Building a Pipeline to Increase American Indian Access to the Geosciences

College Of The Menominee Nation, Keshena WI

Investigators

Abstract

The mission of the NSF Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) is to support efforts to strengthen education and research capacity in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in the nation's Native-serving colleges and universities. The project titled "Building a Pipeline to Increase American Indian Access to the Geosciences" aligns directly with the mission of the TCUP through its goals to 1) develop an Associate of Science (AS) degree in geoscience at the College of the Menominee Nation (CMN), and 2) design a pathway that enables the seamless transfer of CMN's geoscience graduates to the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM) to complete a geoscience baccalaureate. The project partners science and Native Studies faculty members from CMN and UWM with STEM professionals and Menominee cultural experts in the design of the degree and pathway. To further its goals, the project focuses on generating student outreach, recruitment and support strategies to attract and retain students, and to enhance their potential for successfully completing their geoscience degrees. In building CMN's STEM education capacity, this project utilizes innovative strategies in the design of a new two-year geoscience degree at CMN that graduates students well prepared to transition to a four-year degree at UWM, and to create a customized pathway that supports CMN students' ready transition to that institution. The collaboration between key stakeholders from CMN, UWM and tribal communities assists the development of a robust and culturally appropriate AS degree. Place-based environmental justice issues relevant to the Menominee nation are essential frames for the AS curriculum, serving to contextualize learning and improving student engagement. Substantive field and research experiences, hallmarks of UWM's geoscience curriculum, are integral to the newly developed degree. A comprehensive program of student support strategies particularly targeted at critical transition point on students' academic journeys, such as faculty mentoring, are integral aspects of the project. The establishment of an articulation agreement ensures the transfer of CMN credits to any of the 27 University of Wisconsin campuses, giving students a major step toward their four-year degree completion. CMN's instructional capacity is further strengthened by the establishment of a geoscience laboratory at the college and the hiring of a geoscience instructor. The natural resource management priorities of the Menominee Nation provide potential employment for the geoscience graduates. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.