Progress 09/15/23 to 09/14/24
Outputs
Target Audience:Leech Lake Tribal College's main audience is of course the enrollees of Leech Lake Reservation and the surrounding community. Leech Lake Reservation is located in Northern Minnesota and is located next to Red Lake Nation and White Earth reservations who students attend our school. We are also an open reservation so there is a diverse population from which to draw students on and around the reservation. Leech Lake has a student body comprised of 90% Native American students due to its location and the uniqueness of being a Tribal College. With our programs Leech Lake Tribal College serves the students it has and the surrounding community of Leech Lake Reservation. Studies have showed that Native American students in the STEM field have significant obstacles based on their High School experience that they need to overcome to obtain a STEM degree. The main obstacle is the lack of mathematics and science they have carried over from their high school. Leech Lake Tribal College has implemented the NIFA grant to partially pay for the hire a mathematics teacher/tutor concentrate the lower math classes to raise the skill levels of students for them to be successful in their initial experience and be able to continue on into algebra that is required for our STEM degree. This grant pays partial salaries of two STEM teachers which allows us to offer higher level science and mathematics courses that have low enrollment. Catering to the top STEM students in this way prepares them for transfer to a 4 year university and makes for a successful transition. Students enrolling in our higher courses have a proven track record of using the higher courses as preparation for transferring to 4-year institutions. Also, with the grant we have enhanced our science labs at Leech Lake and this raises the level of science that our students are exposed to. We are now capable of offering labs and research experiences to the students that show them the usefulness of STEM careers. With our research we concentrate on issues that are of concern to the Leech Lake Reservation and work alongside them to develop action plans. Our internships and research are done locally and impact the Reservation surrounding our college and the community members that impacts. For the past seven years we have had a math tutor in our learning center allowing students extra tutor times. This student worked directly with our students and we found that the interaction with other students was well received. We also had 4 students work and compete with our high powered rocket team that is co-sponsored through the Minnesota Space Grant. Through the rocket club we are able to outreach to the Cass Lake Schools and community with our high powered rockets introducing students to STEM. With the grant we are able to buy hobby rockets that we are able to put together and successfully launch with groups we outreach to. Leech Lake has conducted a community night each semester for the past few years where we concentrate on reaching out to the community. During the night there are various activities revolving around STEM that the community can attend. The community night is always well received and attended by around 150 community members. With our involvement on the reservation and community Leech Lake Tribal College connects with a wide range of people through the grant. Leech Lake Tribal College is an open enrollment college but still has a large Native American population and is able to focus on increasing the number of Native American graduates and specifically the number of STEM related graduates. Leech Lake Tribal College reaches out to the community and local reservation entities through their research, internships, and activities put on by the college. The impact of our college ranges early childhood age, our college students, and community members that are affected by our program and outreach. With continued funding we will be able to continue the outreach and impact that Leech Lake is having on the reservation and surrounding communities. Changes/Problems:Due to three years of Covid restricting what LLTC could do and with the increased funding from NIFA we were left with carry-over money that needed to be spent down. LLTC spent 2022-2023 adjusting the grant to include more expenses as we work to get back on track with our current grant year. Changes made in the grant reflect how we will move forward with increased funding as with our college getting the NIFA NEXT GEN grant this will make utilizing the NIFA EQUITY grant expenditures more concentrated on the mathematics portion of our STEM program. With this in mind LLTC is putting partial salary of our faculty math tutor into the grant as she helps with the grant and her job of assisting students falls under the grant. Given the fact that Native American students statistically come out of High School under prepared to succeed in mathematics this is an area we want to address with the grant funds as without the math level STEM course retention for students are difficult. LLTC will be using our carryover funding for equipping a current classroom into a new computer lab as we are finding that most of our classes are in need of some sort of technology component for students. This new computer lab will be put in place before the summer of 2025 as we will need to coordinate with our technology and teachers to design and create this usable space during the 2024-2025 school year. LLTC is looking at helping our local high schools robotics team as they are in need of supplies to build and compete. LLTC will be reaching out to them and develop a plan where we can buy $2000 worth of supplies through our college business office for them to use. This outreach would help connect us with some of the students at Cass Lake High School and increase the level of robotics that they can have students working on and competing in. This partnership requires few hours of LLTC faculties' time but will yield a good connection into the high school and a pathway for students to become familiar with our college. LLTC will be increasing conferences students can attend for 2024-2025 as for 2023-2024 we sent students to Geo-Science, AISES, FALCON, and AIHEC to expose them to different options as they look to pursue their STEM degrees. With the NEXT GEN grant from NIFA we will be able to increase the number of conferences and student participation for 2024-2025. Having students that have done research or internship present posters at different conferences is a priority for our STEM department as this will challenge our students and offer them valuable experiences. LLTC STEM faculties are using NIFA more for travel to content related conferences as we are looking at more online training and different ways to increase STEM numbers after the lasting effect of Covid 19. LLTC wants to keep training for STEM teachers available as we feel it is vital that faculties stay current in their areas. The increase in faculties travel will be covered with the carry-over funds. LLTC will also be buying more lab supplies than previously listed as a way to increase our labs to enhance learning but also spend down carry-over. Our department is assessing the labs and finding that we have some outdated equipment that could use replacement. Working as a department we will be looking at the best way to improve our labs for the 2024-2025 school year. LLTC has had turnover in our finance office at the same time Covid-19 hit the world and the college. With this came struggles concerning the grant as budgets and spending was hard to get for the grant. This is where the carry-over came from as with our struggles and Covid-19 shutting down some of our projects we are trying to make plans going forward that lays the ground work for spending down the grant. LLTC used the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school year to alter the budget and increase areas that we felt would enhance the grant. LLTC is still making final plans for our carryover funds within our finance office and will use the 2024-2025 school year to get our budgets back on track with the hopeful carryover being entirely spent by September 2025. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Understanding that our Land Grant status and our NIFA grants are important, we have concentrated on getting people into the NIFA system quickly. We have had an instructor attend the 2023 FALCON conference and our Grants Office attend 2023. Getting faculty up to speed has prepared us to run and report our NIFA grants correctly. LLTC implemented our new NIFA DEET grant with Fon Du Lac Tribal College as a partner. With this grant, LLTC is able to increase its assistance and opportunities to STEM students coming through our college. This grant will also allow LLTC to assist students as they attend a 4-year institution which will be pivotal in them succeeding with a Bachelors degree in STEM. For the First Nations Rocket Launch we had a team of 4 students that worked on the rocket build Spring 2024 and then compete in April in WI. LLTC has done the rocket build for 13 years and will continue getting students involved for the foreseeable future. LLTC will be looking to get back into the competitive side of the competition as we are able to meet in person again and travel has opened back up along with increased student interest. STEM faculty attended online learning training in the 2023-2024 school year as a requirement of Higher Learning Commission. Each faculty member had to complete an Online training as we are engaged in online teaching and this help the college provide adequate services to the students. Faculty teaching