Recognizing the importance of Wisconsin’s Native Americans to the state, University of Wisconsin faculty members are reaching out to those communities to strengthen the connection between the state’s flagship university with Wisconsin’s original inhabitants.
POSOH, a project begun in earnest four years ago and led by UW’s Wisconsin Fast Plants Program Director Hedi Lauffer, aims to change the way that science is taught in tribal schools.
In 2011, after receiving a five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Lauffer, along with UW colleague Rick Amasino of the biochemistry department, reached out to the College of the Menominee Nation and began working with Menominee community leaders and educators to create a “place-based” and culturally-relevant approach to science education, said Linda Orie, a UW graduate student involved in the project.
According to Orie, the project first began as a partnership between UW and various members in the Menominee Nation to design curriculum for tribal middle school students, but has since grown to reach schools in the Oneida Nation, to which Orie belongs.
“Starting with something that people are familiar with and is part of their livelihood is often more intriguing than a dry textbook,” she said.
Amasino, who is responsible for the scientific work of POSOH, said the Menominee Nation was an ideal community to work with because of its strong cultural tradition of sustainability and forest preservation. The local relevance of the curriculum based on sustainability would allow for students to learn more science, he said.
The localized science curriculum incorporates Native American culture in its application and involves a greater deal of student engagement, as well, Orie said. Included in the new curriculum are opportunities for classes to discuss Native American culture and write in journals about their findings in local forests, she added.
While Amasino and Lauffer played a large role in the organization of the project, local teachers in tribal schools participated a great deal in the design of the curriculum, Amasino said. He also emphasized the aspect of partnership in the project.
“I bet I’ve learned more from them than they’ve learned from me,” he said.
While university partnerships with Native American communities have benefited science instruction in tribal middle schools, Dr. Alexandra Adams, an assistant professor in the department of family medicine at UW, continues to combat obesity in Wisconsin tribes, working with the Bad River, Lac du Flambeau, Oneida and Menominee communities through her project “Healthy Children, Strong Families.”
Adams, who worked as a physician on the Menominee reservation during her residency, began working with Native American communities six years ago. She focused on guiding families with young children to increase consumption of healthy foods and physical activity and reduce TV screen time, she said. She said the results of the first generation of the grant showed success, with an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption and a decrease in weight gain and screen time.
Like the professors involved in POSOH, Adams highlighted the responsibility that tribal communities play in partnerships with university faculty.
“I hope that the community will continue to build out their own wellness programs based on evidence they create with researchers as well as internally-created evidence and help them make their community stronger,” she said.
