Cankdeska Cikana Community College is dedicated to community capacity building via educational opportunities. Through strategic planning efforts, CCCC has carefully crafted a plan that will strengthen and sustain STEM courses and programs by: 1. actively recruiting new talent (students and faculty) and raising the STEM bar by providing support to existing STEM curriculum through hiring highly qualified STEM faculty, research and development, and PEER tutoring; 2. implementing an innovative mathematics curriculum paradigm that will approach mathematics from three alternative (Accelerated, Slice, and Extended) directions aside from the traditional 15 week model; and 3. leveraging existing partnerships to provide a 4-year degree program through face-to-face, hybrid, and interactive video networking (IVN) course delivery.
Intellectual Merit: CCCC will achieve higher enrollment goals and retain students to matriculation into four-year institutions through recruitment and retention strategies that implement innovative tactics of math course advancement from 4 directions. Students will increase their ability to complete remedial and advanced mathematics through: 1) Accelerated Mathematics Academy (AMA); 2) use of mastery learning paradigm in extended math courses; 3) utilization of a Slice model for course engagement; and/or 4) continuation of the traditional 15 week semester approach. The college will increase STEM instructional capacity and improve research capabilities through the role modeling of a research environment that recognizes the importance of culture in relation to STEM. Additional STEM faculty with STEM credentials will enhance existing services and free up time for all faculty to focus on the development of intellectual and innovative models for learning. Evaluative processes will allow CCCC to build on existing pedagogical practices as well as cultivating new cutting edge practices.
Broader Impact: This project encompasses a comprehensive strategy to scaffold on existing education models that will implement a strategy for success through recruitment, support, and retention. A current student population averaging 245 students that are predominantly Native American of high poverty levels will be served. Opportunities for incoming freshman will increase college readiness with the AMA while attracting existing students that may have had disparities in the past. Successful implementation of this goal will help provide the paradigm necessary to promote a sustainable program and the backing to keep students on a path to successful matriculation into mainstream institutions. Additional STEM faculty expands the college's ability to explore proven models while increasing capacity to conduct research that will lead to dissemination through peer reviewed publications and conferences. The successful outcome of this project will increase STEM enrollment in mainstream universities. Broader outcomes focus on increasing STEM graduates that will serve as engineers, scientists, and mathematicians both inside and outside of Native American communities.