online classes for the 2023- 2024 school year had to increase their online training as we have found this to be a requirement by HLC in order for us to hold online classes. Some STEM teachers are utilizing online classes more and will have to maintain their online training in order to be deemed online certified by HLC. We had math teacher go to National Council of Mathematics and ICTCM by Pearson to stay current with MyMathLab. Another to the National Indian Education Association and Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators. Computer faculty went to SIGCSE to stay current in their field. Science faculty attended FALCON with students and did more local conferences within the state in their area as it was more convenient to get to and helped LLTC maintain relationships that have been built. With faculty attending conferences LLTC stays on top of the changes that are occurring in our prospective areas and help the instructors relay the information to the students in an efficient manner. LLTC feels that it is important to stay abreast in their areas as with online learning, computers, and mathematics there are changes occurring all of the time and we need to be able to address those changes with the knowledge gained through professional development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been disseminated to the community through various activities that the college engages in throughout the year. One way we accomplish this is by creating an advisory board that is made up of local agencies that are involved in the STEM careers. Through this interaction we are able to showcase and distribute the accomplishments of LLTC and interact with many people in the community. A second way is through our grant internships as they are run through the different community agencies on the Leech Lake Reservation. Our interns are one of our most important advertising tools for the college as they spread the message of the college through their work. We have found that having internships spreads the word faster than faculty traveling around which drives the need to increase the number and scope of our internships to make our presence in the community greater. LLTC has implemented a recruitment plan that concentrates on the Native American high school students in all of our area schools. We know that there are students that can benefit from coming to our school in the high schools and it is up to us to get the message out to them. LLTC has a STEM recruiter to undertake this task of increasing our STEM numbers and currently has met with local schools and set up a timeline where they will go into the school and disperse information about our STEM program. LLTC went into the community centers around the reservation conducting a community wide survey to help the direct the college's future strategic plan. Teachers and students went to the various communities within Leech Lake Reservation and held an informational meeting asking how LLTC could improve and the areas of focus that the community wanted. This survey fulfills our Stake Holders commitment for the grant as it is used to inform the college of the community's long term vision for the college. Being out in the various communities allows faculty and students the chance to talk about our programs and answer questions about the college. We have research projects that have our students going out into the communities and LLTC feels this is one of the most important ways to relay information as their success is our advertisement. Students who are doing well in their classes, internships, and research are good ambassadors for the college and are far better at talking about the STEM department at LLTC than the faculty are. Students have a personal connection that faculty may not have with the community and I think it is this connection that gets the community to listen and engage. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Goal 1 - Sustain New STEM Degree Programs. Objectives: Evaluate degrees in the Natural Science area through program review. Expand curriculum and strengthen degrees in the Natural Science area. Establish articulation agreements with four- year institutions. Increase the number of students in the STEM program. LLTC completed the process of combining degree programs and will offer a Natural Science degree that will have four tracks for students to take: Forest Ecology, Information Technology, Human Health, and Indigenous Science.Combining the degrees into one will make for less paperwork for Higher Learning Commission while still allowing students to emphasize in key areas.With our degrees combined, LLTC will look to increase our STEM numbers under these new degrees.During the 2023-2024 school year LLTC will be conducted a program review of our STEM department and will be using this to guide changes in our department for the next two years. LLTC has been approved for the NEXTGEN grant through NIFA where we will be able to expand our currilcum and faculties. The goal of the grant is to increase student opportunities at LLTC and help them transition to a 4-year college in STEM and succeed. LLTC will be implemented the grant June 2023 and fully implemented during the 2023-2024 school year. LLTC has hired a grant DEET grant manager and used the Spring of 2024 to get the various parts of the grant going. The grant will benefit LLTC students but will take a team to execute the various portions of the grant. For our articulation agreements LLTC continued working with Bemidji State University on keeping our courses transferable. BSU has an Indigenous Sustainability Bachelor's Degree that our students are finding lines up with their interest and is a viable degree that they can obtain which can lead to employment. For the Fall of 2024 we have 3 second year students at BSU and 2 new transfer students. LLTC will report the success of the students in future progress reports. LLTC works within the structure of MNSCU to ensure that our classes and degrees transfer within the MNSCU Portal of colleges. LLTC consistently assist students with transferability by providing guidance and syllabi to ensure that the process of transferring to a 4-year institution. LLTC is partnering with Fon du Lac Tribal College for the NEXTGEN NIFA grant and will be looking at partnering with classes through both institutions during the 2024-2025 school year. LLTC has made a push to increase and retain more STEM students. LLTC currently has 26 STEM students declared and feel that this is a sustainable number given our enrollment for the Fall 2024. LLTC has increased research and internships within our department and feels this is a good way of retaining STEM students as they get hands on experience. With the NEXT Gen grant we will be increasing the number of opportunities for students and reaching more students. Goal 2 - Improve STEM Instructional and Research Methods. Objectives: Faculty will participate in conferences for the purpose of incorporating new concepts/ techniques into their courses. LLTC will have up-to-date labs that allow students to explore ideas and concepts learned in class. Faculty within the department will stay current and qualified in their specified fields. Faculty under the grant will be encouraged to attend at least one conference in their area of expertise in order to stay current in their field. The PI or Co-PI will also attend FALCON in order to stay current with the grant requirements as we feel that keeping in good standing with the grant is important. Two faculties within the STEM department maintain their Minnesota teaching license by completing 125 hours of education credits and fulfilling 5 required areas. Keeping current with high school license is important as it allows faculty the opportunity to better understand what high school teachers are faced with under the Minnesota Standards and where our students are coming from. LLTC knows that most of our entering students are under prepared in mathematics and it is our job to understand where they are at and how to get them through the level of math they need to graduate with their desired degree. LLTC will maintain its STEM labs as our plans of renovating one of the labs rested with us getting the NEXT GEN grant. Right now LLTC is adding shelving into the lab and going through the equipment to see what is being used and what can be stored or thrown. STEM teachers have been ordering equipment to upgrade the labs and since we had carry over from Covid years we have the opportunity to use NIFA dollars to enhance the labs and increase student learning. LLTC will be using our carryover funding for equipping a current classroom into a new computer lab as we are finding that most of our classes are in need of some sort of technology component for students. This new computer lab will be put in place before the summer of 2025 as we will need to coordinate with our technology and teachers to design and create this usable space during the 2024-2025 school year. Goal 3 - Build Student Capacity Objectives: Provide a STEM tutor in our Learning Center to aid in student learning. Provide STEM students the opportunity to participate in scientific research projects. Provide STEM students internship opportunities to participate in scientific work force. We will continue our mathematics tutoring for the2024-2025 school year as we have found that math is a deficiency that needs to be addressed at our school. This deficiency relays into the STEM areas and makes science classes more difficult. Raising their math skills quicker allows them to progress better in all of their classes where math is present. For the 2023-2024 school year one student will able to work as a