1. Access provided by University of Nebraska - Lincoln (13 Jun 2016 17:30 GMT)

2. 131[GPQ 36 (Spring 2016):131–146]
The Sharing Cycle of Science Learning
Connecting Community Topics to Tribal College Lab Courses
Mark A. Griep, Beverly R. DeVore-Wedding,
Janyce Woodard, and Hank Miller
Goal and Significance
The goal of the Sharing Cycle of Science
Learning project is to create sustainable
and culturally and locally relevant chemistry
laboratory experiences at Nebraska Indian
Community College (nicc) and Little Priest
Tribal College (lptc). Both colleges are lo-
cated in northeast Nebraska. nicc serves
students living primarily on the Omaha Res-
ervation, the Santee Sioux Reservation, and
within the South Sioux City urban area. lptc
primarily serves students who belong to the
Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and live with-
in the Sioux City urban area. To achieve our
goal of developing a two-semester chemistry
sequence, the team developed a method to
connect science courses with community top-
ics after considering factors ranging from the
mission of tribal colleges to an examination of
effective informal science education programs
for American Indian youth.
The significance of this project is that
American Indian students are underrepre-
sented in all science and engineering fields.
For instance, “Native Americans and Alaska
Natives” are underrepresented by almost 50
percent in chemistry as shown by the follow-
ing statistics. Even though they are 1.2 percent
of the US population (and 1.3 percent of Ne-
braska’s population1
), nationally they earned
0.8 percent of the bachelor’s degrees in chem-
istry and 0.6 percent of the PhDs in chemis-
try.2
Even more disparate is that Nelson and
Brammer’s diversity survey found that only
eight of the 2,787 (or 0.3 percent) tenure-track
faculty in the Top 100 chemistry departments
Key Words: case studies, chemistry, science, sovereignty, tribal
college
Mark Griep is an associate professor of chemistry at the Uni-
versity of Nebraska–Lincoln. His research concerns the study
of dna replication enzymes. He was awarded the unl Distin-
guished Teaching Award and is nationally recognized for his
lectures and published research about using movie clips to
teach chemical concepts.
Beverly R. DeVore-Wedding works in the Department of
Chemistry at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Janyce Woodard works in the Indigenous Science Department
at the Little Priest Tribal College, Winnebago, Nebraska.
Hank Miller works in the Math and Science Division at the
Nebraska Indian Community College, Santee, Nebraska.

3. 132 Great Plains Quarterly, spring 2016
With these as guiding principles, tribal college
faculty are charged with offering a cutting-
edge education based on a tribal worldview.
When students learn science in this way, they
strengthen their people’s sovereignty, a nec-
essary component for the sustenance of their
native language, land, history, and culture.
nicc was chartered in 1981 by the Oma-
ha Tribe of Nebraska and the Santee Sioux
Nation. In that same year, the North Central
Association of Colleges approved the college
for accreditation of associate degrees. The
college has three campuses—in Macy, Santee,
and South Sioux City. nicc instructors teach
from one campus and reach students at the
other two via videoteleconferencing. Of its 177
full-time students, 62 percent live on a reser-
vation and 64 percent are women, the major-
ity of whom have more than one dependent.
Throughout its history, 90 percent of nicc’s
students have been American Indians repre-
senting nine tribes. The college offers seven
degree programs, including associate of sci-
ence degrees in Environmental Science and
Health Science, in which the training for both
could be enhanced by a chemistry course.
lptc was chartered by the Winnebago
Tribe of Nebraska in 1994 and accredited by
the Higher Learning Commission in 1996. The
college has campuses in Winnebago and Sioux
City. It is named for Little Priest, the last em-
inent chief, who envisioned education as the
path to future empowerment of the Winneba-
go (Ho-Chunk) people. Of its 148 students, 32
percent live on the Winnebago Reservation,
56 percent are full-time, and 59 percent are
women, many having more than one depen-
dent. Throughout its history, 94 percent of its
students have been American Indians repre-
senting ten tribes. The college offers seven de-
were “American Indians, Native Alaskans,
Hawaiians, or Pacific Islanders.”3
This under-
representation is troubling because the fastest-
growing occupations for the past half centu-
ry in the United States have been dependent
upon knowledge of science and mathemat-
ics.4
In addition, changes in federal policy are
slowly allowing self-governance of American
Indian reservations, which has stimulated the
need for better trained individuals to assist in
managing tribal affairs.5
Tribal College Mission and
Nebraska’s Tribal Colleges
The American Indian Higher Education Con-
sortium (aihec) and the Tribal College and
University (tcu) system were created in 1973
and just celebrated their fortieth anniversa-
ry.6
There are now thirty-seven tcus (Fig. 1)
serving about 20,000 students and providing
services to an additional 46,000 community
members. Half the institutions (19/37) are lo-
cated within the Great Plains, including nicc
and lptc. While reflecting on the past and fu-
ture of tcus, Cheryl Crazy Bull, president and
ceo of the American Indian College Fund,
wrote that “tribally-specific education . . . can
facilitate the journey of our people through
colonization and dependency and into the
freedom of a new cultural sovereignty.”7
To
achieve this, she said, “tcus must teach stu-
dents how to approach these [Western laws
that govern land, water, air, energy, and nat-
ural resources] from the worldview of their
tribal teachings, rather than from the worl-
dview of mainstream society” and that “we
use science, medicine, and technology as . . .
resources for the work that our ancestors
and those in the spirit world want us to do.”

