5041 Views (as of 05/2023)
  1. Karen Melara
  2. http://www.linkedin.com/in/karenmelara
  3. Marketing Manager
  4. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  5. BootUp PD
  1. Jill Bowdon
  2. Senior Researcher
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. American Institutes for Research
  1. Abby Funabiki
  2. https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbyfunabiki/
  3. Associate Executive Director
  4. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  5. American Institutes for Research
  1. Joseph Wilson
  2. https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephpatrickwilson/
  3. Principal Consultant, STEM and CS Education
  4. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  5. American Institutes for Research
Facilitators’
Choice

Wind River Elementary Computer Science Collaborative - A collaboration to sup...

NSF Awards: 1923375

2021 (see original presentation & discussion)

Grades K-6

Native American communities are underrepresented in computer science professions, and there is a need educationally to make this domain relevant to Native cultures. This is why we formed a collaborative with experts in the field to write, pilot, and refine a curriculum for grades 3-5 that integrates computer science and Wyoming Indian Education for All social studies standards in culturally relevant ways. 

In this way, the project will broaden participation in computer science for historically underserved Native American students living on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and reach Native American students throughout Wyoming and the nation.

Drawing from the expertise, history, and culture of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone people, this collaborative will include teachers, administrators, professional development providers, and researchers from Fort Washakie School, Wyoming Indian Schools, Fremont County School District #38, Wyoming Department of Education, Partner to Improve, BootUp PD, and the American Institutes for Research.

 

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Discussion from the 2021 STEM For All Video Showcase (31 posts)
  • Icon for: Karen Melara

    Karen Melara

    Lead Presenter
    Marketing Manager
    May 10, 2021 | 07:53 p.m.

    Welcome, everyone! Thank you for visiting and taking the time to watch our video! 

    Our project looks at integrating computer science (CS) and Wyoming’s “Indian Education for All” social studies standards in culturally relevant ways. Thanks to the National Science Foundation, the project is broadening participation in CS for Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho elementary students living on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming in a culturally relevant way.

    Please feel free to comment and ask questions on any aspect of our project. We'd love to hear from you!

     
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    Kelly Greene
    Kimberly Elliott
    Joseph Wilson
    Abby Funabiki
  • Icon for: Joe Meyer

    Joe Meyer

    K-12 Teacher
    May 13, 2021 | 09:20 a.m.

    Specifically how did elementary students studying computer science help creat all of this. And also, how can students in schools utilize this to learn computer science. The article I read at County 10 eludes to these things.

     
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    Joseph Wilson
  • Icon for: Joseph Wilson

    Joseph Wilson

    Co-Presenter
    Principal Consultant, STEM and CS Education
    May 13, 2021 | 11:36 a.m.

    Hi, Joe! Great question. Elementary students (and middle and high school students) right now are engaged in a student art competition that will be incorporated in the curricular materials as "sprites" in the Scratch platform. Teachers, district staff, and select community members are the ones who are providing feedback and contributing to the curricular materials as we continue to develop them!

  • Icon for: Joe Meyer

    Joe Meyer

    K-12 Teacher
    May 13, 2021 | 11:43 a.m.

    Sounds great! Looking forward to seeing the Sprites!

     
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    Joseph Wilson
  • Icon for: DeLene Hoffner

    DeLene Hoffner

    Facilitator
    Lead Teacher
    May 11, 2021 | 12:51 a.m.

    I really enjoyed your video and project.  What were the most profound lessons you learned through your work? 

     
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    Joseph Wilson
    Abby Funabiki
  • Icon for: Joseph Wilson

    Joseph Wilson

    Co-Presenter
    Principal Consultant, STEM and CS Education
    May 11, 2021 | 11:34 a.m.

    Thank you for the question, DeLene! We are still learning a lot as we work more closely with our schools, teachers, and community members. However, we have learned - at a high level - the following key takeaways so far:

    • The focus groups we conducted at each of the three school districts confirmed the importance of integrating both Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho cultures into the curriculum to pass history and customs to the next generation.
    • We've learned about the importance of getting community members to contribute to the artwork, fact checking, and feedback on the curriculum draft. (In fact, we currently have a student art competition running across the Wind River Reservation that will allow for us to incorporate student voice and authorship into the curricular materials!)
    • The project team is committed to a true partnership with the schools and tribes but is mindful of the challenges of the pandemic.
    • Varying communications methods will be used to keep partner schools and individuals updated on a regular basis.
     
