NSF Awards: 1812888
The Cultural Connections Process Model was used by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and members of the Qikiqtaġruŋmiut Tribe to produce a middle-school science unit on the theme of snow. Instruction includes a student guide, teacher's manual, five videos and an interactive Iñupiaq vocabulary resource. The curriculum bridges the cultural gap that often exists between Native students and their non-Native teachers and is a STEM teaching supplement that can be used to add local context to standardized science instruction. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant 1812888. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.
NSF Awards: 1812888
The Cultural Connections Process Model was used by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and members of the Qikiqtaġruŋmiut Tribe to produce a middle-school science unit on the theme of snow. Instruction includes a student guide, teacher's manual, five videos and an interactive Iñupiaq vocabulary resource. The curriculum bridges the cultural gap that often exists between Native students and their non-Native teachers and is a STEM teaching supplement that can be used to add local context to standardized science instruction. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant 1812888. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.
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Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
Hello, and welcome to my video presentation. This project has been the heart and soul of my team for the past three years! It has been a privilege working with and getting to know so many great people in Kotzebue, Alaska! Although this project is nearing its end, we hope to receive funding for a scale-up to this grant that will allow us to continue our work with further investigations.
The resources described in the video were all developed according to the Cultural Connections Process Model. The model, when implemented with fidelity, engages local residents in the conceptualization and development of educational resources in meaningful ways. It is my belief that this level of involvement results in a sense of ownership that will ensure the products are used in the community long after the grant has ended.
I hope you enjoy the video. Please feel free to drop your questions in the discussion here.
Kaci Fankhauser
Rebecca Lewis
Emmanuel Nti-Asante
Excellent project
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
Thank you! The contribution from Northwest Arctic Borough Elders and community members really enhanced the Qanniksuq: It is Snowing project. We continue to learn and grow together and it has been wonderful to witness the relationships develop. It is our hope that this place-based project will be a resource for many.
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
Thanks Emmanuel! It has been such a delight to work on this project, and it is bittersweet to see it coming to its conclusion.
Nuria Jaumot-Pascual
Hi, Lynda. I really enjoyed your video. It is so nice to see how you involved the community to develop these resources. Also, the resources look really nice! I loved seeing the resulting book as well.
Could you address how the resulting resources have been implemented and what you have learned about their implementation? Thank you!
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
Thank you for watching our video, Nuria! Developing the resources could not have been accomplished without the involvement of the local community members. We were gifted stories, knowledge and cultural understandings which helped identify activities for teaching children. We are working with 11 schools within the NWAB School District. Each school has a bin full of curriculum materials and a binder with the Teacher Manual and Student Guides. You can check out the Educational Videos, Teacher Resources and more by clicking here.
We had the privilege of pilot testing all nine activities with a seasoned teacher. His classmates' experience offered invaluable feedback. The school year is over for the NWABSD, so we look forward to hearing teachers' feedback for the '22-'23 school year!
Kaci Fankhauser
Nuria Jaumot-Pascual
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
Hello Nuria, I'm so glad you asked that question. I'm pleased to say that the Northwest Arctic Borough School District is so pleased with the curriculum they have adopted it as mandatory curriculum for the district, so it will be used in all middle-school classrooms throughout the region for at least the next few years. To support districtwide implementation, a supplemental award supported teacher professional development training, which was provided in February of 2022. The district made our PD the In-service option for all of its science teachers and its Iñupiaq educators. Many of the Iñupiaq educators wanted to work with the curriculum, and some of the science teachers were eager to collaborate with the Iñupiaq educators in their school, so pairing up the educators in the training made sense to the district and to our team.
After the PD was provided, All of the science and Iñupiaq educators received their own teachers manual, and each school received a kit full of supplies to instruct the curriculum. Most of the supplies in the kits are reusable, and consumables are low cost and easily obtainable, even in rural Alaska.
Teachers have helped us learn how best to provide resources for future projects. Packaging and branding helps keep one kit's contents separate from another, since most rural Alaska communities receive their freight in the same containers our supply kits are shipped in. Timing for implementation is also a lesson learned. We had originally proposed to disseminate resources in the fall. Of course schools were preoccupied with other concerns at the beginning of the school year due to the pandemic, so flexibility was important and prompted us to move our implementation to the spring, just after school resumed following the holidays, but before testing and end-of-year priorities could eclipse and overwhelm teachers.
