STEM curricula at tribal colleges gets boost from NSF EPSCoR

Framing the Chemistry Curriculum, a “Track-3” award from National Science Foundation (NSF) EPSCoR, funded a collaboration with Nebraska’s tribal colleges to re-establish STEM courses with a Native American community focus.

Mark Griep, professor with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Chemistry and the “Framing” project’s principal investigator, formed a team of Nebraska’s tribal college science educators to develop chemistry curriculum relevant to tribal community topics. The labs—which include background information, community connections, a prayer, lab protocols and procedures, and suggestions for the lab report--can be performed by students alone or in pairs, and require about 2.5 hours to complete if the reagents and materials are ready.

Because of the Framing project, more than 20 students have taken a chemistry course in the past five years at Nebraska Indian Community College--with locations in Macy, Santee and South Sioux City. Little Priest Tribal College in Winnebago had offered a low-enrollment chemistry sequence; now it is attracting over six students a semester. The full-time enrollment at each college is between 150 and 180 students.

A UNL College of Education and Human Sciences graduate student, Bev DeVore-Wedding, earned her doctorate degree in 2017 while working on the Framing project, and then helped publish related research as a postdoctoral research associate in Griep's lab. The Framing project published a multi-semester manual for chemistry laboratory experiments that are adaptable for use by other tribal colleges and community colleges. The lab manual was developed to accompany a General, Organic, and Biochemistry course sequence.

Thanks to the committee of Nebraska tribal college science leaders, the courses are poised to continue, Griep added, and the curriculum is being considered for implementation at other states’ tribal colleges.

Read more about the Framing project here.