Large-scale changes in earth environmental systems have rendered a demand for an analytically trained, environmentally-oriented stem workforce, including educators, who are in the first ranks of…

Large-scale changes in earth environmental systems have rendered a demand for an analytically trained, environmentally-oriented stem workforce, including educators, who are in the first ranks of knowledge dissemination. Qualified professionals in these areas must have appropriate tutorials which encompass exposure to applied earth science information and project starting points that will foster interest in the individual learner. NASA education priorities include promotion of stem basic knowledge as well as familiarity with NASA database information, which is extensive and can be applied to any educational project orientation. A further category of the NASA mission is also climate change education; all three of these priorities can be incorporated directly to in-service for educators- elementary, secondary and post-secondary- as well as teachers in training, and this in large part may consist of improving stem knowledge of both educators and, consequently, students at various stages of the stem pipeline, while enhancing knowledge of earth systems and current-day issues concerning earth and climate, particularly in a cultural venue. This proposed project will primarily aim at improving instructor competency at the elementary, secondary and community college level on the turtle mountain reservation in global climate change research, data and instruction (and will thus improve student abilities), by targeting three main areas of instruction: core competencies in earth science and stem areas, laboratory skills, and NASA earth system information access. A problem-based workshop format, which will directly provide instructors with lesson plans, demonstrations, and research materials/skills, will be used and will ultimately exercise best practices for teaching the teacher. The more innovative technique of problembased learning, which tends to engage students more than rote learning due to increased authenticity and relevance, will be the guiding principle for educating educators. The workshops will build upon a prior NASA grant for tribal colleges (NASA/usra 2006 grant an innovative approach to integrate earth science data and research into curricula at tribal colleges and universities ) which developed a number of educational lesson plans which incorporated remote sensing information derived from NASA databases and laboratory demonstrations into physical science curricula. A limited number of these lesson plans are currently used in physical science classes at tmcc, but a additional relevant information from that study should be promoted for use by the educational community who may be able to use ideas from these plans at different levels of learning (elementary, secondary, higher education) and at different levels of involvement (units, courses, or entire curricula dedicated to remote sensing, climate change, or GIS studies). Many instructors are short on time and are teaching in areas of minimal expertise; presenting direct teaching modules that incorporate basic principles, laboratory techniques and directed use of associated databases will significantly expedite acquisition of skills for most instructors and greatly increase the possibility of global climate change curricula appearing at their affiliated educational institutions, which is a planned outcome of this project. Lesson plans will contain information in a cultural context as well- populations of indigenous people have been and will continue to be directly concerned with polar ICE melt and habitat/wildlife shifts, changing rainfall distribution and water rights, and desertification effects on subsistence agriculture and nomadic lifestyles.