math tutor in our learning center through NIFA to increase student tutoring. This worked out well in 2023-2024 and we are developing this position further and work more closely with our instructor/tutor sponsored by our grants division. We are tracking the tutoring as we want to look at students time spent with tutor compared to their class grades. LLTC has data in past years that showed a direct correlation between having a tutor and increased retention. The high powered rocket team competed in the Spring of 2023 with success as we successfully launched our rocket twice. The rocket team will competed at First Nations Launch Spring of 2025 in the Gateway Tribal Division. LLTC will maintain a presence at the rocket launch for the foreseeable future as classes are meeting in person and travel restrictions have been lifted. LLTC is looking at using NIFA funds to expand the research and internship opportunities we offer as we now have the capability with the labs and equipment that was put in place through the grant. With Covid carry-over dollars LLTC is looking at having more summer internships for the students as we previously were using NSF money that has ended. For the summer 2024 we have 15 internships lined up with some of them being paid from NIFA carryover dollars. With the new NEXT GEN Grant we will be increasing research and internships to help students progress through their Bachelors and possibly Masters degrees. With the NEXT GEN grant from NIFA we will be able to increase the number of conferences and student participation for 2024-2025. Having students that have done research or internship present posters at different conferences is a priority for our STEM department as this will challenge our students and offer them valuable experiences.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
LLTC has used our NIFA Equity Grant to address the needs of our college as it directly relates to students opportunity and success. LLTC used the grant to update equipment for our labs as we move to increase our student research at the college. LLTC is increasing the course offerings, research, and internship opportunities for the students. LLTC has offered higher level STEM courses with low enrollment numbers that would otherwise be cut by the administration. Most of the students completing these higher level courses go on to 4-year institutions to major in the area of STEM. Another area that the grant is addressing is the exposure of students to STEM oriented careers. Through the grant we are able to give students the opportunity to present their research at various conferences and compete in the high powered rocket launch. In recent years we have added our High Powered Rocket Program, internships, and tutors into the grant. LLTC feels that we are moving in a positive direction and keeping the student first is a priority of the grant. Goal 1: Sustain New STEM Degree Programs Leech Lake has a Natural Science degree that has four tracks: Forest Ecology, Information Technology, Human Health, and Indigenous Science. Combining the degrees into one made for less paperwork for Higher Learning Commission while still allowing students to emphasize in key areas. The process was approved by the Higher Learning Commission and made our 2023-2024 Program Review simpler as we only had to report on one degree. During 2023-2024 school year LLTC's STEM recruiter was active in the community and outreached to the area schools and community. For the 2024 Fall school year our recruiter will be active in our local schools and plans on going monthly to each school to connect our college with students that are potential future students. LLTC has implemented a 7th grade STEM experience Spring 2024 that brought in over 60 7th grade students to the college for a day. We look to expand this as it was a success and exposed the college to a large number of potential students. LLTC has maintained and updated its college brochures and created a STEM web page that will be useful to students and the community. Monthly speakers have been brought into various classes using virtual technology as a way for students to hear about the STEM career choices that STEM degrees lead to. The STEM department put on 6 Lunch and Learns throughout the 2023-2024 school year where we had guest speakers in the STEM area come in and discuss different STEM related topics that allowed students the chance to ask questions about STEM careers. For our articulation agreements LLTC continued working with Bemidji State University on keeping our courses transferable. BSU has an Indigenous Sustainability Bachelor's Degree that our students are finding lines up with their interest and is a viable degree that they can obtain which can lead to employment. For the Fall of 2024 we have 3 second year students at BSU and 2 new transfer students. LLTC will report the success of the students in future progress reports. LLTC works within the structure of MNSCU to ensure that our classes and degrees transfer within the MNSCU Portal of colleges. LLTC consistently assist students with transferability by providing guidance and syllabi to ensure that the process of transferring to a 4-year institution. With exposure to the lunch and learns put on by the STEM department, the high powered rocket success, internship opportunities and continued recruitment by our department LLTC has seen our STEM numbers grow and are currently sitting at 26 declared majors. LLTC plans to expand the opportunities for our STEM students and hopes to maintain at least 25 declared majors as this shows that the department degrees are important and people are transferring to 4 year institutions and are being successful. Goal 2: Improve STEM Instructional and Research Methods. Faculty attended at least one conference a year for the purpose of including new ideas into their teachings. With an increase of online and hybrid courses at the college it is important that STEM faculty be qualified to teach using the different platforms as a means to reach students. For the 2023-2024 school year, LLTC moved the majority of its classes back to in person as we find our students do better when sitting in a class. Faculties were able to combine their online learning with the in person to enrich the learning environment and give our students the skills they will need upon transferring to a 4-year institution. LLTC has maintaind their science labs so students have access to the labs they need for our various courses. LLTC has expanded its STEM courses and are utilizing the labs more than ever in order to give the students a hands on experience. With continued fudning LLTC has been able to buy needed supplies and update equipment in order to serve our students. LLTC will be using our carryover funding for equipping a current classroom into a new computer lab as we are finding that most of our classes are in need of some sort of technology component for students. This new computer lab will be put in place before the summer of 2025 as we will need to coordinate with our technology and teachers to design and create this usable space during the 2024-2025 school year. Faculties in the STEM have all completed a Master's degree in their prospective area in compliance with the Higher learning Commision. Two STEM faculty maintain their Minnesota teaching license and complete 124 continuing education credits every 5 years along with 5 workshops to stay current in Minnesota. Goal 3 - Build Student Capacity For Native American students, mathematics has always been an issue for them in High School with National statistics showing they are underperforming on state test upon graduation. LTTC recognizes this and knows that in order for Native American students to be successful in STEM we need to address this immediately when they enter college. For our mathematics we have had a faculty tutor/instructor in place through different grant sources. Our faculty tutor concentrates on recognizing at risk students and then setting up a plan for tutoring in an effort to increase the pass rate in classes. Since the fall of 2015 we have used NIFA funds to have a math tutor in our learning center to increase student tutoring. The student tutor was successful and LLTC will continue to fund the tutor through our learning center for 2024-2025. LLTC has found that some students do better with peer tutoring alongside regular classroom instruction as it gives them a different perspective. Leech Lakes Department of Resource Management joined faculty in the outdoors for the various labs and activities as many of the summer research projects involve issues DRM is working on that are important to the Leech Lake Reservation. DRM has always hosted summer internships and currently has two previous students working for them due to the internship. This relationship has worked well as the students are getting hands on experience and the local connections to people in the field. Our High Powered Rocketry team consisting of 4 students competed in the Tribal competition of the First Nations Launch in April 2024. The team completed all of our reports on time and presented well at the Rocket Launch. For the 2024-2025 school year LLTC will participate in the rocket build as interest has renewed with in person classes. LLTC continues to place students in internship through our various grants with area agencies as this has been a very successful relationship in which both parties are benefitted. LLTC works hard during the school year to maintain these relationships and ensure that our students have these opportunities available to them as the hand on experience is irreplaceable. For the summer of 2024 LTLC has 15 students with internships.
