities and places students into WTCAC and USDA Internship positions. ?Activity 7: Provide a platform for students to present at the WTCAC Board meetings about their experiences and recommendations for addressing natural resources, conservation and agricultural issues.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1. Broaden Native pre-college students experiences with STEM, agriculture and natural resource majors and careers, and expand these opportunities to other Tribal communities within Wisconsin. Activity 1: Twenty-four youth per year will participate in campus and field site visits to understand college life and explore degree opportunities and career interests. Activity 5: Provide leadership opportunities for participating youth, including mentoring younger students; and presenting environmental inquiry projects at regional conferences, Youth InterTribal Forums, and Tribal Councils; students will be invited to present at WTCAC Board meeting their perspectives, ideas and recommendations of their environmental concerns and future directions for land management. Objective 2: Attract and retain students in STEM majors particularly in natural resource conservation and agricultural fields. Increase student graduation and career preparation through cultivating a sense of belonging, skill mastery, and commitment to individual growth and service to community. The above goals and objectives of NBTS II have been evaluated with the results of the specific programming as described below through multiple pre-college summer experiential programs, teacher professional devleopment, and college readiness activities and college preview days. Evaluation Question #3A: To what extent does TEK-driven pre-college programming increase Native youth interest and capacity for education and career pathways? Outcome: Changes in confidence, skills and capacity to pursue an education pathway that leads to productive STEM careers Emergent findings are beginning to demonstrate how holistic student support via youth programming is strengthening identity development and cultural knowledge in ways that also increase STEM interest and capacity. Since we did not have sufficient data to address this question in the November 2021 Annual Report for NB I, here we integrate data from NB I and NB II, which was collected during summer 2021 and summer 2022 from two sites: the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University and the College of Menominee Nation. These programs were built into the NB I project from the outset, and were a primary focus of the NB II project because of the identification of internships/mentoring/youth programming as a major education pathway theme. In Summer 2021, ten high school youth took part in a six-week summer program at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University. The program focused on Ojibwe culture, creative writing, and career exploration. Students learned about geographical systems (GIS), story mapping, the water cycle, watershed ecology and modeling, and tribal water resource management, all incorporating Ojibwe language and culture. LCOOU built the program in collaboration with Indian Land Tenure Foundation and Earth Partnership, organizations that have distinct focus areas, target audiences, and geographic ranges, but who came together for a common purpose with LCO students (multi-stakeholder collaboration). Summer 2022 programming was similar to the previous year, with a dozen high school youth participating that year. Learning experiences were similar, focusing on hands-on learning experiences related to land and water protection, in the context of Ojibwe language and culture. However, more robust data was collected in the second year, consisting of a mid-point focus group (n=12) and post-participation interviews (n=7). Findings from these events demonstrate clearer interactions of student cultural identity and engagement with STEM education and careers. The College of Menominee Nation also hosted twelve youth in a six-week Menominee language program. CMN built the program in collaboration with Menomini yoU and Earth Partnership (multi-stakeholder collaboration), organizations who focus on language revitalization and culturally-engaged land stewardship, respectively. The language instruction focused primarily on the natural world and included water education, learning about the water cycle and visiting a sacred site on the Wolf River where they heard a culturally significant story about the sturgeon. Activities included developing a model watershed to understand how characteristics of a watershed determine where water and pollutants flow and accumulate. Students were asked to imagine a detriment to their watershed and then share out with their peers: the detriment and the impact to their watershed. These included pipelines, mining, general pollution, and agricultural impacts. Data sources consist of student work at both sites, an LCO Summer 2021 youth participant survey (n=2), an LCO Summer 2022 youth participant focus group (n=12), and a CMN Summer 2022 youth participant focus group. We also conducted an interview with the lead instructor for the CMN Summer 2021 program and integrate our own facilitator observations and field notes in the analysis, as project staff and evaluators were embedded in this programming. While students at both program sites in both years demonstrated what we and instructors understand to be gains in STEM knowledge - particularly in relationship to community issues and priorities, or at the intersection of STEM and language and culture - students did not necessarily make these explicit connections themselves. For example, both LCO students who took the 2021 survey reported liking the hands-on water activities and specifically one student noted that creating the watershed gave them experience with a "new job opportunity." However, one student reported they did not have much interest in taking STEM courses. Neither reported interest in pursuing STEM careers (Source: LCO Summer 2021 survey). Across sites, students were much more likely to express interest in the language and culture aspects of the program, and the place- based learning. Activity 6: Provide opportunities and funding for at least 12 students per year to present their research projects at conferences and research symposia. Nine students from Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University traveled to the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) Annual Conference in September, 2021 to Phoenix, Arizona. The goal in 2022 is to have a co-hort of students attend the AISES national conference that will present research and be attending either LCOOU, CMN, or UW-Madison.?
Publications
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