4. The Sharing Cycle of Learning 133
to American Indian students by the inclusion
of culturally rich examples.8
This approach
would be most powerful when connected to
a specific tribe’s culture. It should be noted in
this regard that there are 566 federally recog-
nized sovereign Indian nations (called tribes,
bands, nations, pueblos, rancherias, com-
munities, and Native villages) in the United
States.9
Many of these nations have extensive
written histories that can be used when devel-
oping lessons. Alternatively, one could draw
gree programs, including associate of science
degrees in Indigenous Science with either an
environment or health emphasis.
Science Education from a
Native Perspective
There are a number of philosophical consid-
erations when planning a science course with
a tribal worldview. In the ethnoscience ap-
proach, a science course can be made relevant
Fig. 1. Tribal colleges and universities that are members of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.
The 2014 enrollment figures for each institution were obtained from cappex.com, a college comparison website,
and are shown in red. The boundary of the Great Plains is denoted by the irregular vertical red lines. Nineteen
institutions (51%) are located within the Great Plains. Seven institutions (19%) are in the upper midwestern states
of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Five institutions (14%) are in the southwestern states of Arizona and
New Mexico. Three institutions (8%) are in the northwestern states of Alaska and Washington. There is a branch
campus of Northwest Indian College in Idaho.

5. 134 Great Plains Quarterly, spring 2016
are rich in social, cultural, and historical sign-
ficance.13
This approach connects with native
cultures because of their holistic view con-
cerning land, language, and history. It is per-
haps not pedagogically surprising, therefore,
that most tribal colleges offer environmental
science courses or that such courses are able to
maintain sustainable enrollments. Under such
favorable conditions, these types of science
courses have evolved in response to persua-
sive and passionate arguments about preserv-
ing and reviving the American Indian science
knowledge that is embedded within the cul-
ture.14
Specifically, the place-based frame-
work has been used successfully to develop an
earth, ecological, and environmental science
course serving native students and a climate
change course serving native communities.15
Finally, there is a vast array of informal sci-
ence education programs for native youth.16
These programs provide a rich balance of cul-
ture and science. After all, the goal of informal
science education is to give youth the freedom
to explore science in a way that is meaning-
ful to them. Such activities are demonstrated
to lead to deeper understanding and com-
mitment to science.17
Since every Indigenous
community has a distinct culture and knowl-
edge base, it is important to adapt informal
science programs to local needs. Spurred on
by this need, a partnership of three northern
Great Plains tribes and a nonprofit compa-
ny created the Native Science Field Center
in 2006 to identify environmental science
programs for youth that integrate traditional
knowledge, language, and science.18
The group
assembled a Consensus Advisory Commit-
tee of experts in native science to evaluate
the many programs, and they maintain their
findings on their website (http://nationalser-
viceresources.org/). During their analysis, the
from a given community’s oral histories about
the phenomenon being discussed.
The ethnoscience approach gets to the
heart of making science meaningful to un-
derrepresented groups. Banks and colleagues
coined the phrase “Life-Long, Life-Wide, and
Life-Deep” to encapsulate the notion that
most learning takes place throughout our
lives, in formal and informal environments,
and in ways that are acceptable to our lo-
cal community (i.e., connected to religious,
moral, ethical, and social values).10
These Life
Learning ideas arise from the realization that
a small percentage of people’s lives are spent
in structured, formal learning environments
(18.5 percent for Grades 1–12; 9.7 percent for
undergraduates; 5.1 percent for graduates; and
occasionally as adults). Since learners learn by
asking questions, science learning will happen
more often if their informal environments
are science-rich. Furthermore, Banks and
colleagues noted the majority culture is well
served with currently available materials but
that there is a need for an equitable amount of
materials for diverse audiences.
The use of science case studies is another
way to motivate students to learn and solve
science problems.11
A few of these science case
studies address topics of interest to American
Indians but none are oriented to a tribal worl-
dview. To fill this need, Evergreen State Col-
lege in Olympia, Washington, has developed
the “Enduring Legacies Native Cases.”12
Each
of these case studies focuses on an important
social or environmental topic identified by na-
tive leaders from across the United States and
Canada. These case studies tend to be very
tribally specific while covering issues of broad
Indian interest. However, only a few have a
chemical angle.
Place-based education posits that places