Nuria Jaumot-Pascual
Nuria Jaumot-Pascual
It is great the the curriculum is now mandatory for the district. That's amazing!
Thanks for explaining the logistics. There are so many things that COVID has impacted that we have to think on our feet to adapt as things shift.
It was very interesting to read about the dissemination of the materials. Having to think about how the books and other materials will physically make it to the teachers is an added layer to the work in an already complex setting. Thanks for sharing the everyday things that make a project. Very illuminating.
Lynda McGilvary
Cory Buxton
Thanks Lynda. This is a great example of bridging community knowledge and place based instruction. I have two questions:
(1) while a place based curriculum of course does not generalize, what general design principles would you say have emerged from this work that might generalize for others who want to engage in similar work?
(2) What kinds of teacher professional learning have you found that teachers need -- especially teachers who are new to these communities and cultures -- to be able to use the curriculum effectively with indigenous students?
thanks!
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
Hi Cory, I think the answers to questions 1 and 2 might overlap a little bit. We have built professional learning into the curriculum to some extent in order to make it possible for a teacher with little or no experience (teaching or related to place & culture) can pick it up and teach it with minimal prep time, so some of our general design principals include providing background information, supply lists, standards addressed, and step-by-step instructions for each activity in the teacher's manual that accompanies the student guide. Other design principles for our curriculum were to highlight in each lesson the Iñupiat Iḷitqusiat (values) represented in the lesson. Most activities are tactile and many require students to work in teams. Because rural schools often have multi-age classrooms, instruction is in levels rather than grade-specific, and most activities have extension ideas for students who want to delve deeper than the typical classroom period will allow.
Looping back to the professional learning, we just completed a professional development workshop to support the dissemination of this curriculum. Some features of that workshop included: (1) Overview/orientation of the unit and the materials in the learning kits; (2) Virtual tour of the Iñupiaq snow innovations at the UA Museum of the North; (3) Hands-on lessons led by a master science teacher; (4) Iñupiaq vocabulary session with Iñupiaq Elder and UAF Language Instructor Hannah Paniyavluk Loon; (5) Q&A with rural teachers who piloted the curriculum - lessons learned; (6) Q&A with snow experts including Alaska Native Elders and UAF researchers.
Rebecca Lewis
Rebecca Sansom
Thank you for sharing your work. We are just beginning a project designing curriculum materials with teams of rural teachers in Utah. We also have a high percentage of indigenous students, particularly from the Navajo and Ute Nations.
I wonder if you could speak to the ways you initially connected with community leaders and how you developed relationships of trust that allowed you to work collaboratively on the lesson materials and gave the community leaders ownership of aspects of the project?
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
Hi Rebecca. Each community and culture is different from the next and you can't know for sure that your efforts will be well received until you reach out to the community. We always connect with the local Alaska Native Tribal Organization and the school district while we are in the process of writing the proposal. We don't want to say we will work with a community and find they are not interested in collaborating. Here in Alaska we have the issue of so many researchers studying the Arctic and wanting to work with the communities in the region that the small villages scattered across the region can become oversaturated with science and they might start to shut people out. Make the first call to the Tribe and have a genuine conversation about what you want to do and why you want to do it. Follow up with a short email that lists all the salient points, then, keep track and make sure you carry out all that you say you will do. If the Tribe approves of the work, ask them if there are one or two people they can recommend you work with, and let them know you will compensate those people for their time. Eliminate the word "volunteer" from your vocabulary when working with Indigenous people. They are giving their valuable time and often the intellectual property of the Tribe, and you demonstrate that you see it's value by paying for it. Once you have the Tribe on board, contact the school district Superintendent and get them on board with the project. In small rural communities, the Chief and the Superintendent will know all of the community leaders, so start asking for referrals from them and follow up on your leads. Make frequent in-person visits to the community and on each visit, try to see someone at the Tribe and someone at the district office. You can also stop in and introduce yourself at: The borough office, the city office, the police station, library, church, or other public offices. If there is a radio station or newspaper, stop by and see if they have suggestions of who to talk to. If there's a radio station, ask if you can go on the air to talk about your project. Arrange to have a public event to explain your project (bring food and, if possible, door prizes). Keep going back. Listen to people when they say what has frustrated them in the past and then, don't do that thing!
