Michael M. Reischman Consultant National Science Foundation

Jul 05: A meeting in DC focused on furthering the development of a tribal college engineering degree initiative, at which I met some key players and began discussions of a workshop Oct 05: Workshop planning meeting at NSF Nov 05: Briefing on past program successes and failure at OLC and SDSMT Importance of cohorts Potential of distance education Need for engaged mainstream university partners

December 14-16, 2005 Workshop on “Engineering Education in Nation’s Tribal Colleges and Universities” Co-sponsored by ENG/EEC and EHR/TCUP Goal: “…define issues and challenges to accelerate pre-engineering and engineering activities at Tribal Colleges and Universities…”

35 (42) attendees from 25 TCUs 10 observers from NASA, DoEd, DOE, QEM, NAE, and AISES Assorted NSFers Various programs were reviewed and breakout sessions conducted Major outcome was the identification of principle barriers inhibiting the pursuit of engineering majors by Native American students

Ill-prepared entering K–12 graduates The STEM curriculum lacks relevance The cultural gap between TCUs and mainstream universities

A curriculum and educational experience with learning level flexibility, meaningful community relevance, and preparation for higher level learning.

May 06: Presentation to the ENG Advisory Committee Workshop results presented Recommendation to move ahead Jun 06: The “Tribal College Initiative” Relevant, 3-year curriculum A cluster of TCUs Mainstream partner(s) necessary Need to form cohorts of students

Oct 06: A grant to OLC to develop a conceptual pre-engineering curriculum addressing the barriers Apr 07: A TCUP/ENG Workshop (Albuquerque, NM) aimed best educational practices used throughout the TCU community and soliciting feedback on the model curriculum.

2007/08: Site visits to 5 (?) TCUs and 8 mainstream universities Successful mechanisms for interaction Central administration interest and commitment is essential Principal Investigator left OLC

Feb 09: Partnering Workshop (Arlington, VA) Attended by TCUs and mainstream universities A model curriculum was proposed Best examples of partnering and transfer strategies 7 essentials of partnerships Pre-college initiatives Student support Undergraduate research Faculty development Curriculum development Physical infrastructure STEM grad school and employment initiatives

Oct 09: Leaders Forum (Albuquerque, NM) PEEC Solicitation Announced Support the development of relevant pre- engineering curriculum Recruit and support students into engineering studies Develop strategies to ensure successful transfer to, and graduation from, colleges of engineering

2010: EPSCoR partnership established 7 proposals received, 4 collaboratives established PEECs include 11 TCUs or community colleges and 6 mainstream universities

Question: Are we addressing the barriers when we talk about Cohort Models (CM) Service Learning (SL) Math Acceleration (MA) Distance Education (DE)

Ill-prepared K-12 graduates CM, MA, DE Relevant Curriculum CM, MA, SL Cultural Gap CM, SL, DE