6. The Sharing Cycle of Learning 135
to the land, water, air, energy, and natural re-
sources in the student’s communities. Over
five years, this will create curricular materials
that are applicable to a variety of disciplines
but especially to science, engineering, and
math courses.
The supposition of this project is that
American Indian students will be more in-
clined to engage and persist in chemical edu-
cation when lessons and laboratory activities
are framed within the context of community-
relevant topics. In journalism, the “frame” is
the organizing idea used to make sense of a
topic. Like news stories, scientific data and
practices have no intrinsic value until they
are placed in a meaningful context. Only
when the purpose and hypothesis are clarified
can an experiment be understood as part of
a larger narrative that includes the method,
supporting data, and most importantly, an in-
terpretation. The community-focused aspect
of the proposed effort is expected to resonate
with American Indian students living in a
rural environment due to their strong sense
of kinship and place. Students will learn that
they control the questions and that chemical
procedures are a tool they can use to answer
some of them. By framing each experiment,
students will have the opportunity to engage
in differentiated chemistry learning as de-
scribed in a later section.
This project can be visualized as a cycle of
four parts in which each part builds upon the
previous one (Fig. 2), then builds by commu-
nication from one step to the next, and then
iteratively from year to year.
Community Topics
The first of the four parts of the cycle is to en-
gage local leaders and stakeholders (e.g., tribal
and community leaders, college administra-
Consensus Advisory Committee noted that
three effective practices were almost univer-
sally common: (1) create hands-on, inquiry-
based lessons reflective of the local culture
in their aboriginal homeland; (2) utilize the
community as an integral resource in the de-
velopment of curriculum as well as in instruc-
tion; and (3) use the local native language to
facilitate instruction and to understand the
local native worldview.19
Sharing Cycle of Science Learning
Addressing the need for relevant science
training is the long-term goal of the “Fram-
ing the Chemistry Curriculum” project, a col-
laborative effort between lptc, nicc, and the
University of Nebraska–Lincoln (unl). Our
project focuses on the students at Nebraska’s
two tribal colleges but our long-range focus
extends to other tribal colleges and universi-
ties. This project is one of only five funded by
the National Science Foundation’s Research
Infrastructure Improvement Program Track-3
for “new evidence-based strategies and prac-
tices, and institutional structure models for
broadening participation in Science, Technol-
ogy, Engineering and Mathematics (stem).”
During a sixty-month period from summer
2013 to spring 2018, the project team will it-
eratively develop and test a multi-institutional
collaborative model to increase the number
of underrepresented students participating in
stem education. The project team will create
a chemical pedagogy tailored to the unique
needs of American Indian students attending
Nebraska’s two tribal colleges by connecting
science coursework to contemporary com-
munity topics. For example, chemical experi-
ments will begin with discussions on the ways
in which the scientific measurements relate

7. 136
Fig. 2. The Sharing Cycle of Science Learning (gouache on paper, 2014) by Laurie Houseman Whitehawk, whose
tribal affiliations are Santee and Winnebago. Whitehawk created this painting to describe our project visually.
The four aspects of the “Framing the Chemistry Curriculum” project are placed within a Medicine Wheel, where
the circle is the cycle of life, the center is the individual, and the cross is community. All parts of the Medicine
Wheel have multiple associations and reflect upon the others. For instance, there are four directions, four stages
of life, and four seasons. The upper left sector represents the Advisory Board managing the Community Topics,
but it also represents the grant from the National Science Foundation in the form of Barack Obama handing an
Erlenmeyer flask to an Indian woman who is giving a gift in return. The upper right sector represents the Case
Studies group that finds the scientifically measurable parameters within the Community Topics. The lower right
sector represents the instructor and students in the chemistry lecture and laboratory course. The lower left sector
represents the faculty workshop and other sharing opportunities.

