Educational researchers from SRI International and geoscientists from the University of Washington (UW) are engaging American Indian high school and college students from the Puget Sound region of Washington State in the geosciences through place-based field work, while exploring models for developing data literacy and enhancing quantitative reasoning skills by connecting abstract representations of place-based spatio-temporal data with inquiry tasks. Employing curriculum and assessment methods developed by SRI, the team is developing and piloting problem-based, inquiry-oriented curriculum modules about the environmental history of the Washington State Puget Sound region and about what implications the history has for the American Indian communities in the region. The Data-driven Inquiry in Geoscience Environmental Restoration Studies (DIGERS) modules are using data collected by the UW team for the Puget Sound Regional Synthesis Model (PRISM) and Puget Sound River History Project. The modules will be pilot-tested in a new undergraduate environmental history course at UW and in science classes in high schools serving American Indian students in Seattle and Puget Sound tribal communities. The curriculum modules will consist of problem-based units and performance assessments centered on student use of the UW data, plus accompanying geographic visualizations and other representations. DIGERS will provide the UW geoscientists with the opportunity to demonstrate to the regional tribes that their research, some of which has been funded by Puget Sound tribes, can be used in the service of the American Indian youths? STEM education in addition to use by tribal agencies in resource restoration and management. DIGERS will provide adaptable and publically available designs of data-centered geoscience inquiry tasks that can support future development of high school and undergraduate-level curricula. In addition, the project will contribute to the knowledge base about how students can become more engaged and more skilled in geoscience inquiry and data analysis and what variations in educational supports and expectations should exist to build successful experiences for the students with the materials.
) project designed and implemented adaptable high school and undergraduate curricular exemplars about environmental restoration in the Puget Sound area of Washington State with an emphasis on river geomorphology and its systemic relationship to (1) biodiversity and (2) the legacy of human interaction with the environment. Project curriculum development culminated in the design of curricular and assessment task templates and professional development guidelines. A broad impact is that these templates and guidelines will make it possible for other educators to adapt the curricula from this project to other rivers in the United States and to do so in ways that integrate local Indian knowledge and perspectives. The project was carried out as collaboration between science educational researchers at SRI International and scientists at the University of Washington. The UW American Indian Studies Department chairperson made important contributions as well in relationship building, recruitment, curriculum planning, and instruction. Concerning intellectual merit, the project has provided proof of concept that an interdisciplinary place-based environmental science curriculum that integrates traditional ecological knowledge, Western science, and the history of human interaction with the environment can lead to greater engagement in science studies among students who have not before shown a strong interest in or sense of confidence with science and that these outcomes can be prevalent among both Native American and non-native American student populations. The proof of concept is in the instantiation of the design principles for one particular locale. The replicability is in the manner in which the design principles are adaptable to other locales where there is a shared indigenous and modern Western-based legacy around the natural environment. The following is a summary of findings, by project goal. For details about these findings, see the final report on the project website: http://digers.sri.com. Goal 1. Build greater interest among American Indian students in geomorphology and environmental studies and hence support the goals of LSAMP to increase the commitment of American Indian students to STEM courses, majors, graduate degrees, and careers. The findings provide evidence of attainment of greater interest and engagement outcomes, as evidenced especially by significant student gains in intrinsic science interest, place identity, and self-reported knowledge of key course topics. The high school findings also attest to these outcomes though in the course of the students looking back and self-reporting changes rather than answering pre-and post. Goal 2. Provide useful means for teachers to assess the impacts of the curriculum on their students’ knowledge and skills about the focal uses of inquiry in watershed geomorphology. The project team devised multiple resources that teachers can use to assess student learning with the knowledge-building and inquiry-practicing components of the DIGERS curriculum. The resources useful for assessing the knowledge building components are the design patterns and assessment examples offered on the DIGERS website, plus the forms of checking for understanding practiced in Year 3. The components for assessment of inquiry skills exist in the various hands-on activities that were assigned to students, including (1) computer-based labs for the undergraduates looking at river geospatial data representations made available by the UW DIGERS team, and (2) various adaptable field observation protocols for the undergraduate and high school students. All of these materials are accessible from the DIGERS website. For example see the adaptable "Generic questionnaire for observing Puget Sound area rivers" in the Curriculum tab/High School Field trips folder. Goal 3. Provide a replicable model of productive collaboration and synergy among professional scientific researchers and professional educational researchers. A rich trail of interactions is described in the annual and final project reports that attest to the ways in which the science researchers and science educators on the team complemented each other to produce superior products. For example, SRI PI Zalles, a science education researcher, was able to take knowledge from the UW PI Montgomery and other UW geomorphologists and ethnobotanists on the team to produce lessons that the science teacher at the high school would find appropriate for even his low-achieving students. Zalles did this by simplifying language, reducing the technical details of the content, and building in activities that provided opportunities for students to express evidence-based opinions and critical thinking as they learned the material. Zalles also contributed to the UW team's work on the undergraduate course by coaching them about ways to check for student understanding during their delivery of course content, thereby influencing more positive outcomes in Year 3. In turn, the UW team built Zalles's capacity to understand the scientific material that they were experts in so that he could take those concepts and develop the high school curriculum exemplar, curriculum design template, design patterns, and assessment examples available on the website.
