A two-week science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) summer camp for American Indian tribal college students, faculty and reservation high school teachers was held June 1-12 at NDSU. The annual camp, a component of a more comprehensive project Nurturing American Tribal Undergraduate Research and Education (NATURE) to attract American Indian youth to STEM careers, is funded by the National Science Foundation and the North Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (ND EPSCoR).
In its fifth year, NATURE has four component activities including summer camp for tribal college students and faculty at NDSU, summer camps for high school and middle school students at tribal college sites, Sunday Academy directed to high school students in the five North Dakota reservations and university-tribal college collaborative undergraduate research mentoring.
The camp opened with a traditional American Indian prayer by Denise Lajimodiere, assistant professor in education, followed by a luncheon in the Alumni Center. Participants then had the opportunity to attend the dedication of the Sacred Grandmother Earth’s Gifts of Life Garden by President Joseph A. Chapman. Five American Indian STEM professionals made presentations to the participants about their professional experiences and career prospects.
This year, 12 American Indian students from four tribal colleges participated in the camp. Concurrently, six tribal college faculty and seven reservation high school math/science teachers worked together with the faculty from NDSU and the University of North Dakota to develop lesson plans for the high school summer camps held later in June and July at the tribal college sites and for the upcoming Sunday Academy sessions, one Sunday each month through the academic year. Six cultural leaders from reservations worked with the faculty and teachers during the last two days of the camp to develop material on cultural connections to the lesson plans. A two-day workshop was held July 24-26 at NDSU for the tribal college faculty and teachers to learn hands-on activities in the lesson plans they developed for the Sunday Academy.
Camp activities for students included laboratory visits and demonstrations in physics, chemistry, computer science and engineering; field visits; mathematics lessons; and project work. Students also spent a day at the UND campus. NDSU and UND instructors introduced science, math and engineering disciplines and career opportunities to the students. The topics covered in the projects included climatology, ways to increase sugar beet pulp loading rate, irrigation scheduling for the Turtle Mountain region, regulation of growth and metabolism in fish, superconductors and electron microscopy. The six student presentations on the closing day of the camp showcased the collaboration of 12 American Indian students from tribal reservations across North Dakota and faculty and graduate students from the state’s two research universities.
Opportunities for recreation and social interaction provided for the students to experience campus and city life by the Office of Multicultural Student Services added fun to the rigor of the camp. The camp concluded with a closing ceremony with a closing prayer followed by a luncheon.
G. Padmanabhan, professor in civil engineering; Robert Pieri, professor in mechanical engineering; and Chad Ulven, assistant professor in mechanical engineering, organized and conducted the camp. Adnan Akyuz, assistant professor in climatology; Uwe Burghaus, assistant professor in chemistry and molecular biology; Scott Pryor, assistant professor in agriculture and biosystems engineering; Mark Sheridan, professor in biological sciences; Xinhua Jia, assistant professor in agriculture and biosystems engineering; Alan Denton, associate professor in physics; Prakash Ranganathan, instructor in electrical engineering at UND; Thomas Freeman, professor in plant pathology; Hanying Xu, director, environmental analytical research lab at UND; and Julia Zhao, assistant professor in chemistry at UND; were the primary resource faculty for instruction and project mentoring in the camp. Jaclynn Wallette, director of multicultural services, coordinated the recreational and social activities. Austin Allard, an undergraduate student in civil engineering, assisted in instruction and logistics of the camp.
For additional information on the program, call Padmanabhan, principal investigator and EPSCoR coordinator of NATURE project, at 1-7043.