8. The Sharing Cycle of Learning 137
the Advisory Board because she is the state
liaison to the four tribes of Nebraska: Oma-
ha, Ponca, Santee Sioux, and Winnebago. The
ncia helps to ensure that the sovereignties of
tribal and state governments are mutually rec-
ognized and acted upon in a true government-
to-government relationship. The Commission
also works to ensure that off-reservation Indi-
an communities are afforded the right to equi-
table opportunities in the areas of education,
housing, employment, healthcare, economic
development, and human/civil rights. The
Commission actively promotes and supports
the development and implementation of lo-
cal, state, and federal programs that provide
equitable services and opportunities for Ne-
braska’s Indian families and advises on other
ways to strengthen the Sharing Cycle of Sci-
ence Learning.
ncia staff serve as the project’s communi-
ty facilitation consultant, providing strategic
advice regarding the overall approach and
helping to ensure timely, appropriate access
to and information sharing with key native
stakeholders. Specifically, ncia works with the
project team to identify and recruit community
members to serve on the lptc/nicc Joint Ad-
visory Board. The Joint Advisory Board meets
annually throughout the award period to share
authoritative advice on strategic planning and
to help ensure the cultural competency of the
proposed chemical education activities.
At its inaugural meeting in 2014, the Advi-
sory Board created the first list of Community
Topics (Table 1) that will serve as a founda-
tion for the project. The list includes environ-
mental, agricultural, and health topics that
are readily connected to chemical laboratory
experiences. Additional subjects such as oral
histories and economic development provide
topics for discussion or even research. The list
tors, etc.) to develop a list of relevant topics
that will be used to frame chemical educa-
tion. Our collaborative approach will bring
together local communities, science faculty,
and science students to implement and assess
the project so we can ensure the process of
change becomes embedded. This lptc/nicc
Joint Advisory Committee will not only cre-
ate a list of important community topics but
will also initiate a dialog between commu-
nity leaders and the tribal colleges. In other
words, we will have produced and refined
an innovative model for accomplishing two
things: increase community engagement and
communication among local organizations to
increase participation of underrepresented in-
dividuals in stem, and develop representative,
comprehensive, and the best possible topics
for our proposed curriculum model. For trib-
al students, their knowledge is useful when it
contributes to the community. Having these
leaders involved in the identification of topics
is expected to increase the dialog between the
communities and their colleges and to create
an annual forum for leaders and stakeholders
to determine which connections between the
topics and science learning are most useful to
the community.
The lptc/nicc Joint Advisory Board
consists of tribal leaders, college adminis-
trators, tribal liaisons to government offices,
presidents of local public services, Nebraska
Commission on Indian Affairs (ncia) rep-
resentatives, and others. The creation of this
board demonstrates the strong partnership
between these leaders and the academic in-
stitutions. This board is critical to the success
of the evaluation of this project because tribal
leaders provide the long-term vision to sus-
tain native communities.20
The ncia director is a critical member of