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    Joseph Wilson
    Myriam Steinback
    Kimberly Elliott
    DeLene Hoffner
    Abby Funabiki
  • Icon for: DeLene Hoffner

    DeLene Hoffner

    Facilitator
    Lead Teacher
    May 11, 2021 | 03:36 p.m.

    Your response is excellent.  These are amazing take-aways and really rich.  We all should be doing more in our own communities along these lines. 

     
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    Myriam Steinback
    Joseph Wilson
    Kimberly Elliott
    Karen Melara
  • Icon for: Kauser Jahan

    Kauser Jahan

    Researcher
    May 11, 2021 | 01:14 p.m.

    A very thoughtful project in a culturally sensitive way. Please visit ours to learn how "Algae can Grow the Future".

    https://stemforall2021.videohall.com/presentati...

     

     
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    Joseph Wilson
    Abby Funabiki
  • Icon for: DeLene Hoffner

    DeLene Hoffner

    Facilitator
    Lead Teacher
    May 11, 2021 | 03:37 p.m.

    Thanks for the suggestion.  Your project sounds very interesting.  I'll check it out. 

  • Icon for: Karen Melara

    Karen Melara

    Lead Presenter
    Marketing Manager
    May 11, 2021 | 03:44 p.m.

    Thanks for the suggestion, Kauser! I'll check it out.

  • Icon for: DeLene Hoffner

    DeLene Hoffner

    Facilitator
    Lead Teacher
    May 11, 2021 | 03:45 p.m.

    Your project focuses on exposing more students to computer science in a culturally relevant way.  In so many areas, there is a deficit in various ways, some schools/communities are not exposed to CS or STEM or role models of engineering, even basic science instruction and so on.  In general, what can the average educator do to bring a well balanced, rich range of experiences to their students?

    I think your approach to this community/ topic is a wonderful model for all of us to use in any underserved or represented area.  As you did, form a collaborative with experts in the field to write, pilot, and refine a curriculum for that target group.  Define the area of deficit (like equity in computer science) and align your standards in culturally relevant ways to expose them to that deficit topic. 

     
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    Abby Funabiki
  • Icon for: Joseph Wilson

    Joseph Wilson

    Co-Presenter
    Principal Consultant, STEM and CS Education
    May 11, 2021 | 05:39 p.m.

    DeLene -- I think you bring up an important point -- and required a shift in approach to research, which usually does refer to communities in a more deficit-based way. There is no doubt that there is a lot of work to be done to ensure more students -- including Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho students - have access to high quality STEM and CS education; however we didn't center the project on that "lack of". For example, we intentionally have structured our initial focus groups with school district communities as "strengths-based assessments" that focused on what assets community members have and how they'd like those assets to be incorporated into the curriculum and teacher PD. What was fantastic about those focus groups is that it allowed community members to share with us how important they believed computer science *could be* for their students and community, while also highlighting the importance of ongoing community involvement and review, especially as the original project team members do not live on the Wind River Reservation.

    As far as a response to your question about what the average educator can do to bring a rich range of experiences to their students, I have one way to potentially think about it. I would say stick to the fundamentals that good educators already know: (a) engaging parents and community members with ongoing communication about what's happening in your classroom can support investment and (b) incorporating opportunities for students to use their voice, lived experiences, and individual expertise in instructional activities can also support investment. With this particular project, we are still early enough on that I don't have concrete examples to point to, but we are trying to center the communities involved and regularly communicate what is happening (and what isn't working).  

     
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    Abby Funabiki
  • Icon for: Myriam Steinback

    Myriam Steinback

    Facilitator
    Independent Consultant
    May 11, 2021 | 11:03 p.m.

    Joseph, your focus on strengths, rather than on deficits, is wonderful! Your project is very encouraging. Making the content context relevant engages students, and highlighting community involvement guarantees a broader participation. I wonder how you are thinking of building capacity so others can benefit as well.

     
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    Abby Funabiki
  • Icon for: Joseph Wilson

    Joseph Wilson

    Co-Presenter
    Principal Consultant, STEM and CS Education
    May 12, 2021 | 11:31 a.m.

    Myriam - great question! We are in the earlier stages of the project still but longer term sustainability (beyond the life of the funding) is something we worry about regularly! To support that, we have individual contacts at each of the three school districts who act as advisors and coordinators with their teachers and students. Additionally, through the teacher PD that will happen, each district will ideally identity a lead teacher to be the primary instructional facilitator coach to continue the work beyond the life of the project; I say "ideally" because we are still identifying some of those lead teachers. The curricular materials being developed will ultimately be open source and owned fully by the school districts to use/adapt/modify beyond the funding for the project. Lastly, we regularly work with the three school districts (and Wyoming Department of Education) to identify additional funding opportunities for us to work together and build on the work that is happening in this project and other home grown initiatives in the districts.

