Hopa Mountain, in collaboration with Blackfeet Community College, One Step Further, and Ogala Lakota College, will develop "Native Science Field Centers (NSFC)" to provide year-round informal science education for youth ages 8-18 and adults. Informal science education professionals are also served through the publications and materials designed to support programs targeting Native communities. The "NSFCs" will be located on the Blackfeet, Fort Belknap, and Pine Ridge reservations. The centers will develop "TribalWatch" environmental science programs that will be disseminated to six other tribes in the Missouri River Watershed. The "Tribalwatch" programs create a STEM career ladder for youth and adults to develop scientific expertise, knowledge of monitoring and an understanding of management of local lands. New technologies will be created for the evaluation of Native science programs that incorporate indigenous evaluation methodologies. Key partners include the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), the Field Museum of Natural History and the Science Museum of Minnesota. Deliverables include "Native Science Field Centers," "TribalWatch" programs and a "TribalWatch" toolkit and training plan. Strategic impact will be realized through capacity building within Native communities, research and documentation of programming practices and dissemination of the toolkit and publications to informal science education professionals, 32 tribal colleges and other educational organizations that serve Native communities. It is anticipated that this project will reach 100,000 Native and non-Native youth, adults and informal science education practitioners in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
In 2006, Hopa Mountain, Blackfeet Community College, and Oglala Lakota College received a grant of $1.9 million to develop year-round informal science education field programs that integrate Western science, Native language, and traditional knowledge. Working together, these organizations proposed to: 1) create three model tribal community-centered Native Science Field Centers that develop year-round environmental science field programs and disseminate these programs to six additional tribes; 2) develop STEM career-ladder learning opportunities for youth ages 8-18 and adults in order to develop a citizenry capable of using scientific expertise to monitor and manage Western lands and waterways; and 3) create new technologies on how to evaluate Native science programs using innovative and Indigenous evaluation methodologies. There were three intended audience impacts. In tribal communities, youth and adults were anticipated to: 1) gain competence in environmental science and cultural knowledge bases through participation in the environmental science activities; 2) gain knowledge of ISE resources and access to multi-year STEM career-ladder learning opportunities; and 3) Native and Non-Native ISE educators were anticipated to gain knowledge and skills in how to effectively develop and evaluate culturally grounded STEM programs with Native communities. As a result of this grant, Native Science Field Centers (NSFCs) were established at Blackfeet Community College on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and Ft. Washakie High School on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. These NSFCs engaged youth and adults in informal science education activities and field experiences that build from basic survey skills to mapping, monitoring, and decision-making. The NSFCs created outdoor experiences for youth to encourage their long-term involvement with their place and link them to other environmental science learning opportunities. They also integrated Indigenous and scientific ways of knowing about the environment with local language and culture preservation efforts to encourage the use of this knowledge in monitoring, management, and community-based ecological restoration efforts.