9. 138 Great Plains Quarterly, spring 2016
can be used by several disciplines at the tribal
colleges. By using the case studies, the outcome
should be improved attitudes toward chemistry
and, therefore, improved retention.
During the first academic offering in 2014–
15, each laboratory experience was preced-
ed by a brief discussion about which specific
community topics were related to the exper-
iment at hand. The students enjoyed the dis-
cussion but they were not tested formally on
this part of the experience. At the first year’s
faculty workshop in summer 2014, it was de-
cided to add the full list of community topics
and some case study material to the lab man-
ual so that students could read in advance of
the discussion and have something to elabo-
rate upon in the justification sections in their
lab reports.
The Fall 2015 lab manual included the list of
community topics and several one-page mini–
case studies. The first case study is titled “Wa-
ter Quality,” and it notes that eighty Nebraska
communities have well water containing arse-
nic and/or uranium levels that exceed federal
government standards. This case study relates
to “Experiment 3a: Water Quality Testing,”
which involves the qualitative analysis of ten
common ions and the measurement of water
pH and conductivity. Students are encouraged
to bring their own water samples to test. In
“Experiment 3b: Water Purification,” students
construct a water purification unit using peb-
bles, coarse sand, fine sand, and other mate-
rials. Students are provided with some foul
water to test.
The second case study is titled “Soil Quali-
ty,” and it notes that plants obtain most of their
nutrients from the soil. The plant has major
needs for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassi-
um. The nitrogen can be provided by decaying
organic matter, manure, urine, or fertilizers.
shows there are many community functions
where science and math are needed.
Table 1. Community Topics (with subtopics in
parentheses).
Air Quality
Animal Habitat
Biopiracy
Climate Change (Trends, Historical Knowledge,
Ecosystems)
Community Health (Genetics, gmos,
Food Sources)
Disease
Economic Development Issues (Trust Lands,
Environmental Racism)
Medicinal Plants (will not be used for
experimentation without tribal council
permission)
Natural Resources (Soil, Land)
Oral Histories (will not be published without
tribal council permission)
Ownership/Stewardship
Renewable Energy (Solar, Wind,
Compressed Wood Pellets)
Waste (Solids, Landfills, Hazardous)
Water Sources (Natural Disasters, Remediation
Programs, Metals, Testing, Policy, Watersheds)
Case Studies
The second part of the cycle is for tribal col-
lege faculty and students to link the commu-
nity topics to specific science disciplines, to
identify measurable parameters for use in the
laboratory experiences, and to create a series of
case studies. In the first two years of the proj-
ect, we will focus on the topics that are easiest
to connect to chemistry lab experiences. Our
goal, however, is to develop case studies that

10. The Sharing Cycle of Learning 139
derlying chemistry. Although these topics are
of great interest to native communities, such
courses are designed to enhance a citizen’s un-
derstanding of the relationship between sci-
ence and the broader consumer culture. We
decided this approach was not as well aligned
with our purpose. Our goal at both colleges
will be to consistently exceed the enrollment
minimum of six students, a number that both
colleges consider sustainable. It should be
possible to achieve such an enrollment be-
cause each school has a significant number of
students who earn associate’s degrees related
to environmental science and health science.
The foundation for both these foci are rich
in chemistry, indicating that these students
would benefit from chemistry instruction ma-
terials tailored to their interests.
Among the manifold reasons for low en-
rollments in the chemistry courses at these
colleges are the modest number of students at-
tending the college, irregular scheduling, and
the lack of an instructor who could focus on
the preparation of an entire set of laboratory
experiments. This project will focus on devel-
oping the laboratory experience because it has
the greatest opportunity to generate enthusi-
asm for chemical instruction. The combined
lab rooms at the nicc campus can accommo-
date twenty students. The instructor teaches
from one campus and then teleconferences
the lecture to assistants and students who are
present at the remote campuses. At lptc, the
single laboratory room comfortably accom-
modates ten students. Finally, to enhance the
likelihood of transfer to a four-year college,
another goal is to develop a chemistry curric-
ulum that is equivalent to those at four-year
colleges and universities. The case studies will
be used to bring relevance to both the lecture
and the laboratory components (Fig. 3). The
Soil pH plays a major role in ion availability
to the plant, is determined by the soil compo-
sition, and can be adjusted using a base such
as powdered limestone. This case relates to
“Experiment 6: Soil Quantitative Analysis,”
which involves the measurement of nitrogen,
phosphate, potassium, pH, and conductivity.
Students are encouraged to bring their own
samples of soil to test.
The third case study is about liquid, or
compressed, gases, which are used as heating
fuels in many homes located in rural areas.
This relates to “Experiment 7: Molar Mass of
Butane” in which the gas emitted by butane
lighters is analyzed to determine one of its
fundamental physical properties.
Chemistry Course Sequence
The third part of the cycle is to develop a two-
semester chemistry sequence at nicc in which
the chemistry lecture and laboratory experi-
ence are integrated. Each laboratory experience
will begin with a brief discussion about the
knowledge that the students bring to the top-
ic and the relevant community topics. Several
experiences are designed so that students learn
a procedure or method and then analyze mate-
rials or the method in ways that are related to
the case studies. The student outcome should
be greater confidence in the ability to use scien-
tific tools to address community topics.
We decided to create a two-semester gob
course (general chemistry in the fall semester
and organic and biochemistry in the spring
semester) because its focus on fundamental
knowledge aligns itself with health science
and environmental science majors. The other
option was to create a liberal arts chemistry
course in which high-profile topics such as
ozone depletion and water pollution are used
to drive student interest in learning the un-