Rebecca Vieyra
Rebecca Sansom
Lynda, Thank you so much for your thoughtful response. These are a lot of wonderful ideas. One of the challenges that we are facing is that we are working with all of rural Utah, and there are several Native American nations with whom we may interact, depending on which teachers participate in our project each year. The most populous are the Navajo and Ute tribes but there are also Paiute, Shoshone, and other nations. We have a teacher from a Ute school already participating this year. Because of our focus on rural teachers, we hope to help each teacher connect with local leaders and resources, so these suggestions will be quite valuable as we move forward and facilitate that relationship building. Thank you.
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
I can understand how challenging that must be! Is your project in early stages or well underway? If in the early stages, you might consider a phased approach so that teachers and participants to join the project in early years can mentor others later in the progression of the project. I have found some success in that approach with other projects. I would love to stay in touch with you about your project and hear how things are going. Perhaps we can compare notes and share ideas.
Rebecca Sansom
Thank you, Lynda, yes we are just starting out. We do have some built in mentoring by prior participants. I would love to stay in touch.
patrick honner
Teacher
This sounds like a great collaboration between educators and community members. It was interesting to note some similarities between this project and Native Americans and STEM Careers using Spatial Design, in particular the power of connecting different generations of the community through STEM-based projects.
How widely can these materials be used? For example, was the unit tailored to a specific region of Alaska, or can it be used across the state? And if you are able to scale up, what would that look it?
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
Thanks for asking that question Patrick. We believe these materials are transferable to other regions and cultures of Alaska. Some help from the new community wanting to adopt the curriculum is needed. For instance, in the curriculum there are key terms translated into the local Alaska Native dialect for our target audience, in this case, that language is Iñupiaq. If you were going to adopt the curriculum in another community, you might enlist the help of a Native language speaker in that community to translate those same words into one or more local dialects. While the videos portray scenes from the Northwest Arctic region of Alaska, you could still use those videos in the new location, then encourage a discussion in the local classroom about how the scenes shown in the video are similar or different from those you see locally. We encourage other communities to film snow conditions in their region and share them with our project (assuming all necessary licenses and permissions are available).
A proposal to scale-up proposal for this project is currently in consideration. We believe the TRACK Team of advisors can be enlarged to include expertise from across the state of Alaska. When that is the case, expertise and knowledge on various topics can be brought in representing all of Alaska. Our research indicated that the video resources were highly engaging, flexible, and met the needs of rural Alaska teachers. In our scale-up, a repository of media resources will be assembled that can be articulated for many subject areas, grade levels, and regions of the state. Long-term, this type of resource can even be expanded beyond Alaska.
Rita Hagevik
The idea of co-production is so important and yes it is all about representation! Such an amazing project. Love the engagement. I wonder if others can use your snow curriculum too even outside of Alaska?
Lynda McGilvary
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
Hi Rita. Thank you for your question. You can find our curriculum and other resources here. We hope you enjoy!
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
Thanks for asking that question Rita. One of our next research questions addresses the transferability of the resources. Anyone is welcome to use the curriculum and it can be downloaded and printed, or used in digital format from the project website at https://sites.google.com/alaska.edu/snow/. The kits would have to be assembled by the school as those supplies were only provided by the grant. We believe the resources are transferable outside the local region, with some help from people in the community wanting to adopt the curriculum. For instance, there are key terms translated into the local Alaska Native dialect for our target audience, in this case, that language is Iñupiaq. If you were going to adopt the curriculum in another community with an Indigenous population, you might enlist the help of a Native language speaker within the school or community to translate those same words into the local dialect. Then, just substitute the Iñupiaq words for the Native language words used in your location. Similarly, the videos portray scenes from the Northwest Arctic region of Alaska. You could still use those videos in your classroom, then encourage a discussion in the classroom about how the scenes shown in the video are similar or different from those you see locally. We encourage other communities to film snow conditions in their region and share them with our project (assuming all necessary licenses and permissions are available).
Mary Alice Carlson
Thank you for sharing your work! We are also working on a project that connects curriculum to local knowledges. I’d love to learn more about the frameworks and processes that are guiding you.