Publications
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Progress 09/15/22 to 01/01/24
Outputs
Target Audience:Leech Lake Tribal College's main audience is of course the enrollees of Leech Lake Reservation and the surrounding community. Leech Lake Reservation is located in Northern Minnesota and is located next to Red Lake Nation and White Earth reservations who students attend our school. We are also an open reservation so there is a diverse population from which to draw students on and around the reservation. Leech Lake has a student body comprised of 90% Native American students due to its location and the uniqueness of being a Tribal College. With our programs Leech Lake Tribal College serves the students it has and the surrounding community of Leech Lake Reservation. Studies have showed that Native American students in the STEM field have significant obstacles based on their High School experience that they need to overcome in order to obtain a STEM degree. The main obstacle is the lack of mathematics and science they have carried over from their high school. 90% of students entering the college are placed in Algebra or lower remedial classes. Leech Lake Tribal College has implemented the NIFA grant to partially pay for the hire of a mathematics teacher/tutor to concentrate in the lower math classes to raise the skill levels of students for them to be successful in their initial experience and be able to continue on into algebra that is required for our STEM degree. This grant pays partial salaries of two STEM teachers which allow us to offer higher level science and mathematics courses that have low enrollment. Without the grant support our class offerings would be lower as our college relies on grants to offset the low enrollment. Catering to the top STEM students in this way prepares them for transfer to a 4 year university and makes for a successful transition. Students enrolling in our higher courses have a proven track record of using the higher courses as preparation for transferring to 4-year institutions. Most of our students transfer to Bemidji State University as it is near the reservation and students can stay home while attending. Also, with the grant we have enhanced our science labs at Leech Lake and this raises the level of science that our students are exposed to. We are now capable of offering labs and research experiences to the students that show them the usefulness of STEM careers. With our research we concentrate on issues that are of concern to the Leech Lake Reservation and work alongside them to develop action plans. Our internships and research are done locally and impact the Reservation surrounding our college and the community members that impacts. For the summer of 2023 we had 14 interns working through various grants in positions across the reservation. The Department of Resource Management for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe has been one of our strongest relationships as interns that have worked there have gone on to work fulltime for this department. Having the interns exposed to the community helps us grow the awareness of the STEM work being done at the college. For the past six years we have had a math tutor in our learning center allowing students extra tutor times. This student worked directly with our students and we found that the interaction with other students was well received. The learning center has other tutors sponsored by other grants that help the STEM degree students when they need help. Our college is hoping to extend the learning center into the summer for students taking summer courses. We also had 4 students work and compete with our high powered rocket team that is co-sponsored through the Minnesota Space Grant in Spring 2023. Each year Leech Lake competes in the First Nations Tribal Launch sponsored by the Wisconsin Space Grant. Leech Lake has competed in the competition for the past 13 years and will have another team for Spring 2024. Through the rocket club we are able to outreach to the Cass Lake Schools and community with our high powered rockets introducing students to STEM. With the grant we are able to buy hobby rockets that we are able to put together and successfully launch with groups we outreach to. Leech Lake has conducted a community night each Spring semester for the past few years where we concentrate on reaching out to the community. During the night there are various activities revolving around STEM that the community can attend. With the help of multiple partners, Leech Lake is able to bring in a wide assortment of activities that highlight the STEM areas that we are trying to gather interest in. The community night is always well received and attended by around 180 community members as it is one of the largest events our college host. With our involvement on the reservation and community Leech Lake Tribal College connects with a wide range of people through the grant. Leech Lake Tribal College is an open enrollment college but still has a large Native American population and is able to focus on increasing the number of Native American graduates and specifically the number of STEM related graduates. Leech Lake Tribal College reaches out to the community and local reservation entities through their research, internships, and activities put on by the college. The impact of our college ranges early childhood age, our college students, and community members that are affected by our program and outreach. With continued funding we will be able to continue the outreach and impact that Leech Lake is having on the reservation and surrounding communities. Changes/Problems:Due to three years of Covid restricting what LLTC could do and with the increased funding from NIFA we were left with carry-over money that needed to be spent down. LLTC spent 2022-2023 adjusting the grant to include more expenses as we work to get back on track with our current grant year. Changes made in the grant reflect how we will move forward with increased funding as with our college getting the NIFA NEXT GEN grant this will make utilizing the NIFA EQUITY grant expenditures more concentrated on the mathematics portion of our STEM program. With this in mind LLTC is putting partial salary of our faculty math tutor into the grant as she helps with the grant and her job of assisting students falls under the grant. Given the fact that Native American students statistically come out of High School under prepared to succeed in mathematics this is an area we want to address with the grant funds as without the math level STEM course retention for students are difficult. LLTC is looking at helping our local high schools robotics team as they are in need of supplies to build and compete. LLTC will be reaching out to them and develop a plan where we can buy $2000 worth of supplies through our college business office for them to use. This outreach would help connect us with some of the students at Cass Lake High School and increase the level of robotics that they can have students working on and competing in. This partnership requires few hours of LLTC faculties' time but will yield a good connection into the high school and a pathway for students to become familiar with our college. LLTC will be increasing conferences students can attend as we look to spend carryover funds in order to catch up to the grants being spent on time due to Covid 19. For 2022-2023 we sent students to Geo-Science, AISES, and AIHEC to expose them to different options as they look to pursue their STEM degrees. With the NEXT GEN grant from NIFA we will be able to increase the number of conferences and student participation for 2023-2024. Having students that have done research or internship present posters at different conferences is a priority for our STEM department as this will challenge our students and offer them valuable experiences. LLTC STEM faculties are using NIFA more for travel to content related conferences as we are looking at more online training and different ways to increase STEM numbers after the lasting effect of Covid 19. LLTC wants to keep training for STEM teachers available as we feel it is vital that faculties stay current in their areas. The increase in faculties travel will be covered with the carry-over funds. LLTC will also be buying more lab supplies than previously listed as a way to increase our labs to enhance learning but also spend down carry-over. Our department is assessing the labs and finding that we have some outdated equipment that could use replacement. Working as a department we will be looking at the best way to improve our labs for the 2023-2024 school year. LLTC is also looking at creating another smaller computer lab and could possibly use NIFA Equity funds to equip the lab with computers and smart room technology. This lab would become a STEM lab where we could hold classes of 12 or fewer students and is important as we have out grown our current three labs with more classes wanting to use computers with their teaching. LLTC has had turnover in our finance office at the same time Covid-19 hit the world and the college. With this came struggles concerning the grant as budgets and spending was hard to get for the grant. This is where the carry-over came from as with our struggles and Covid-19 shutting down some of our projects we are trying to make plans going forward that lays the ground work for spending down the grant. LLTC used the 2022-2023 school year to alter the budget and increase areas that we felt would enhance the grant. LLTC is still experiencing issues within our finance office and will use the 2023-2024 school year to get our budgets back on track with the hopeful 2023-2024 grant cycle being spent down entirely by September 2024. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Understanding that our Land Grant status and our NIFA grants are important, we have concentrated on getting people into the NIFA system quickly. We two STEM faculty attend the 2023 FALCON conference along with our Grants Office manager. Getting faculty up to speed has prepared us to run and report our NIFA grants correctly over the years. LLTC has been notified that it was awarded the NIFA DEET grant with Fon Du Lac Tribal College as a partner. With this grant, LLTC will be able to increase its assistance and opportunities to STEM students coming through our college. This grant will also allow LLTC to assist students as they attend a 4-year institution which will be pivotal in them succeeding with a Bachelors degree in STEM. The new DEET grant will provide funds for LLTC for the next 5 years. This will enable our program to grow and expand and offer valuable enrichment for students trying to obtain an AA STEM degree through us and into their selected 4 year institution. The hope is that with this grant LLTC gets more students into the STEM area and then completing a 4 year degree where they would then be able to work in the STEM field. For the First Nations Rocket Launch we had a team of 4 students that worked on the rocket build Spring 2023 and then compete in April in WI. LLTC has done the rocket build for 13 years and will continue getting students involved for the foreseeable future. With Covid 19 waning, LLTC will be looking to get back into the competitive side of the competition as we are able to meet in person again and travel has opened back up. The entire STEM faculty attended online learning training in the 2022-2023 school year as a requirement of Higher Learning Commission. Each faculty member had to complete an Online training as we were engaged in online teaching during Covid 19and this help the college provide adequate services to the students. Faculty teaching online classes for the 2023- 2024 school year have to increase their online training as we have found this to be a requirement by HLC in order for us to hold online classes. As we come out of Covid 19 there is a push for students to return to campus and if our college chooses to continue with online courses there are stricter guidelines that faculty need