A Middle School Program To Attract Native American Students To Stem Higher Education

A 3-year collaborative project between the Turtle Mountain Community College, North Dakota and the Department of Civil Engineering and Construction, North Dakota State University, “A Reservation Collaboration Initiative for Pre-college Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (RECIPE)” funded by NASA completed two years and is in its third year of activities. The project focuses on five components that are essential to realize an increase in the Reservation student participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines to pursue college education in those areas: informational activities, instructional activities, interaction with industry, interaction with Native American STEM professionals, and a collaborative framework among the University, Tribal College, and Reservation schools. Some of the project activities are: after-school enrichment sessions, weekend academy, summer camp, Tribal College gateway course improvements at TMCC, student meetings with Native American and other STEM and NASA professionals, and informational sessions about university and college campuses. In the first two years, ten middle school teachers and thirty Native American middle school students were impacted through the after-school enrichment activities. Selected NASA-developed lesson plans were modified and adapted for enrichment sessions collaboratively by the University, Tribal College, and Reservation middle school teachers. The state NASA resource person was frequently consulted during the project period. We expect to impact additionally five teachers and fifteen students in the third year. We have identified mathematics, chemistry, and biology gateway courses to be improved. Mathematics course was reviewed and improved first. Chemistry and biology courses are selected for review and improvement this year. BACKGROUND North Dakota is a sparsely populated State with few urban centers and a vast rural area. There is a sizable NA population concentrated in the Reservations of the State. Each Reservation is served by a tribal community college (TCC) to meet the higher educational needs of the tribe members. There are five TCCs in the State: Turtle Mountain Community College (TMCC), Belcourt; Cankdeska Cikana Community College (CCCC), Fort Totten; Sitting Bull College (SBC), Fort Yates; Fort Berthold Community College (FBCC), Newtown; and United Tribes Technical College (UTTC), Bismarck. Typically Reservation and surrounding high schools feed the TCCs. There are two major universities in the State that draw students straight from the Reservation schools and from the TCCs. The tribal colleges and the universities have historically P ge 1.55.1 “Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education” worked together on several educational projects in the past. A recent project funded by NAVY provided opportunities for the North Dakota State University (NDSU), TCC faculty and Reservation school teachers to collaborate. The NASA-sponsored project discussed subsequently in this paper is an outgrowth of the above-mentioned NAVY project. The Turtle Mountain Community College (TMCC), located on the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Reservation in North Dakota, has been making great strides toward creating educational opportunities for the youth of the Reservation. However, there is concern with the low numbers of students who attempt or succeed at careers, which require higher-level science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills. North Dakota State University, as one of the premier educational institutions of the State, for its part has often collaborated on educational initiatives with the TCCs in the State in the past fulfilling its land grant responsibility. Turtle Mountain Reservation is located in north central North Dakota and is home to about 13,000 members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. The Reservation consists of a six-by-twelve mile tract of land. According to the 2000 census, about 41% of the population on the Reservation is below age of 20. A recent Bureau of Indian Affairs Labor Force survey found that 69% of the labor force is unemployed on the Turtle Mountain Reservation. Most of the children of the tribe attend schools on the Reservation, with the largest school jointly operated by the State of North Dakota and the Bureau of Indian Affairs and serving approximately 1500 students in grades K through 12. Turtle Mountain Community High School has about 600 students in grades 9-12 and 450 middle school students in grades 6-8. Surrounding schools K-12 population is 1400. Surrounding participating schools and the number of Chippewa students in them are: Ojibwa Indian School (336), Dunseith Day School (157), Dunseith Public School (528), St. John Public School (203), Rolla High School (136), and Rolette Public School (37). The 3-year project, “A Reservation Collaborative Initiative for Pre-college Excellence in Mathematics, Science, and Engineering for Native American Students (RECIPE)”, described in this paper is a collaborative effort between the Turtle Mountain Community College, and the College of Engineering and Architecture, North Dakota State University (NDSU). The possible educational pathways that Native American students on the Turtle Mountain Reservation take are shown in Figure 1. Though entire pathways are shown in the figure, this project concentrates on the intervention activities at the pre-college level (to the left of dashed line on Figure 1) to make a seamless passage to college education in STEM disciplines and to introduce the students to NASA careers. The activities include academic sessions dispersed throughout the academic year and some concentrated events such as summer camps and informational sessions oriented towards NASA careers using educational aids prepared by NASA. The activities of the project are designed to better prepare Native American youth from the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Reservation, for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education at college levels and to make them aware of possible careers in NASA. The activities are expected to P ge 1.55.2 “Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education” stimulate the Indian youth from Turtle Mountain Reservation to pursue careers in areas such as engineering involving higher level STEM skills and thereby increasing the flow along paths A and/or C in Figure 1 and then on to careers in NASA. The project expects a systemic reform of curriculum to occur at Reservation schools. NATIVE AMERICAN STEM EDUCATIONAL NEEDS There is concern among the Native American (NA) educators nationally about the lack of NA participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers. Recent declines in engineering enrollment among the underrepresented minorities are disproportionately higher than the decline among non-minority students. Resource limitations in the pre-college education of underrepresented minority students suggest the need for a variety of strategies including enrichment and intervention programs. Regardless, programs to increase NA participation and successful completion of engineering degrees are needed. This would involve instituting programs not only to motivate the NA middle and high school students to pursue college education in STEM areas but also to guide and nurture them through their academic pathways till graduation. Furthermore, in order to sustain these activities, we need to include the TCC faculty and the mathematics and science teachers of the Reservation schools in the development and delivery of these activities. NEED FOR INTERVENTION Statistics on freshmen intending science and engineering majors nationally by race/ethnicity in Table 1 clearly shows that the declines in NA numbers are disproportionately higher than the non-minority students. Although NAs account for more than 5% of the population in North Dakota, only 130 students out of more than 12,000 students attending NDSU are NAs. This is only about 1.1%. Among these NA students, only 7 are studying mathematics or sciences as majors and 7 enrolled in engineering departments. Reservation's high schools do not offer complete pre-college math and science experiences due to remoteness, inadequate facilities, and limited staff. In activities such as science fair etc., only students of gifted programs participate. It is essential to offer additional math and science exposure to these students to attract and prepare them for math, science and engineering careers. Activities need to be designed and delivered with the potential of reaching out to those teachers and students beyond those participating in selected gifted programs. Intervention activities are certainly needed at the pre-college level. If done collaboratively by the university and tribal college faculty and teachers, these activities will be designed and delivered better. NASA SPONSORED TMCC-NDSU COLLABORATIVE PROJECT: RECIPE This project team has already been working on another project with interventional activities through the entire pathways shown in Figure 1 except the middle school level because of funding agency priorities and resource limitations. However, the need for intervention at the middle school level was clearly recognized by the project team and the result is this project funded by NASA. P ge 1.55.3 “Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education” Pre-college excellence is the main goal. The project was conceived with the firm belief that the activities to attain that goal can be designed and implemented only through a collaborative effort from the university, tribal college fac