In a 2011 review of the Lapwai community, Melinda Hamilton, the Idaho National Laboratory education director at the time, found that as a whole, the community had an interest in providing its children with more education opportunities.
Three years later, Kay Seven, director of the Nez Perce tribal education department, received a call from Hamilton – an opportunity had arrived.
“One day, it was July 2014, she called me and said, “Kay, there”s an opportunity to submit an application to the National Science Foundation under their ITEST initiative,”” Seven said. “She goes, “Kay, we”re thinking of submitting an application and the technology is UAV.” I thought, “Wow that sounds exciting.””
ITEST, the Initiative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers, is a research-based grant funded by the National Science Foundation. Seven said the goal of the grant is to build a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) identity with an underrepresented population through the use of remote sensing and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies.
Hamilton became the University of Idaho director of STEM education after her time with the Idaho National Laboratory. Seven said when Hamilton found the grant, the Lapwai community was the underrepresented population that came to mind.
After that first phone call, Seven and Hamilton partnered with Karla Eitel of UI”s McCall Outdoor Science School to assemble the application and write the grant.
In October 2014, Seven said the university received its official award notice – UI officially had $1.1 million to start the program that would help Nez Perce students in the Lapwai community build STEM identities.
Seven said one of the reasons she believes the grant to be important it that the Nez Perce tribe has a number of different natural resource careers.
“We have one of the largest fishery operations in the world,” Seven said. “We have an awesome fishery department and we have biologists who do a lot of research for the tribe, same with the natural rescue department, with our wolf recovery, our bighorn sheep project, our agricultural development, our fire management. We”re really rich with natural resource careers.”
Despite Lapwai”s fisheries and natural resource projects, Seven said most people employed in middle-to-upper management positions are not native. Rather, they”re primarily caucasian.
“We”re thinking, “How can we encourage and inspire our native people, our tribal people, to go to college, to pursue those degrees?”” Seven said. “To have the academic background and to come to the tribe and be seated in those professional or management positions – that”s a huge reason why I believe the grant is important to the tribe.”
For the project, the university partnered with the Nez Perce tribe and Lapwai School District.
Seven said the work begins with UI”s Raymond Dixon, an associate professor with the College of Education.
“Dr. Raymond Dixon will come to the Nez Perce tribe and begin his job analysis with our natural resource program,” Seven said.
Once a job analysis of the natural resource industries has been completed, Seven said a group of graduate and doctoral students led by Dixon will collaborate with the board of Nez Perce members to develop a curriculum that helps integrate STEM subjects and UAV knowledge into classrooms.
In addition to the development of a STEM-based curriculum that can be integrated into tribal classrooms, a group of Lapwai High School students will attend a summer camp at UI”s McCall Outdoor Science School in 2017.
“We”ll build the curriculum in the first year by doing a lot of other work, like participatory action research,” Seven said. “Talking to members of the community, especially the elders, on how we can make the curriculum relevant to indigenous people, to the Nez Perce people, and how they care for their resources and their environment.”
Corrin Bond can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @CorrBond