to follow in order to ensure student success. Faculty also had the opportunity to go to other conferences as Covid restrictions started to lift. We had math teacher go to National Council of Mathematics and ICTCM by Pearson to stay current with MyMathLab. Another to the National Indian Education Association and Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators. Computer faculty went to SIGCSE to stay current in their field. Science faculty attended more local conferences within the state in their area as it was more convenient to get to and helped LLTC maintain relationships that have been built. With faculty attending conferences LLTC stays on top of the changes that are occurring in our prospective areas and help the instructors relay the information to the students in an efficient manner. LLTC feels that it is important to stay abreast in their areas as with online learning, computers, and mathematics there are changes occurring all of the time and we need to be able to address those changes with the knowledge gained through professional development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been disseminated to the community through various activities that the college engages in throughout the year. One way we accomplish this is by creating an advisory board that is made up of local agencies that are involved in the STEM careers. Through this interaction we are able to showcase and distribute the accomplishments of LLTC and interact with many people in the community. A second way is through our grant internships as they are run through the different community agencies on the Leech Lake Reservation. Our interns are one of our most important advertising tools for the college as they spread the message of the college through their work. We have found that having internships spreads the word faster than faculty traveling around which drives the need to increase the number and scope of our internships to make our presence in the community greater. LLTC has implemented a recruitment plan that concentrates on the Native American high school students in all of our area schools. We know that there are students that can benefit from coming to our school in the high schools and it is up to us to get the message out to them. LLTC has a STEM recruiter to undertake this task of increasing our STEM numbers and currently has met with local schools and set up a timeline where they will go into the school and disperse information about our STEM program. LLTC went into the community centers around the reservation conducting a community wide survey to help the direct the college's future strategic plan. Teachers and students went to the various communities with Leech Lake Reservation and held an informational meeting asking how LLTC could improve and the areas of focus that the community wanted. This survey fulfills our Stake Holders commitment for the grant as it is used to inform the college of the community's long term vision for the college. Being out in the various communities allows faculty and students the chance to talk about our programs and answer questions about the college. We have research projects that have our students going out into the communities and LLTC feels this is one of the most important ways to relay information as their success is our advertisement. Students who are doing well in their classes, internships, and research are good ambassadors for the college and are far better at talking about the STEM department at LLTC than the faculty are. Students have a personal connection that faculty may not have with the community and I think it is this connection that gets the community to listen and engage. Last of all, we have a our new NIFA DEET grant that will aid us in engaging, surveying, and getting help from all of our investors. Having this new layer on top of what we are already doing is going to help shape our STEM department and what we offer. The DEET grant is in its first year and so the impact will not be reflected here as we have just started to implement and see the impact the grant will be having on our department and stakeholders. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
LLTC has used our NIFA Equity Grant to address the needs of our college as it directly relates to students opportunity and success. LLTC used the grant to update equipment for our labs as we move to increase our student research at the college. LLTC is increasing the course offerings, research, and internship opportunities for the students. LLTC has offered higher level STEM courses with low enrollment numbers that would otherwise be cut by the administration. Most of the students completing these higher level courses go on to 4-year institutions to major in the area of STEM. Another area that the grant is addressing is the exposure of students to STEM oriented careers. Through the grant we are able to give students the opportunity to present their research at various conferences and compete in the high powered rocket launch. In recent years we have added our High Powered Rocket Program, internships, and tutors into the grant. LLTC feels that we are moving in a positive direction and keeping the student first is a priority of the grant. Goal 1: Sustain New STEM Degree Programs Leech Lake has restructured our degrees into one Natural Science degree that will have four tracks for students to take: Forest Ecology, Information Technology, Human Health, and Indigenous Science. Combining the degrees into one made for less paperwork for Higher Learning Commission while still allowing students to emphasize in key areas. The process was approved by the Higher Learning Commission and makes our 2023-2024 school year Program Review simpler as we only have to report on one degree. During 2022-2023 school year LLTC's STEM recruiter was active in the community and outreached to the area schools and community. For the 2023 Fall school year our recruiter has been active in our local schools and plans on going monthly to each school to connect our college with students that are potential future students. LLTC has implemented a 7th grade STEM experience Spring 2023 that brought in over 60 7th grade students to the college for a day. We look to expand this as it was a success and exposed the college to a large number of potential students. LLTC has maintained and updated its college brochures and created a STEM web page that will be useful to students and the community. Monthly speakers have been brought into various classes using virtual technology as a way for students to hear about the STEM career choices that STEM degrees lead to. The STEM department put on 6 Lunch and Learns throughout the 2022-2023 school year where we had guest speakers in the STEM area come in and discuss different STEM related topics that allowed students the chance to ask questions about the STEM careers. For our articulation agreements LTLC continued working with Bemidji State University on keeping our courses transferable. BSU has an Indigenous Sustainability Bachelor's Degree that our students are finding lines up with their interest and is a viable degree that they can obtain the then leads to employment. For the Fall of 2023 we have 4 students transferred to BSU under the this degree. LLTC will report the success of the students in future progress reports. LLTC works within the structure of MNSCU to ensure that our classes and degrees transfer within the MNSCU Portal of colleges. LLTC consistently assist students with transferability by providing guidance and syllabi to ensure that the process of transferring to a 4-year institution. With exposure to the lunch and learns put on by the STEM department, the high powered rocket success, internship opportunities and continued recruitment by our department LLTC has seen our STEM numbers grow and are currently sitting at 30 declared majors. LLTC plans to expand the opportunities for our STEM students and hopes to maintain at least 30 declared majors as this shows that the department degrees are important and people are transferring to 4 year institutions and are being successful. Goal 2: Improve STEM Instructional and Research Methods. Faculty attended at least one conference a year for the purpose of including new ideas into their teachings. With an increase of online and hybrid courses at the college it is important that STEM faculty be qualified to teach using the different platforms as a means to reach students coming out of Covid 19. For the 2023-2024 school year LLTC is looking to move the majority of its classes back to in person as we find our students do better when sitting in a class. Faculty will be able to combine their online learning with the in person to enrich the learning environment and give our students the skills they will need upon transferring to a 4-year institution. LLTC has maintaind their labs so students have access to the labs they need for our various courses. LLTC has expanded its STEM courses and are utilizing the labs more than ever in order to give the students a hands on experience. With continued fudning LLTC has been able to buy needed supplies and update equipment in order to serve our students. Faculties in the STEM have all completed a Master's degree in their prospective area or will in Fall 2023 to stay compliant with the Higher learning Commision. Two of the STEM faculty maintain their Minnesota teaching license and complete 124 continuing education credits every 5 years along with 5 workshops to stay current in Minnesota. Goal 3 - Build Student Capacity For Native American students, mathematics has always been an issue for them in High School with National statistics showing they are underperforming on state test upon graduation. LTTC recognizes this problem and knows that in order for Native American students to be successful in STEM we need to address this immediately when they enter college. For our mathematics we have had a faculty tutor/instructor in place through different grant sources. Our faculty tutor concentrates on recognizing at risk students and then setting up a plan for tutoring in an effort to increase the pass rate in classes. With grant changes, LLTC has put partial salary of the math teacher/tutor into the NIFA Equity grant in order to sustain the position. Since the fall of 2015 we have used NIFA funds to have a math tutor in our learning center to increase student tutoring. The student tutor was successful and LLTC will continue to fund the tutor through our learning center for 2023-2024. LLTC has found that some students do better with peer tutoring alongside regular classroom instruction as it gives them a different perspective. Raising student math skills quicker allows them to progress better in all of their classes where math is present. Leech Lakes Department of Resource Management joined faculty in the outdoors for the various labs and activities as many of the summer research projects involve issues DRM is working on and that are important to the Leech Lake Reservation. DRM has always hosted summer internships and currently has two previous students working for them due to the internship. This relationship has worked well as the students are getting hands on experience and the local connections to people in the field. Our High Powered Rocketry team consisting of 4 students competed in the Tribal competition of the First Nations Launch in April 2023. The team won Judges Choice as we had completed all of our reports on time and presented well at the Rocket Launch. For the 2023-2024 school year LLTC will participate in the rocket build with new students as our team has graduated. LLTC continues to place students in internship through our various grants with area agencies as this has been a very successful relationship in which both parties are benefitted. LLTC works hard during the school year to maintain these relationships and ensure that our students have these opportunities available to them as the hand on experience is irreplaceable. For the summer of 2023 LTLC has 15 students lined up for internships.