11. 140 Great Plains Quarterly, spring 2016
build on these materials. The experience will
cause them to think about chemistry as some-
thing in their lives and not just in textbooks.
Chemistry Laboratory Experience
Integrated instruction connects the labora-
tory experience to other learning activities
such as lectures, reading, and discussion.21
To
learn how to think critically, students must
frame the research question, design the ex-
periment, make observations, analyze data,
and construct scientific arguments. The au-
thors of America’s Lab Report conclude with
four principles of instructional design to help
laboratory experiences achieve their learning
goals: (1) design with clear learning outcomes
in mind; (2) thoughtfully arrange with the
flow of classroom instruction; (3) integrate
laboratory experiences are developed and
taught by a lab instructor who is funded by
the grant and chosen from among students in
the graduate program of unl’s Department of
Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education.
The lecture instructor for the first few years is
Janyce Woodard from lptc. The lab and lec-
ture instructors will integrate student learning
of the case studies, lecture examples, and labo-
ratory experiences.
The list of community topics, references, and
connections to specific laboratory experiences
will be posted on the Internet as they evolve
during the project (http://chemweb.unl.edu/
griep/chem-education-research/). This should
increase the project’s visibility among partic-
ipants and nonparticipants alike. Students
taking the course in subsequent semesters will
Case Studies
Lectures &
Classroom
Discussions
Laboratory
Experiences
relevance relevance
integration
Fig. 3. The case studies provide relevance to the material presented in the classroom and the experiences in
the laboratory. The lectures and laboratory experiences use the same set of case studies to guide development
of learning materials. Students also integrate learning by discussing the case studies in the classroom to make
connections to the laboratory experiences.

12. The Sharing Cycle of Learning 141
in advance, they will occasionally confront
data that are not accurate or precise enough
to interpret in light of the hypothesis based on
insufficient alteration of the experimental pro-
tocol. Such a learning moment can only pres-
ent itself to students who are intent to learn
the answer.
Many laboratory modules will consist of a
training component followed by an inquiry
component. Students will carry out the train-
ing component until they have mastered the
technique. It is essentially a mini-lab-practical.
Students will use the community topics and
case studies to choose materials to measure
during the inquiry component. They will de-
sign, measure, and analyze their results and
then write a lab report. Chemistry promotes
numeracy because it was founded on the
principle of balanced reactions and is among
the most quantitative sciences; chemists deal
with material that has mass and volume. In
the context of our students who are interest-
ed in environmental science and health sci-
ence, chemistry laboratory experiences will
be able to focus on analytical measurements.
This means an emphasis on experimental
skills that are quantifiable for accuracy (Is the
value obtained correct?) and precision (Is the
measurement reproducible with low error?).
Therefore, students will learn how to use Mic-
rosoft Excel to tabulate data, analyze it for best
fit to model equations, and create graphs for
communicating data.
The Fall 2015 lab manual included many ex-
periences in which local materials and the na-
tive language were used (Table 2). In “Experi-
ment 1: Density,” students measure the density
of various dried beans and seeds, including
commercial popcorn and colorful kernels of
Indian corn. In “Experiment 3a: Water Qual-
ity,” it was noted above that students were en-
learning science content with learning about
the process of science; and (4) incorporate
ongoing student reflection and discussion.22
The proposed case study method provides a
framework for the instructors to easily incor-
porate these principles.
At the onset of this project, Nebraska’s two
tribal colleges varied significantly in their labs
and equipment. Both colleges had renovated
their lab rooms within the past six years but
lptc had the apparatus and equipment to of-
fer a basic set of chemistry labs, which they
have been doing continuously. nicc had not
offered a chemistry course in recent years and
did not have the chemicals or apparatus nec-
essary to run their own labs. Therefore, the
project included plans to overcome deficien-
cies in their materials, and we developed new
chemical safety protocols for both colleges.
The common goal of all chemistry labo-
ratory experiences is to learn techniques and
use equipment.23
Goals of the best laboratory
experiences do not simply verify established
scientific knowledge but instead engage stu-
dents in formulating questions, designing
investigations, and creating and revising ex-
planatory models.24
The learning goals for
each laboratory experience must be clearly
stated and should cover the entire spectrum:
enhance mastery of the subject matter; de-
velop scientific reasoning; understand the
complexity and ambiguity of empirical work;
develop practical skills; understand the nature
of science; cultivate interest in science and in
learning science; and develop teamwork skills.
Of all these goals, the authors of America’s Lab
Report noted that “understand[ing] the com-
plexity and ambiguity of empirical work” can
only be obtained through laboratory expe-
rience.25
When students analyze materials or
alter methods in ways that haven’t been vetted

