Centering Indigenous Science in K-12 Science Instructional Materials

To successfully understand and address complex and important questions in the field of environmental science, many kinds of communities’ knowledge about their local environment need to be engaged. This one-year Partnership Development project involves a collaboration to design an approach that would yield opportunities for K-12 students to learn about environmental science in ways that honor both traditional STEM knowledge and Native ways of knowing among the Pomo community in California.

The goals of the project are to advance knowledge of place-based science by considering how Indigenous knowledge and traditional Western science can be productively partnered. The project is led by a partnership of researchers and educators from the Lawrence Hall of Science, Redbud Resource Group, and California Indian Museum and Cultural Center.

Partners will develop a common vision and framework that responds to key questions and guides future research and instructional materials development. To reach this vision, partners will engage in a range of activities including: 1) a series of partnership development meetings; 2) asset-based review of the research and development landscape, including literature review and identification of exemplar sites; 3) a pilot design workshop with school and Tribal partners in Pomo territory; 4) Native listening sessions; and 5) convening an advisory board to inform and evaluate the partners’ approaches and progress.

Through its work, the project aims to be a model for future partnerships and collaborations among Native communities, STEM curriculum designers, and preK-12 schools. This project is supported by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools.

Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. 

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.