TSIP: High-Impact Practice for Aaniiih Nakoda College Environmental Science and Ecology Students - Namibia Field Course

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 STEM curricular offerings at these institutions expands the opportunities for 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 aligns directly with that goal, and moreover provides access to international collaborations and discovery to students who are often otherwise geographically isolated. Aaniiih Nakoda College (ANC) conducts a field-research based environmental science course that includes international collaboration with researchers in Namibia. ANC students can participate in discovery at sites in Namibia, and their Namibian collaborators may participate in discovery at sites on the Fort Belknap reservation. The project provides a potentially transformative model for American Indian students’ engagement in international learning experiences that offer immersive opportunities for mutually affirming cultural dialogue with other Indigenous people from around the world. 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.