Publications
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Progress 09/15/22 to 09/14/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Leech Lake Tribal College's main audience is of course the enrollees of Leech Lake Reservation and the surrounding community. Leech Lake Reservation is located in Northern Minnesota and is located next to Red Lake Nation and White Earth reservations who students attend our school. We are also an open reservation so there is a diverse population from which to draw students on and around the reservation. Leech Lake has a student body comprised of 90% Native American students due to its location and the uniqueness of being a Tribal College. With our programs Leech Lake Tribal College serves the students it has and the surrounding community of Leech Lake Reservation. Studies have showed that Native American students in the STEM field have significant obstacles based on their High School experience that they need to overcome to obtain a STEM degree. The main obstacle is the lack of mathematics and science they have carried over from their high school. Leech Lake Tribal College has implemented the NIFA grant to partially pay for the hire a mathematics teacher/tutor concentrate the lower math classes to raise the skill levels of students for them to be successful in their initial experience and be able to continue on into algebra that is required for our STEM degree. This grant pays partial salaries of two STEM teachers which allows us to offer higher level science and mathematics courses that have low enrollment. Catering to the top STEM students in this way prepares them for transfer to a 4 year university and makes for a successful transition. Students enrolling in our higher courses have a proven track record of using the higher courses as preparation for transferring to 4-year institutions. Also, with the grant we have enhanced our science labs at Leech Lake and this raises the level of science that our students are exposed to. We are now capable of offering labs and research experiences to the students that show them the usefulness of STEM careers. With our research we concentrate on issues that are of concern to the Leech Lake Reservation and work alongside them to develop action plans. Our internships and research are done locally and impact the Reservation surrounding our college and the community members that impacts. For the past six years we have had a math tutor in our learning center allowing students extra tutor times. This student worked directly with our students and we found that the interaction with other students was well received. We also had 4 students work and compete with our high powered rocket team that is co-sponsored through the Minnesota Space Grant. Through the rocket club we are able to outreach to the Cass Lake Schools and community with our high powered rockets introducing students to STEM. With the grant we are able to buy hobby rockets that we are able to put together and successfully launch with groups we outreach to. Leech Lake has conducted a community night each semester for the past few years where we concentrate on reaching out to the community. During the night there are various activities revolving around STEM that the community can attend. The community night is always well received and attended by around 150 community members. With our involvement on the reservation and community Leech Lake Tribal College connects with a wide range of people through the grant. Leech Lake Tribal College is an open enrollment college but still has a large Native American population and is able to focus on increasing the number of Native American graduates and specifically the number of STEM related graduates. Leech Lake Tribal College reaches out to the community and local reservation entities through their research, internships, and activities put on by the college. The impact of our college ranges early childhood age, our college students, and community members that are affected by our program and outreach. With continued funding we will be able to continue the outreach and impact that Leech Lake is having on the reservation and surrounding communities. Changes/Problems:Due to three years of Covid restricting what LLTC could do and with the increased funding from NIFA we were left with carry-over money that needed to be spent down. LLTC spent 2022-2023 adjusting the grant to include more expenses as we work to get back on track with our current grant year. Changes made in the grant reflect how we will move forward with increased funding as with our college getting the NIFA NEXT GEN grant this will make utilizing the NIFA EQUITY grant expenditures more concentrated on the mathematics portion of our STEM program. With this in mind LLTC is putting partial salary of our faculty math tutor into the grant as she helps with the grant and her job of assisting students falls under the grant. Given the fact that Native American students statistically come out of High School under prepared to succeed in mathematics this is an area we want to address with the grant funds as without the math level STEM course retention for students are difficult. LLTC is looking at helping our local high schools robotics team as they are in need of supplies to build and compete. LLTC will be reaching out to them and develop a plan where we can buy $2000 worth of supplies through our college business office for them to use. This outreach would help connect us with some of the students at Cass Lake High School and increase the level of robotics that they can have students working on and competing in. This partnership requires few hours of LLTC faculties' time but will yield a good connection into the high school and a pathway for students to become familiar with our college. LLTC will be increasing conferences students can attend as we look to spend carryover funds in order to catch up to the grants being spent on time due to Covid 19. For 2022-2023 we sent students to Geo-Science, AISES, and AIHEC to expose them to different options as they look to pursue their STEM degrees. With the NEXT GEN grant from NIFA we will be able to increase the number of conferences and student participation for 2023-2024. Having students that have done research or internship present posters at different conferences is a priority for our STEM department as this will challenge our students and offer them valuable experiences. LLTC STEM faculties are using NIFA more for travel to content related conferences as we are looking at more online training and different ways to increase STEM numbers after the lasting effect of Covid 19. LLTC wants to keep training for STEM teachers available as we feel it is vital that faculties stay current in their areas. The increase in faculties travel will be covered with the carry-over funds. LLTC will also be buying more lab supplies than previously listed as a way to increase our labs to enhance learning but also spend down carry-over. Our department is assessing the labs and finding that we have some outdated equipment that could use replacement. Working as a department we will be looking at the best way to improve our labs for the 2023-2024 school year. LLTC is also looking at creating another smaller computer lab and could possibly use NIFA Equity funds to equip the lab with computers and smart room technology. This lab would become a STEM lab where we could hold classes of 12 or fewer students and is important as we have out grown our current three labs with more classes wanting to use computers with there teaching. LLTC has had turnover in our finance office at the same time Covid-19 hit the world and the college. With this came struggles concerning the grant as budgets and spending was hard to get for the grant. This is where the carry-over came from as with our struggles and Covid-19 shutting down some of our projects we are trying to make plans going forward that lays the ground work for spending down the grant. LLTC used the 2022-2023 school year to alter the budget and increase areas that we felt would enhance the grant. LLTC is still experiencing issues within our finance office and will use the 2023-2024 school year to get our budgets back on track with the hopeful 2023-2024 grant cycle being spent down entirely by September 2024. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Understanding that our Land Grant status and our NIFA grants are important, we have concentrated on getting people into the NIFA system quickly. We have had an instructor attend the 2022 FALCON conference and our Grants Office attend 2022. Getting faculty up to speed has prepared us to run and report our NIFA grants correctly. LLTC has been notified that it was awarded the NIFA DEET grant with Fon Du Lac Tribal College as a partner. With this grant, LLTC will be able to increase its assistance and opportunities to STEM students coming through our college. This grant will also allow LLTC to assist students as they attend a 4-year institution which will be pivotal in them succeeding with a Bachelors degree in STEM. For the First Nations Rocket Launch we had a team of 4 students that worked on the rocket build Spring 2023 and then compete in April in WI. LLTC has done the rocket build for 12 years and will continue getting students involved for the foreseeable future. With Covid 19 waning, LLTC will be looking to get back into the competitive side of the competition as we are able to meet in person again and travel has opened back up. The entire STEM faculty attended online learning training in the 2022-2023 school year as a requirement of Higher Learning Commission. Each faculty member had to complete an Online training as we were engaged in online teaching during Covid 19and this help the college provide adequate services to the students. Faculty teaching online classes for the 2023- 2024 school year have to increase their online training as we have found this to be a requirement by HLC in order for us to hold online classes. As we come out of Covid 19 there is a push for students to return to campus and if our college chooses to continue with online courses there are stricter guidelines that faculty need to follow in order to ensure student success. Faculty also had the opportunity to go to other conferences as Covid restrictions started to lift. We had math teacher go to National Council of Mathematics and ICTCM by Pearson to stay current with MyMathLab. Another to the National Indian Education Association and Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators. Computer faculty went to SIGCSE to stay current in their field. Science faculty attended more local conferences within the state in their area as it was more convenient to get to and helped LLTC maintain relationships that have been built. With faculty attending conferences LLTC stays on top of the changes that are occurring in our prospective areas and help the instructors relay the information to the students in an efficient manner. LLTC feels that it is important to stay abreast in their areas as with online learning, computers, and mathematics there are changes occurring all of the time and we need to be able to address those changes with the knowledge gained through professional development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been disseminated to the community through various activities that the college engages in throughout the year. One way we accomplish this is by creating an advisory board that is made up of local agencies that are involved in the STEM careers. Through this interaction we are able to showcase and distribute the accomplishments of LLTC and interact with many people in the community. A second way is through our grant internships as they are run through the different community agencies on the Leech Lake Reservation. Our interns are one of our most important advertising tools for the college as they spread the message of the college through their work. We have found that having internships spreads the word faster than faculty traveling around which drives the need to increase the number and scope of our internships to make our presence in the community greater. LLTC has implemented a recruitment plan that concentrates on the Native American high school students in all of our area schools. We know that there are students that can benefit from coming to our school in the high schools and it is up to us to get the message out to them. LLTC has a STEM recruiter to undertake this task of increasing our STEM numbers and currently has met with local schools and set up a timeline where they will go into the school and disperse information about our STEM program. LLTC went into the community centers around the reservation conducting a community wide survey to help the direct the college's future strategic plan. Teachers and students went to the various communities with Leech Lake Reservation and held an informational meeting asking how LLTC could improve and the areas of focus that the community wanted. This survey fulfills our Stake Holders commitment for the grant as it is used to inform the college of the community's long term vision for the college. Being out in the various communities allows faculty and students the chance to talk about our programs and answer questions about the college. We have research projects that have our students going out into the communities and LLTC feels this is one of the most important ways to relay information as their success is our advertisement. Students who are doing well in their classes, internships, and research are good ambassadors for the college and are far better at talking about the STEM department at LLTC than the faculty are. Students have a personal connection that faculty may not have with the community and I think it is this connection that gets the community to listen and engage. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Goal 1 - Sustain New STEM Degree Programs. Objectives: Evaluate degrees in the Natural Science area through program review. Expand curriculum and strengthen degrees in the Natural Science area. Establish articulation agreements with four- year institutions. Increase the number of students in the STEM program. LLTC completed the process of combining degree programs and will offer a Natural Science degree that will have four tracks for students to take: Forest Ecology, Information Technology, Human Health, and Indigenous Science.Combining the degrees into one will make for less paperwork for Higher Learning Commission while still allowing students to emphasize in key areas.With our degrees combined, LLTC will look to increase our STEM numbers under these new degrees.During the 2023-2024 school year LLTC will be conducting a program review of our STEM department and using this to guide changes in our department. LLTC has been approved for the NEXTGEN grant through NIFA where we will be able to expand our currilcum and faculties. The goal of the grant is to increase student opportunities at LLTC and help them transition to a 4-year college in STEM and succeed. LLTC will be implementing the grant starting June 2023 and fully implement during the 2023-2024 school year. There are many steps in setting up and implementing the grant that still need to be worked out. For our articulation agreements LTLC has continued working with Bemidji State University on keeping our courses transferable. BSU has created a Sustainability Bachelor's Degree that our students are finding lines up with their interest and is a viable degree that they can obtain the then leads to employment. For the Fall of 2023 we have 4 students transfered to BSU under this degree. LLTC is partnering with Fon du Lac Tribal College for the NEXTGEN NIFA grant and will be looking at partnering with classes through both institutions. LLTC has made a push to increase and retain more STEM students. LLTC currently has 30 STEM students declared and feel that this is a sustainable number given our enrollment for the Fall 2023 school year is 240 students. LLTC has increased research and internships within our department and feels this is a good way of retaining STEM students as they get hands on experience. With the NEXT Gen grant we will be increasing the number of opportunities for students and reaching more students. Goal 2 - Improve STEM Instructional and Research Methods. Objectives: Faculty will participate in conferences for the purpose of incorporating new concepts/ techniques into their courses. LLTC will have up-to-date labs that allow students to explore ideas and concepts learned in class. Faculty within the department will stay current and qualified in their specified fields. Faculty under the grant will be encouraged to attend at least one conference in their area of expertise in order to stay current in their field. The PI or Co-PI will also attend FALCON in order to stay current with the grant requirements as we feel that keeping in good standing with the grant is important. Two faculties within the STEM department maintain their Minnesota teaching license by completing 125 hours of education credits and fulfilling 5 required areas. Keeping current with high school license is important as it allows faculty the opportunity to better understand what high school teachers are faced with under the Minnesota Standards and where our students are coming from. LLTC knows that most of our entering students are under prepared in mathematics and it is our job to understand where they are at and how to get them through the level of math they need to graduate with their desired degree. LLTC will maintain its labs as our plans of renovating one of the labs rested with us getting the NEXT GEN grant. Right now LLTC is adding shelving into the lab and going through the equipment to see what is being used and what can be stored or thrown. STEM teachers have been ordering equipment to upgrade the labs and since we had carry over from Covid years we have the opportunity to use NIFA dollars to enhance the labs and increase student learning. LLTC will be looking at creating a small computer lab that we could equip with NIFA dollars. Our schools technology in the classrooms has maxed out our current three labs and with a smaller lab that could be used for higher STEM courses with low numbers we would have another resource to help teach. Goal 3 - Build Student Capacity Objectives: Provide a STEM tutor in our Learning Center to aid in student learning. Provide STEM students the opportunity to participate in scientific research projects. Provide STEM students internship opportunities to participate in scientific work force. We will continue our mathematics tutoring for the2023-2024 school year as we have found that math is a deficiency that needs to be addressed at our school. This deficiency relays into the STEM areas and makes science classes more difficult. Raising their math skills quicker allows them to progress better in all of their classes where math is present. For the 2023-2024 school year one student will able to work as a math tutor in our learning center through NIFA to increase student tutoring. This worked out well in 2022-2023 and we are developing this position further and work more