- Breanne Litts
- https://learnexploredesign.org/
- Assistant Professor
- Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
- Utah State University
- Alicia Martinez
- Graduate Research Assistant
- Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
- Utah State University
- Kenden Quayle
- Graduate Research Assistant
- Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
- Utah State University
- Lili Yan
- PhD Candidate
- Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
- Utah State University
Daigwade
NSF Awards: 1943630
2022 (see original presentation & discussion)
Informal, All Age Groups
The Daigwade project seeks to engage families in the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation with the overarching goal to preserve and share culture with digital and non-digital technologies. We are developing family and community workshops to teach culture, technology, science, and art. In this video, we focus on our methodological approach and research process. Specifically, we share our journey of rethinking what it means to do science and research at the intersection of culture and technology. Learn more at: daigwade.org.
Technology, Broadening Participation, Informal Learning
Utah State Univ, NWB Shoshone Nation
Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL)
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Discussion from the 2022 STEM For All Video Showcase (17 posts)
Emmanuel Nti-Asante
I love these works
Breanne Litts
Assistant Professor
Thank you for taking the time to watch, Emmanuel!
Barry Fishman
Professor
Breanne et al., this work is so inspiring! I am really pleased to see the blending of indigenous modes of thought and approaches to the environment with "western" science. I'm curious about the extent to which you seek to blend community knowledge with specific science learning goals, or if it is more important that all ideas/designs emerge from the community. As the "outsiders" in this partnership, what kinds of knowledge/perspective do you bring to the conversation and how do you manage your own contributions?
Breanne Litts
Assistant Professor
Hi Barry, great to hear from you! Thank you for your encouraging comments on our work. These are important questions that I think we continue to grapple with. One thing that is important to note is that there is not a clean line between Utah State and the Northwestern Shoshone (three tribal members are also USU research assistants) nor between researcher and participant (our MOU outlines that anyone in the Tribe can self-determine how they would like to participate in the project from not at all to being an investigator on the research team). So, in a sense, the very structure of the project deconstructs the systemic structures dividing us. As a result, the Daigwade program is as much as university research project as it is a Tribal program.
With this approach, we do identify learning goals together as a team for each workshop/event we do. For example, our goal in the plant workshop pictured in the video (daigwade.org/shoshoneplants) was to engage families around the traditional uses of plants shared by one of the Tribal Elders. We also had a local botanist present who shared western plant knowledge as families grew interested in them. These specific goals for each workshop are broadly shaped by the areas we're exploring (i.e. culture, science, technology, and art) and our overall goal to preserve and share Northwestern Shoshone culture.
Marijke Visser
Deborah Fields
Deborah Fields
Love this. So what kinds of participation have you seen from various members, since so many different types are allowed?
Breanne Litts
Assistant Professor
This is a great question! To date, we have had five tribal members move from being participants in workshops to also becoming part of the research team in various capacities. We've also had youth participants become mentors of the workshop spaces they previously participated in. It has been a very fluid process so far.
Breanne Litts
Assistant Professor
Welcome everyone!! We're looking forward to chatting with you all about our work. You can learn more about us at daigwade.org.
Bryan Brayboy
"It's a legacy." This is such important work. I love what you're doing here.
Breanne Litts
Assistant Professor
Thanks for your support Bryan! :)
Andresse St Rose
Director of Educational Research and Evaluation
Thank you for your presentation, this work, and highlighting this approach to teaching and learning about science. It's a great legacy indeed! This reasonates so much for me-- I grew up in the Caribbean and my grandmother was my first science teacher as she would invite and encourage me to learn about the plants and how to use them for their medicinal purposes or for cooking. For instance, she taught me about enzymes and why she added green or unripe paw paw (aka papaya) to certain meat to help tenderize it, long before I learned about enzymes in school. Importantly, when we learned about enzymes in school my and other students' "home knowledge" was part of the lesson. This approach helped to create a culture that science was for everyone and not just a select few, which I learned was not true for everyone once I started college in the US.
Deborah Fields
Janet Coffey
Breanne Litts
Assistant Professor
This is such a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing your experience and insights.
Janet Coffey
Program Director, Science Learning
Thank you for sharing this very compelling project. After viewing the video and reading the comments, I would be interested for you to weigh in on this issue of 'learning goals'? I wonder what you can share about what it looks like when goals are more place- and phenomena-based? Based on the video and Andresse's comment (above), I'm struck that maybe we would be more successful if we flipped thinking about learning goals to goals for learning. I suspect your study could shed light on that. On a different note, can you say more about how this project took shape? Thank you!
Breanne Litts
Assistant Professor
Great question! I think the answer, in part, depends on how we define learning and what counts as learning. In my prior work, I tend to think of learning as something we can demonstrate through practice or participation. For example, in Daigwade, we've noted that people are learning by becoming a mentor of a workshop they were once a participant in. We are still working to figure out what are appropriate "learning goals" for our one-off events versus ongoing workshop spaces. The kinds of knowledge and forms of engagement differ by the spaces we open.
Deborah Fields
Enjoyed this video on your thought-provoking project! I'd love to know more about how the relationships developed (and continue to develop, from what I've read in the discussion so far) in the project.
Breanne Litts
Assistant Professor
Thanks Debbie! Great to hear from you. How did our relationships develop? I think the answer to that question will vary depending on who you are talking to on the team. My take is a lot of sitting around a table together and talking. It is part of why we chose to record the video the way we did, since that is how we work together – spending time talking together, though there is usually food. Another piece that I think has been really important, for me personally, is that there has been grace-filled space to mess up, learn, and grow together as imperfect humans. Relationship work is messy and I think being patient and graceful with each other has helped a lot. Also laughter. :) We wrote a bit about that here: https://repository.isls.org/bitstream/1/7409/1/...
Christopher McGinty
This is such powerful work. I would love to talk to you about how we can engage with you. Much of the work we do at AmericaView is geared towards learners of all types and all ages. I specifically would love to talk to you about a partnership we have established with the NASA AREN AEROKATS program - and something we are working on implementing in the Four Corners region to enhance geography education. I am at USU (Logan Campus) and would love to get in touch with you all!
Marijke Visser
I was so pleased to find your video and also very thankful for the approach you are taking to build the relationship with the tribal elders and other members. I am hopeful that this approach of designing research (and other projects) that is community driven with the expectation from the outset that the tribe drives the vision and the allies (researchers) are there to help the project reach the vision, is something that other researchers will replicate. In my collaboration with the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (https://www.atalm.org/) centering the voice(s) of the tribal librarians has been critical in establishing the necessary trust to make the work successful.
Further posting is closed as the event has ended.