RAPID: Building Partnerships: Documenting the Goals and Outcomes of PEEC and PAGE

A goal of the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) is to increase the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) instructional and research capacities of specific institutions of higher education that serve the Nation's indigenous students. Expanding the discipline-based research and instructional collaborations among these institutions and non-TCUP partners expands the opportunities of their students to pursue challenging, rewarding careers in STEM fields, provides for research studies in areas that may be culturally significant, and encourages a community and generational appreciation for science and mathematics education.

This project supports that goal by disseminating the achievements and findings of the colleges that have collaborated in STEM instructional and research capacity-building in two major TCUP strands.

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics now represent the largest and most dynamic parts of the curriculum within most of the nation's tribally controlled colleges and universities and other TCUP institutions. Although small and with limited resources, these colleges are graduating students ready to work or earn graduate degrees in fields across the STEM universe.

However, few people working outside of the TCUP community are aware of these accomplishments. The purpose of this work is to document and disseminate the significant impacts, as well as the model design, of two strands of TCUP support: the Pre-Engineering Education Collaboratives (PEEC) and the Partnerships for Geoscience Education (PAGE). Dissemination of the knowledge gained through these collaborative efforts will encourage more, and more balanced, collaborations between and among minority- and majority-serving institutions of higher education.

The project aim is to produce a "partnership" video modeled on recent TCUP videos by conducting on-site interviews and videography, followed by professional editing and finalizing. Dissemination will occur via the Native Science Report, an online journal focusing on STEM education within tribal and Native-serving colleges and universities (nativesciencereport.org).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.