Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 3, 1 March 2016 — Program exposes native students to STEM [ARTICLE]

Program exposes native students to STEM

By Lisa Asato ndigenous students in Hawai'i and Alaska will build their collective knowledge about climate change, thanks to a federal grant designed to enhanee their skills in science, technology, engineering and math.

The program involves 1,500 Native Hawaiian and Yup'ik students in 15 middle schools eaeh on Hawai'i Island and in southwest Alaska's Lower Kuskokwim School District. Known as "Preparing Responsive Educators using Place-based Authentic Research in Earth Systems," PREPARES also aims to train non-native teachers in providing culturally responsive STEM instruction to native students. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is a partner in the program, with OHA's Leona Kalima serving as head of PREPARES' advisory board. In June 2015, a group of Hawai'i educators met in Honolulu to research the development of curriculum on how climate change affects Hawai'i's agriculture and freshwater resources. Additional Alaska curriculum was being developed separately. The lessons will be rolled out in classrooms, and students will be tested the following year to gauge how their achievements in STEM compare to those of students who didn't participate in the program. The program's success could lead to "increased funding for indigenous students in Alaska, Hawai'i and the rest of the country from the federal government," said Kathy Bertram, Ph.D., principal investigator of PREPARES. The students have already done one year of lessons under the fiveyear National Science Foundation grant. This school year the Alaska and Hawai'i students will communicate online to share what they've learned, culminating in a student exchange next school year, Bertram said. ■

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