     
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    Myriam Steinback
  • Icon for: Myriam Steinback

    Myriam Steinback

    Facilitator
    Independent Consultant
    May 12, 2021 | 12:28 p.m.

    Joseph, thanks for elaborating. You're right, identifying the lead teachers is key. Having done professional development with teachers and teacher leaders for many years, we found that it was important for them to be learners first before they could facilitate learning for their students. Best luck finding additional funding for your great work!

     
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    Joseph Wilson
  • Icon for: Bethany Klemetsrud

    Bethany Klemetsrud

    Researcher
    May 12, 2021 | 11:11 a.m.

    Hello Joseph, this project is fantastic! We are working on something similar with the Spirit Lake and Turtle Mountain Nations in North Dakota, did you use a specific cultural relevancy framework for helping create your PD for the teachers, or did you center community and spiritual leaders from both tribal nations? Thanks so much for this great work. 

     
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    Joseph Wilson
  • Icon for: Joseph Wilson

    Joseph Wilson

    Co-Presenter
    Principal Consultant, STEM and CS Education
    May 12, 2021 | 11:38 a.m.

    Bethany - nice to meet you! This is so cool! In terms of a specific cultural relevancy framework, we are in the process of working on adapting the existing BootUp PD to fit with this community. Unfortunately and understandably, COVID put a pause on many of our project's activities including most teacher PD. The curricular materials and teacher PD are being developed by BootUp PD, who host all of their materials on their website (https://bootuppd.org/scratch); this site gives you a sense of the student ("coder") facing and teacher facing materials. The teachers on the Wind River Reservation will have access to something similar to this but adapted and iterated based on ongoing feedback from teachers and community members. Because COVID forced a pretty big pause on most teacher facing activities for us, we are still in the process of updating and iterating the curricular materials and teacher PD, and I'd love to learn more about the frameworks you would recommend. We are always learning. I'll shoot you an e-mail, based on the link in your profile. Thank you for the comment!

  • Icon for: Josie Melton

    Josie Melton

    Facilitator
    Post-Doctoral Researcher and Senior Instructor
    May 12, 2021 | 03:30 p.m.

    I really enjoyed the video - It mentioned that the curriculum will be more widely available across the United States.  Given the program's strong connection to Native American communities, will the scalable curriculum be a template for districts to connect to their local communities, or how will the curriculum need to be adapted to make culturally relevant local connections on a broader scale?

     
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    Joseph Wilson
  • Icon for: Joseph Wilson

    Joseph Wilson

    Co-Presenter
    Principal Consultant, STEM and CS Education
    May 12, 2021 | 05:15 p.m.

    Great question, Josie! Our team will disseminate the curriculum to other local districts and states that serve Native students with suggestions about how to adapt the curricular materials to make them locally relevant to the population they are serving. Additionally, our project team will create a report for local and state education agencies with “lessons learned”. Districts and states can use this report to inform their policies and practices while planning for and implementing CS education in elementary schools. However, I should note that is later on in the project's timeline, and we are open to suggestions about what that sort of "report" should look like -- we recognize that there may be better ways to share this than just a word document or PDF!

     
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    Karen Kitchen
  • Icon for: Josie Melton

    Josie Melton

    Facilitator
    Post-Doctoral Researcher and Senior Instructor
    May 15, 2021 | 12:51 a.m.

    The report will be a valuable resource for other geographical areas interested in engaing in this work.  Your video was so effective in highlighting the community connections that I wonder if video could also help describe your program in the report. Thanks for your response!

     
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    Joseph Wilson
  • Icon for: Joseph Wilson

    Joseph Wilson

    Co-Presenter
    Principal Consultant, STEM and CS Education
    May 17, 2021 | 12:11 p.m.

    Great suggestion, Josie! I also have been thinking about other informal methods like podcasts/Twitter chats/etc. Appreciate the push here to think a little differently about dissemination. :)

  • Icon for: DeLene Hoffner

    DeLene Hoffner

    Facilitator
    Lead Teacher
    May 13, 2021 | 09:41 a.m.

    Bravo to all for this wonderful discussion! Thank you for viewing and adding your questions and expertise. Please share the STEM Showcase with others so they can participate in the discussion too. Let's get more educators involved in viewing these top projects. Voting and discussion ends on May 18th at 8PM EDT. (but viewing is open anytime) https://stemforall2021.videohall.com/

    For presenters, what are your next steps going forward?