Lynda McGilvary
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
Hello Mary Alice,
I'm happy to share our framework with you. Briefly, the framework consists of eight steps:
1: Teambuilding: Construct a TRACK team of Indigenous community members, STEM researchers and other participants such as educators and project advisors.
2. Use Backwards Design principles (McTighe & Wiggins, 2004) to map educational content that aligns with relevant standards and frameworks, embeds cultural intellectual resources, and incorporates STEM research.
3. Draft education products incorporating established Indigenous pedagogies. Note: Our model includes a Student Guide, Teacher's Manual, educational videos, and bilingual/multilingual vocabulary multimedia.
4. Review of draft products by TRACK Team members, STEM researchers, Advisory Board members and other participants. TRACK Team has final approval of content.
5. Revise products to address recommendations of reviewers as approved by TRACK Team.
6. Pilot test products with a sample of the target audience. Teachers provide feedback based on pilot testing. Feedback is carefully reviewed by TRACK Team and final revisions are determined based on discussion with the group.
7. Revise products based on pilot test outcomes and recommended revisions.
8. Implement and disseminate products broadly.
In-person interaction with the TRACK Team is critical to success with this project as several of its members, at least with our project, are Alaska Native Elders. In-person, group communication is culturally appropriate and puts Elders at ease.
It was also important to be patient and follow the leading of the Elders among our participants. As we carefully followed the examples they set, and allowed the work to progress on their timescales, much fruitage resulted that was ultimately embraced by the community.
McTighe, J. and Wiggins, G. (2004). Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Alexandria, VA.
patrick honner
Mary Alice Carlson
Thanks so much. This is really useful.
Janet Stramel
Thank you for sharing this! I loved the pictures of Kotzebue. I would love to see this curriculum project.
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
Thanks for your kind words. All of our project resources are available at the project's website: https://sites.google.com/alaska.edu/snow/.
Alexander Rudolph
Professor
This is a great project! The engaging of the tribal elders in the design of the curriculum is exemplary and the topic you ended up with, snow, is a great one in that it relates to both geosciences and my own field, physics. The materials you designed look wonderful. I wonder how you plan to follow up with the students and others in the remote community to learn about the long-term impact of you work. How did you measure the students' engagement? Did you find any change in their conception of science as a discipline they might study? Overall, a great video.
patrick honner
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
Alexander, you ask some great questions! We have submitted a proposal for a scale-up to this grant. If funded, it will support four more years of work with the people in this school district and will provide some longer-term data, although most of our data is qualitative.
For this project, we were trying to determine whether or not the place-based resources developed according to the Cultural Connections Process Model led to increased student engagement, and not necessarily measuring the student engagement per se. An Iñupiaq researcher and co-PI created surveys for students and teachers, interviewed teachers, and conducted observations to obtain the data. An external evaluator also was employed, who carried out formative and summative evaluation work that addressed student engagement.
Teachers remarked that students went from not attending science classes at all, to enthusiastic participation when this unit of instruction was being taught. Although this is not an indicator of whether or not the students are considering science as a discipline for future study, it speaks to their affect toward science when the content has relevance to the audience. With further work, I believe we can obtain a clear answer to that question, and I believe it will be a "yes." After all, Alaska Native people from the earliest times have lived and loved a world filled with science.
Rebecca Vieyra
Associate Director of Global Initiatives
Dear Lynda and team,
This is so fascinating! I briefly looked through the teacher guide, and I found it interesting to see that there are Iñupiaq standards, Alaska cultural standards, and then links to the NGSS. The thematic approach of this module addresses so much!
As a teacher, I wonder, does the structure of teachers' days/weeks allow teachers to feel like they can integrate this module? I wonder how much teachers embraced--and perhaps felt resistance--due to time constraints. For example, I could see this kind of module taking students outdoors, maybe inviting in elders themselves to engage with the students, and really seeing ideas blossom. However, I also have found that some elementary teachers feel very restricted in doing these kinds of things.
I also wonder about the role of classroom teachers in the co-design process. (I see you had some educators on the TRACK team, which is great!)
