Tribal Earth Science & Technology Education TRESTE Workshop Blackfeet Community College June 7 – 9, 2007

6 of 9 Participating TCUs submitted Year 2 Annual Reports  Turtle Mountain  Ft. Berthold  United Tribes Technical College  Oglala Lakota  Sinte Gleska  Fond du Lac

1) Integrate ESS Concepts 5 reporting TCUs modified courses/labs to include ESS concepts (TM, FBCC, UTTC, OLC and FdL) 1 already had 2 courses developed around ESS concepts (SGU)  12 courses/labs modified  143 students enrolled 4 new courses/labs created (FBCC, OLC and FdL)  35 students enrolled

Case Studies 5 TCUs used TRESTE developed Missouri River case study (TM, FBCC, UTTC, OLC and FdL) 6 new ESS case studies were developed (FBCC, OLC and SGU)  2 additional case studies were modified from external sources (UTTC)

1 new program of study was developed (UTTC)  Tribal Environmental Science  18 students enrolled 5 TCUs used weather instruments (TM, FBCC, OLC, SGU and FdL)  UTTC will begin use during summer 2007

2) Incorporate geospatial data Each of the 6 reporting TCUs are using:  Image processing in existing/new courses/labs  Geospatial data  GIS technology 4 TCUs are using:  Landsat data (TM, FBCC, UTTC and OLCC)  MODIS land products (TM, FBCC, UTTC and FdL)

3) Faculty Development TCU Faculty participated in telecons and attended workshops UTTC hosted 1 workshop

6 TCUs found Problem Based Learning to be beneficial in teaching  “It is always a plus to tie in physical science principles with real world problems”  “It offers me an additional methodology to incorporate and improve student learning”  “Another useful tool to capture the interest and enthusiasm of the students”

Beneficial GIS Skills Acquired through TRESTE  Accessibility of data  Use of attribute tables  Layering  Introduction to ARCVIEW 9.0  Introduction to MODIS data  Remote Sensing  Reminder of the power of maps and graphs for representing data

Beneficial new data acquisition skills and/or tools  EOS Gateway  MRT  Better preparation for teaching  Ability to incorporate smaller scale versions of exercises

4) Outreach 5 reporting TCUs conducted outreach programs (TM, FBCC, UTTC, OLCC and SG)  10 outreach programs were conducted  138 attendees were members of:  TCU faculty and staff  Undergraduate/graduate students  4th – 8th grade students  K-12 teachers  Tribal government  Reservation community members  Federal Authorities

Planned Courses/Labs and Events 4 courses/labs are being modified for academic year 2007/08 (UTTC) 2 new courses are being developed (UTTC and FdL) 1 case study is being developed (TM) 2 additional outreach programs are planned  19 attendees are expected

5) Program Type of contact and related networking:  Telecons  Workshops   Websites  Occasional telephone conversations

Roadblocks  Trouble loading MODIS  Difficulty downloading data  Resolved via telephone conversations with Dr. Don Perkey and Maury Estes  Slow downloading of data sets  Insufficient time

Recommendations  More college administrator involvement  Shorter teaching modules/shorter PBL presentations  More assistance with access of local relevant data  Enhance resources  Davis or comparable integrated electronic weather station with software instead of GLOBE level weather station  More face-to-face time at meetings  More training of website tools  Incorporate the desirable features of such initiatives as iGETT

Greatest benefit from participating in TRESTE  Learned about GIS, satellite imagery and how these relate  More awareness of remote sensing incorporation into instruction  Exposure to NASA resources  Networking with NASA personnel and other TCUs  Access and training on MODIS, MRT and others  Personal development  Improvement of curricula  Seeing how hard people are working to try and provide quality education for Native students

Overall TRESTE ratings Average rating of the program according to reporting TCUs: 4  Excellent being 5  Poor being 1