The Big Sky Science Partnership (BSSP) is led by the Salish Kootenai College (SKC), a tribal college located in Pablo, Montana. Additional core partner institutions of higher education (IHE) are Montana State University, in Bozeman, and the University of Montana, in Missoula. Core partners from the K-12 community include the schools of the Flathead Reservation, located in western Montana, and the schools of the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Reservations, located in southeastern Montana, as well as Missoula area public school districts. Specific districts include Missoula County Public Schools, Lolo School District #7, School District #30 Lake County, Polson Schools District #23, Dixon Public Schools District No. 9 Sanders County, Joint School District #8, Superior School District, and Lone Rock Elementary District #13.
The overarching goal of the Big Sky Science Partnership (BSSP) is to increase science achievement of American Indian students in grades 3-8 of partner schools. A cross-disciplinary team of the partner IHEs' Geoscience, Physics, Astronomy and Education faculty, along with professional developers from the SKC Indigenous Math and Science Institute, and the Center for Learning and Teaching in the West, K-8 teachers, and administrators will collaboratively design and facilitate year-round project activities. A total of ninety grade 3-8 inservice teachers will become Teacher Leaders in the BSSP, through two cohorts of 45 teachers each. Up to twenty preservice teacher candidates will also have the opportunity to participate in the summer institute and other selected academic year activities. Participants will be involved in two-week summer institutes during which IHE science and education partners will facilitate challenging integrated science content and pedagogy courses. Each of the three summers will focus on a different content area, astronomy, geoscience, and physics, respectively, but concepts that permeate these different disciplines will be highlighted. Importantly, cultural competency strategies will be woven throughout the courses. There will also be distinctive and multi-day workshops on cultural competency delivered by tribal consultants and scientists, in addition to other leadership development activities. School year professional learning community activities will engage partners in online science content courses, online discussion forums, eight days of on site workshops, and job embedded coaching to further develop teachers' professional and leadership skills and knowledge.
A responsive project evaluation design will be employed to assess impacts on teachers' content knowledge, instructional practices and attitudes, and students' achievement and attitudes using a mixed-methods, quasi experimental design. Impacts on higher education faculty's instructional practice and attitudes will also be assessed. The BSSP has objectives at both the K-8 and IHE level, to: 1) improve science instruction by deepening K-8 inservice and preservice educators' understanding of science content and pedagogy; 2) generate school based K-8 science Teacher Leaders; 3) develop cultural competency in science instruction in K-20 instructors; 4) improve IHEs science faculty members' understanding of K-8 school culture and issues in precollege science education; 5) improve IHEs science faculty member's effectiveness in working with precollege teachers; 6) develop a sustainable professional learning community made up of the BSSP partners; 7) generate a set of rigorous graduate level science courses designed for K-8 teachers, and 8) develop a viable model of science teacher preparation that will produce K-8 teachers well prepared to teach science to diverse students. In addition, the BSSP has identified three research questions associated with barriers to using effective classroom practices, fostering leadership and professional learning communities for building content knowledge and pedagogical skills in support of at-risk students, and the efficacy of online learning environments in diverse cultures.