     
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    DeLene Hoffner
    Joseph Wilson
  • Icon for: Joseph Wilson

    Joseph Wilson

    Co-Presenter
    Principal Consultant, STEM and CS Education
    May 13, 2021 | 11:46 a.m.

    Thanks, DeLene! I have really enjoyed the discussions so far! It has pushed my thinking so far -- and also helps me recognize areas of the project where I don't have good answers or approaches. I have been sharing the STEM Video Hall showcase through my Twitter (https://twitter.com/josephpwilson), LinkedIn, and other social media channels I am connected to for teachers to view and add to the discussion. (It was nice to see Joe, above, who is a teacher ask a question!).

    In terms of next steps going forward:

    • I have reached out to Dr. Klemetsrud, who posted in the comments above, to learn more about the cultural relevancy framework for teacher PD.
    • In our next few project team meetings, we will have a focus on longer term sustainability and thinking a bit more intentionally about how this project and work can continue forward beyond the life of the project. We have ideas and initial plans, but this was a good push to revisit those and consider new ideas!
    • I want to continue to share more informal updates with both community stakeholders on the Wind River Reservation and folks outside about the progress of this project. I think there are easy, informal ways (i.e. quarterly e-mail list or newsletter, Twitter "slow chat" threaded discussion that operates like a micro-blog and allows more STEM and CS ed folks to see how things are going in the project more informally.) that we can accomplish this. 

    Do you or others have other suggestions here for what other next steps we might consider?

     
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    DeLene Hoffner
  • Icon for: DeLene Hoffner

    DeLene Hoffner

    Facilitator
    Lead Teacher
    May 16, 2021 | 01:26 a.m.

    Thank you so much for all your work on this project.  I wondered if you had thought about writing up your project for one of the NSTA magazines?  I'm sure you have presented at conferences but I'd love to attend if you ever present at a regional or national conference. 

     
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    Joseph Wilson
  • Icon for: Joseph Wilson

    Joseph Wilson

    Co-Presenter
    Principal Consultant, STEM and CS Education
    May 17, 2021 | 12:14 p.m.

    DeLene -- great suggestion! However, our focus has been less on the integration of science and CS.. and more on the integration of social students and English language arts & CS/CT. Do you think NSTA would still be interested in something like this? (I think NSTA is a great conference -- I used to be a member years ago when I was a high school science teacher!)

  • Icon for: Kelly Greene

    Kelly Greene

    K-12 Teacher
    May 15, 2021 | 07:06 p.m.

    We are so excited to have a planning CS grant to do similar work in Arizona! Thank you for sharing your project. As a culturally rich state, our goal is to invite tribal schools to explore similar opportunities with BootUp and Skill Struck.

    I have reviewed the posts and comments to gather ideas for our next steps as well. If you would like to share any additional suggestions or support our Research-Practitioner Partnerships, let us know! KGreene@SciTechInstitute.org

    Congratulations on the progress in just a year and 1/2!

     
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    Joseph Wilson
  • Icon for: Joseph Wilson

    Joseph Wilson

    Co-Presenter
    Principal Consultant, STEM and CS Education
    May 17, 2021 | 12:10 p.m.

    Kelly - it's great to hear from you! I'll shoot you a message in a little bit. I was a former high school teacher in Buckeye, Arizona.. and I knew some folks at Science Foundation Arizona for a while. So cool!

  • Icon for: Kelly Greene

    Kelly Greene

    K-12 Teacher
    May 17, 2021 | 02:32 p.m.

    Oh my goodness - Joey! Have you been back? Buckeye has grown so much in the last 5 years. It is incredible. I am looking forward to connecting. Sending a reply!

     
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    Joseph Wilson
  • Icon for: Cristine Legare

    Cristine Legare

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 17, 2021 | 06:04 p.m.

    What a wonderful project! Have you interviewed parents about their children's experiences with the curriculum?

     
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    Joseph Wilson
  • Icon for: Joseph Wilson

    Joseph Wilson

    Co-Presenter
    Principal Consultant, STEM and CS Education
    May 17, 2021 | 06:16 p.m.

    Hi, Christine! We are just in the early stages of implementing the curriculum, so we haven't had a chance to get feedback from anyone except a few teachers and district folks. This is a great idea to consider in the future!

     
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    Cristine Legare
  • Icon for: Nikki Tulley

    Nikki Tulley

    Graduate Student
    May 18, 2021 | 02:57 p.m.

    This is such a great project to learn about. I totally see the value in this project and influence it will have on generations to come. So powerful to include things from the culture into the curriculum.  

     
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    Joseph Wilson
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