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
Hello Rebecca! Backwards Design principles were used to ensure all relevant NGSS, Alaska Science Standards, Alaska Cultural Standards, and Iñupiaq Learning Framework concepts were addressed in the lessons that were created for the curriculum. The unit consisted of only 9 lessons, which took most teachers about 2-3 weeks to teach in their classrooms. In Alaska's rural school districts, each school has an Alaska Native teacher who has students part of the day, so it worked out well that the Iñupiaq educators in the schools appreciated this curriculum and were willing to collaborate with the elementary and/or science teachers to help cover the material. That collaboration helped by sharing the teaching time for science and for Native studies.
In the midst of the pandemic we went the extra mile to see this project through to success. We wrote alternative activities for students learning remotely and also created a Canvas (LMS) version of the student guide to make it easier for teachers to use the resources when the schools had to close due to high infection rates. We also obtained and pre-packaged 1:1 student supplies and shipped those out to the schools so teachers would not have to worry about how to get the materials needed so students could do all the hands-on activities at home. We were quick to respond to the needs of the teachers in this way, which made it easy for them to use this resource over other tools available at the time.
You are correct that some teachers embrace these types of curricula and others are resistant to use them. That's why we initially envisioned it as a supplemental resource that could augment core instruction, but would be useful in providing place-based content in rural Alaska classrooms. However, after pilot testing the curriculum in the Northwest Arctic Borough School District, the decision was made to implement this resource and another product we created on the subject of the northern lights as mandatory science instruction. You can review our northern lights curriculum here.
We worked with former rural Alaska and Alaska Native classroom teachers in the development process for both curricula. As you surmised, in-service teachers have so much going on, it would have been nearly impossible to make progress on these resources trying to work with teachers during the school year, especially in the midst of the pandemic.
Rebecca Vieyra
Associate Director of Global Initiatives
Dear Lynda,
Thank you so much for your detailed response! I'm so glad to hear that these materials have been well-received -- you have shared so many examples in this discussion about the importance of understanding the educational infrastructure to make this a successful project. Congratulations to you and the team!
Jennifer McMurrer
I love that you co-constructed the curriculum with community elders. This is an important component of curriculum development that many of us in the lower 48 can learn from--thank you for doing and sharing this valuable work!
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
Hi Jennifer, I appreciate your kind words. This experience was truly life changing and everyone on my team has been so thankful to have been able to do it. The people we worked with were so gracious and willing to share their knowledge and help us to better understand their cultural viewpoint. Not only did we benefit, but the students and teachers were so happy to have this new resource to use in the school.
Cynthia Orona
Thank you for sharing your video and all the tips that you have provided in the comments. We work with 3 native Nations in Oklahoma and the biggest thing is definitely earning their trust to let you come in and conduct research, especially when it comes to working with their children.
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
Non-Natives have historically (and in present) done so much to destroy trust, it is understandable that it is hard won. Be patient and just be careful to make sure you do everything you promise. That's my best advice. Please keep in touch!
Anasilvia Salazar
Congratulations on your wonderful project! I love how you integrated the community and culture into the STEM curriculum! That is a valuable experience that we can learn from and borrow for our place-based research in rural Iowa.
Lynda McGilvary
Communications Director
It truly was a co-productive work. I know you will find similar success with your project, Anasilvia!
Anasilvia Salazar
Tara ONeill
Aloha e Lynda,
Thank you so much for sharing this work. I look forward to exploring some of the resources you have shared in other comments above and of course the curriculum itself. I love the genuine nature in which the community was asked for their input and elders in the community were valued as experts. I think these are practices we say we want to see in place-based education practices but often do not or the process is not made explicitly clear. Thank you for providing such an explicit example of how community knowledge and voice can be valued in school science spaces. If you are interested, my project team and I are currently planning our 4th annual STEMS^2 symposium that will be June 28 - 30 both online and in person (on Oahu). There is a lot to learn from your and your team's work that could apply to teachers in Hawaii. Thank you again for this work.
Barbara Rogoff
Thank you all for this admirable work!
Paulina Yourupi Sandy
Ráán allim Lynda and your team,
Thank you for sharing about your exciting project, especially how the knowledge holders, community members, and educators come together to develop meaningful resources for students. There is so much to learn from you and your team, your ability to bring people together for a common purpose and have them put their trusts in your team to share their knowledge and histories with you. I commend you for this wonderful project.