13. 142 Great Plains Quarterly, spring 2016
pact of the change. The success of a change is
gauged by monitoring the transition through
seven levels from nonuse to use.
Outreach
Given the low chemistry course enrollment at
the two tribal colleges, recruitment will be an
important component of this project. At each
event, we will offer one or more of the follow-
ing: chemistry students talking about their
coursework, chemistry students and instruc-
tors performing chemical demonstrations,
and informative brochures. We will pass out
promotional items with the name of the tribal
colleges to help people remember the experi-
ence. The two colleges currently draw most of
their students from seven k–12 public schools
in the area. Classroom presentations can be
made during a classroom period to grades 7–
12 or during one of the school’s Family Nights
or Science Nights to reach even wider audi-
ences. We can reach a large portion of these
communities at the summer powwows in
Macy, Santee, Walthill, and Winnebago. Each
powwow has a health fair tent where we could
let citizens know about our interest in the en-
vironment, water, and food.
Enrollment Campaign
To recruit students, our program provides
80 percent of student tuition to the first six-
ty students who take the chemistry courses
(thirty nicc students and thirty lptc stu-
dents). This should help us meet our goal of
more than six students enrolled in chemistry
at both colleges by the fourth year of the pro-
gram. Students will pay the first 20 percent
of tuition and any fees to ensure their com-
mitment to completing the course. When
this tuition program ends, we will be able to
determine the long-term sustainability of the
couraged to bring their own water samples to
test. In “Experiment 5: Absorption Spectros-
copy,” students learn how to extract pigments
from organic matter, measure the absorption
spectrum of the extract, and then compare the
spectra to samples of known chemical compo-
sition. The organic matter included local food
items such as chokecherries, wild plums, and
black walnut casings (Table 3). In “Experiment
6: Soil Quality,” it was noted above that stu-
dents were encouraged to bring their own soil
samples to test. There are similar connections
between local materials and the native lan-
guage during the spring semester.
Dissemination
The fourth part of the cycle is to disseminate
the method locally and regionally through
workshops, outreach, and recruitment. Every
summer, we will hold a two-day faculty train-
ing workshop for tribal college faculty mem-
bers. The workshop will include an overview
of the project’s outcomes, an open discussion,
brainstorming sessions on the most effective
ways to use the case studies, and a review of
additional funding opportunities. The out-
come will be the dissemination of culturally
relevant laboratory experiences from chem-
istry to other science courses at participating
colleges. The first year’s workshop participants
will be limited to faculty from nicc and lptc.
In subsequent years, we will encourage faculty
from regional tribal colleges to attend and will
offer them a travel stipend. The workshops
are designed on the change-based adoption
model of Hall and Hord, which treats change
as a process, not an event.26
In essence, facul-
ty move through three stages of concern: how
will the change affect them, what is the nature
of the new task, and finally, a focus on the im-

