The NATURE (Nurturing American Tribal Undergraduate Research and Education) program team is developing lesson plans and other educational activities for 2009-10, the organizations fifth year. The team is seeking additional NDSU faculty to participate in all of its activities, which generally focus on environment, energy and emerging technologies.
The program is an educational outreach program intended to increase participation of North Dakota American Indian college and high school students in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The North Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (ND EPSCoR) funds the program.
Components of the project include a summer camp at NDSU for tribal college students and faculty, summer camps at the tribal colleges for high school students and academic year Sunday academies at the tribal colleges for high school students. The tribal college faculty, NDSU faculty, University of North Dakota faculty and reservation high school teachers collaboratively develop all activities of the program. In a recently added activity, tribal college students work on their research projects at their campuses under the guidance of a tribal college faculty mentor and a university faculty mentor. These are semester or yearlong projects, increasing research skills of the students.
Other than monetary compensation, NATURE provides opportunities for the participating faculty to gain an understanding of the learning styles of American Indian students. Interested faculty members should contact G. Padmanabhan at G.Padmanabhan@ndsu.edu or 1-7043 or David Givers at david.givers@ndsu.edu or 1-7516.
April 23, 2009