closely with our instructor/tutor sponsored by our grants division. We are tracking the tutoring as we want to look at students time spent with tutor compared to their class grades. LLTC has data in past years that showed a direct correlation between having a tutor and increased retention. The high powered rocket team resumed competed in the Spring of 2023 with success as we won the Judges choice award. The rocket team will competed at First Nations Launch Spring of 2024 in the Gateway Tribal Division. LLTC will maintain a presence at the rocket launch for the foreseeable future as classes are meeting in person and travel restrictions have been lifted. LLTC is looking at using NIFA funds to expand the research and internship opportunities we offer as we now have the capability with the labs and equipment that was put in place through the grant. With Covid carry-over dollars LLTC is looking at having more summer internships for the students as we previously were using NSF money that has ended. For the summer 2023 we have 15 internships lined up with some of them being paid from NIFA carryover dollars. With the new NEXT GEN Grant we will be increasing research and internships to help students progress through their Bachelors and possibly Masters degrees. With the NEXT GEN grant from NIFA we will be able to increase the number of conferences and student participation for 2023-2024. Having students that have done research or internship present posters at different conferences is a priority for our STEM department as this will challenge our students and offer them valuable experiences.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
LLTC has used our NIFA Equity Grant to address the needs of our college as it directly relates to students opportunity and success. LLTC used the grant to update equipment for our labs as we move to increase our student research at the college. LLTC is increasing the course offerings, research, and internship opportunities for the students. LLTC has offered higher level STEM courses with low enrollment numbers that would otherwise be cut by the administration. Most of the students completing these higher level courses go on to 4-year institutions to major in the area of STEM. Another area that the grant is addressing is the exposure of students to STEM oriented careers. Through the grant we are able to give students the opportunity to present their research at various conferences and compete in the high powered rocket launch. In recent years we have added our High Powered Rocket Program, internships, and tutors into the grant. LLTC feels that we are moving in a positive direction and keeping the student first is a priority of the grant. Goal 1: Sustain New STEM Degree Programs Leech Lake has restructured our degrees into one Natural Science degree that will have four tracks for students to take: Forest Ecology, Information Technology, Human Health, and Indigenous Science. Combining the degrees into one made for less paperwork for Higher Learning Commission while still allowing students to emphasize in key areas. The process was approved by the Higher Learning Commission and makes our 2023-2024 school year Program Review simpler as we only have to report on one degree. During 2022-2023 school year LLTC's STEM recruiter was active in the community and outreached to the area schools and community. For the 2023 Fall school year our recruiter has been active in our local schools and plans on going monthly to each school to connect our college with students that are potential future students. LLTC has implemented a 7th grade STEM experience Spring 2023 that brought in over 60 7th grade students to the college for a day. We look to expand this as it was a success and exposed the college to a large number of potential students. LLTC has maintained and updated its college brochures and created a STEM web page that will be useful to students and the community. Monthly speakers have been brought into various classes using virtual technology as a way for students to hear about the STEM career choices that STEM degrees lead to. The STEM department put on 6 Lunch and Learns throughout the 2022-2023 school year where we had guest speakers in the STEM area come in and discuss different STEM related topics that allowed students the chance to ask questions about the STEM careers. For our articulation agreements LTLC continued working with Bemidji State University on keeping our courses transferable. BSU has an Indigenous Sustainability Bachelor's Degree that our students are finding lines up with their interest and is a viable degree that they can obtain the then leads to employment. For the Fall of 2023 we have 4 students transferred to BSU under the this degree. LLTC will report the success of the students in future progress reports. LLTC works within the structure of MNSCU to ensure that our classes and degrees transfer within the MNSCU Portal of colleges. LLTC consistently assist students with transferability by providing guidance and syllabi to ensure that the process of transferring to a 4-year institution. With exposure to the lunch and learns put on by the STEM department, the high powered rocket success, internship opportunities and continued recruitment by our department LLTC has seen our STEM numbers grow and are currently sitting at 30 declared majors. LLTC plans to expand the opportunities for our STEM students and hopes to maintain at least 30 declared majors as this shows that the department degrees are important and people are transferring to 4 year institutions and are being successful. Goal 2: Improve STEM Instructional and Research Methods. Objectives: Faculty attended at least one conference a year for the purpose of including new ideas into their teachings. With an increase of online and hybrid courses at the college it is important that STEM faculty be qualified to teach using the different platforms as a means to reach students coming out of Covid 19. For the 2023-2024 school year LLTC is looking to move the majority of its classes back to in person as we find our students do better when sitting in a class. Faculty will be able to combine their online learning with the in person to enrich the learning environment and give our students the skills they will need upon transferring to a 4-year institution. LLTC has maintaind their labs so students have access to the labs they need for our various courses. LLTC has expanded its STEM courses and are utilizing the labs more than ever in order to give the students a hands on experience. With continued fudning LLTC has been able to buy needed supplies and update equipment in order to serve our students. Faculties in the STEM have all completed a Master's degree in their prospective area or will in Fall 2023 to stay compliant with the Higher learning Commision. Two of the STEM faculty maintain their Minnesota teaching license and complete 124 continuing education credits every 5 years along with 5 workshops to stay current in Minnesota. Goal 3 - Build Student Capacity For Native American students, mathematics has always been an issue for them in High School with National statistics showing they are underperforming on state test upon graduation. LTTC recognizes this problem and knows that in order for Native American students to be successful in STEM we need to address this immediately when they enter college. For our mathematics we have had a faculty tutor/instructor in place through different grant sources. Our faculty tutor concentrates on recognizing at risk students and then setting up a plan for tutoring in an effort to increase the pass rate in classes. With grant changes, LLTC has put partial salary of the math teacher/tutor into the NIFA Equity grant in order to sustain the position. Since the fall of 2015 we have used NIFA funds to have a math tutor in our learning center to increase student tutoring. The student tutor was successful and LLTC will continue to fund the tutor through our learning center for 2023-2024. LLTC has found that some students do better with peer tutoring alongside regular classroom instruction as it gives them a different perspective. Raising student math skills quicker allows them to progress better in all of their classes where math is present. Leech Lakes Department of Resource Management joined faculty in the outdoors for the various labs and activities as many of the summer research projects involve issues DRM is working on and that are important to the Leech Lake Reservation. DRM has always hosted summer internships and currently has two previous students working for them due to the internship. This relationship has worked well as the students are getting hands on experience and the local connections to people in the field. Our High Powered Rocketry team consisting of 4 students competed in the Tribal competition of the First Nations Launch in April 2023. The team won Judges Choice as we had completed all of our reports on time and presented well at the Rocket Launch. For the 2023-2024 school year LLTC will participate in the rocket build with new students as our team has graduated. LLTC continues to place students in internship through our various grants with area agencies as this has been a very successful relationship in which both parties are benefitted. LLTC works hard during the school year to maintain these relationships and ensure that our students have these opportunities available to them as the hand on experience is irreplaceable. For the summer of 2023 LTLC has 15 students lined up for internships.
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