14. 143
Table 2. Traditional food plants used by Nebraska’s Missouri River tribes.
English Scientific Ho-Chunk Lakota Omaha and Ponca
Bean Phaseolus vulgaris Honink Wanahcha Maka-skithe
Black walnut Juglans nigra Chak Hma Tdagë
Cattail Typha latifolia Ksho-hin Wihuta-hu Wahábigaskonthe
Chokecherry Padus nana Chanpa Nanpa-zhinga
Corn Zea mays Wa Wamnáheza Wahába
Gooseberry Grossularia
missouriensis
Haz-ponoponoh Wichandeshka Pezi
Mint Mentha canadensis Chiaka Pezhe-nubthon
Pumpkin, squash Pepo pepo Wagamun Niashiga-makan
Watermelon Citrullus citrullus Qaka-thidë Saka-yutapi
Wild plum Prunus americana Kantsh Kante Kande
Wild strawberry Fragaria virginiana Haz-shchek Wazhushtecha Bashtë
Note: These entries were assembled from Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region by Melvin R. Gilmore, originally published in
1914 (first enlarged edition, University of Nebraska Press, 1991). “In former times the plants cultivated by the tribes inhabiting the region which
has become the State of Nebraska comprised maize, beans, squashes, pumpkins, gourds, watermelons, and tobacco.” “Of maize, they grew all the
general types: dent corn, flint corn, flour corn, sweet corn, and pop corn, each of these in several varieties. Of beans, they had 15 or more varieties,
and at least 8 varieties of pumpkins and squashes.”
Table 3. Traditional plants used for dyeing and staining by Nebraska’s Missouri River tribes.
English Color Scientific Ho-Chunk Lakota Omaha and Ponca
Black walnut Black Juglans nigra Chak Hma Tdagë
Bloodroot Red Sanguinaria
canadensis
Peh-hishuji Minigathe makan
waü
Cottonwood
buds
Yellow Populus sargentii Waga-chan Maa-zhon
Dodder Orange Cuscuta glomerata Makan-chahiwicho
Lamb’s quarters Green Chenopodium
album
Wahpe toto
Lichens Yellow Usnea barbata Chan-wiziye
Smooth sumac Yellow Rhus glabra Haz-ni-hu Chan-zi Minbdi-hi
Soft maple twigs Black Acer saccharinum Wissep-hu Tahado Wenu-shabethe-hi
Note: These entries were assembled from Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region, by Melvin R. Gilmore, originally published in
1914 (first enlarged edition, University of Nebraska Press, 1991). Cuscuta glomerata is incorrectly listed as Cuscuta lagenaria in Gilmore’s text.

15. 144 Great Plains Quarterly, spring 2016
student learning and deepen existing student
knowledge in stem fields. The resulting ma-
terials and practices will be applicable to all
educators seeking to increase participation of
underrepresented stem groups. The Sharing
Cycle of Science Learning should also lead
to greater involvement of the community in
tribal college affairs and greater outreach of
the college in k–12 education, both of which
should increase the number of students at-
tending the tribal college. The iterative nature
of this project should lead to identification of
measurements of interest to the communi-
ty, providing the faculty with justification for
developing more laboratory experiences that
will result in cutting-edge educational instruc-
tion linked to community values.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National
Science Foundation (Grant iia-1348382), the
University of Nebraska–Lincoln Office of Re-
search and Economic Development, and Ne-
braska epscor. We acknowledge assistance
from Wyatt Thomas, Native American Studies
Head at Nebraska Indian Community College,
for ensuring the accuracy of Tables 2 and 3.
Notes
1. US Census Bureau, “Nebraska Quick Facts,”
Washington dc, 2012, www.census.gov/quickfacts/
table/pst045214/31,00.
2. National Science Board, “Science and Engineer-
ing Indicators 2012,” Washington dc, 2012, www.nsf.
gov/statistics/seind12/c3/c3h.htm.
3. Donna J. Nelson and Christopher N. Bram-
mer, A National Analysis of Minorities in Science and
Engineering Faculties at Research Universities, 2nd ed.
(Norman: University of Oklahoma, 2010).
4. National Science Board, “Science and Engi-
neering Indicators 2012.”
program by how many enroll during the fifth
year of the program.
We will work with the administrators of
lptc and nicc to launch a “We Want You
Back” campaign. The campaign will involve
email, phone calls, and presentations at the
powwows. If we could attract even a small
portion of the 24 percent of Nebraska adults
who have attended some college but did not
earn a degree, we will create sustainable en-
rollments in the tribal college chemistry se-
quences.27
We will describe the arguments
made in this proposal about the need to use
science as a tool to manage tribal affairs and
how the students at Nebraska’s tribal colleges
are learning to connect community topics
with science methods in a way that is cutting
edge not only within the Indian community
but anywhere. After describing the new cur-
riculum, the contact will be asked whether he/
she is encouraged to enroll. If not, the contact
will be asked what else could be done to en-
courage them to enroll. The list of responses
will be used to identify the relative impor-
tance of the various hurdles. The list can also
be used by the tribal colleges to develop fur-
ther recruitment strategies. We will assess this
subaim by tracking the number of contacts
and the number of recruits.
Summary
This Sharing Cycle of Science Learning proj-
ect will enhance current stem education
practices at tribal colleges by developing a
sustainable cycle that involves community en-
gagement. Students will learn how to connect
community topics to curricular materials by
way of a partnership that involves commu-
nity leaders, college faculty, college students,
and community outreach. This will facilitate

16. The Sharing Cycle of Learning 145
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