Board of Directors
Andy Hope
Ronn Dick
Marion Berry
Cecelia Tavoliero
Carlton Smith
Phyllis Carlson
Sue Stevens
Lee Wallace
Mary Duncan
Joyce Shales
Ed Warren
Administration
Ted Wright, Interim President
Elder Advisors
Joe Hotch
Dennis Demmert
Nora Dauenhauer
Jim Walton
Marie Olson
Lydia George
Isabella Brady
Gil Truitt
Charles Natkong, Sr.
Arnold Booth
Contact
(907) 586-1625
(907) 790-4406
(907) 723-8536
tedtrmp@aol.com
andy@ankn.uaf.edu
~Science Technology, Engineering and Math~
Prospectus for Planned Programs
Dr. Ted A Wright, President
Becoming Native to a Place
The mission of the SEATC is to open our ancestors box of wisdom, knowledge, respect, patience and understanding. The box of knowledge is a Tlingit metaphor that reinforces the need to pass on to our children the wisdom and strength of our culture through education. And, among the clans and tribal communities of southeast Alaska, education was traditionally built upon an intimate knowledge of diverse people in relation to culturally and historically unique places. The tribal college in Southeast Alaska is developing certificate and degree programs founded on principles of place-based education, inspired by and modeled after traditional Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian ways of knowing. For this reason, the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs of the Southeast Alaska Tribal College (SEATC) will be built around a deep understanding of place. In this way, students who matriculate at the tribal college and take STEM courses will become Native to a place. As their knowledge of the area in which they live grows, students will gain wisdom and live with increasing respect, patience and understanding.
Current Programs
The Southeast Alaska Tribal College has worked on development of two core curricular programs to date, the I Am Salmon curriculum and the GIS Tlingit Placenames projects. Together, these projects provide a foundation upon which to build new science, technology, engineering and math courses and to infuse existing courses with the tribal college's place-based perspective.
I Am Salmon
The I Am Salmon project was initiated by One Reel in Seattle, as a part of the Wild Salmon program. I Am Salmon is a multi-disciplinary, multi-lingual, multicultural, multinational curriculum project, with participants in Japan, Russia, Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia and Washington. The project is designed to develop a sense of place (in one's watershed) and a sense of self (in the circle of life) and an understanding of how they are connected.
The general purpose of I Am Salmon is for students to explore the natural history of their watershed by documenting the history of wild salmon streams near their communities and share that information with other students around the Pacific Rim. The six species of Pacific salmon serve as the unifying theme of I Am Salmon-their ties to watershed habitats, dependence on natural cycles and roles in ancestral and modern cultures in nations throughout the northern Pacific Ocean. By following the cycle of migrating salmon, students can learn lessons about the larger themes of life-birth, death and transformation-and an understanding of ones place, both in local watersheds and the world.
Southeast Alaska I Am Salmon teams are developing curricula and educational resources. Team members will share these resources, which include Tlingit Cultural Atlases, Electronic Tlingit Language drills, Electronic Salmon part drills, Tlingit Plants, and Salmon units. At the higher education level, the Southeast Alaska Tribal College will use project curriculum to reorient SEATC classes toward a Native and Tlingit perspective, and to train faculty in the development of courses that are more in-line with the mission and worldview that inform all the college's programs.
GIS Cultural Place Names Mapping
Recognizing the importance of documenting traditional ways of knowing based on an intimate relationship of Native people to their homelands, the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative has sponsored cultural mapping projects in each region of Alaska. In the Southeast region, digital atlases with Tlingit place names and numerous culturally relevant links have been developed, with several communities still in the process of establishing their maps. When completed, educators will have a geographic, cultural framework for building curriculum and guiding instructional practice.
The importance of these atlases lies in the process it takes to complete them. Educators work with elders and local culture-bearers using technology to document the importance of specific places through stories, songs and arts passed down from generation to generation. Though some of the knowledge contained in these maps has to be protected from the general public, the majority of information provides an invaluable framework for college faculty to immerse students in local culture as they put western knowledge in Alaska Native perspective. The Southeast Alaska Tribal College will expand the use of Geographic Information Systems, cultural mapping technology, and web-based course development to enhance science, technology, engineering and math offerings.
Planned Academic Programs
In partnership with the Tlingit & Haida Vocational Training & Resource Center, the SEATC will seek funds for development of the following programs:
- Grade 11-14 Alaska
Native Charter School, in cooperation with the Juneau
School District, Alaska Department of Education and the
University of Alaska Southeast. This would include tribal
college development of a GED program as well as an
expanded Early Scholars program for Southeast. The
charter school would provide a seamless transition to
college by helping Native students meet state academic
standards, and by ensuring that they complete
prerequisites for entry into college programs,
particularly those that have proven to be roadblocks for
entry into science, technology, engineering and math
oriented programs.
- Development of a
Tlingit Language Teacher Certificate program in
cooperation with the University of Alaska Southeast,
Alaska Native Language Center (UAF), Sealaska Heritage
Institute, and SE tribal ANA grantee partners. By helping
students understand Tlingit language, the college
provides a more direct connection between their culture
and the more purely academic aspects of their
education
- Work with the
University of Alaska to offer their Alaska Native and
Rural Development and Cross-Cultural Studies degree
programs through the tribal college. This would entail a
concurrent effort to have UAF agree to formally sponsor
the SEATC as a candidate for accreditation.
- Join with the
Preparing Indigenous Teachers for Alaska Schools (PITAS)
program and the School of Education at the University of
Alaska Southeast to recruit and train teachers in
traditional place-based pedagogy and practice.
- Develop a Native Theatre/Storytelling Program in partnership with Ilisagvik College, Perseverance Theatre and the University of Alaska Southeast. The partnership will build upon existing, successful, programs such as Beyond Heritage (Perseverance Theatre), the Barrow Theatre Ensemble and the Associate Degree Program Partnership with UAS and Perseverance Theatre.
Though SEATC is requesting the University of Alaska for accreditation sponsorship, the academic programs of the tribal college will be distinctive in at least three ways:
- Faculty will be
recruited on the basis of their willingness and ability
to learn to teach from a Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian
view of the world, which is grounded in an intimate
understanding of the place in which they live.
- Faculty will learn how
to reorient off and online instructional methods to focus
first on local and regional environments, and to bridge
the gap between western science, technology, engineering
and mathematical paradigms and traditional ways of
knowing.
- The tribal college will work with school districts through the Southeast Alaska Native Charter School to mentor in-service teachers and students, helping mesh standards-based achievement with knowledge of place.
When considering the resources it takes to develop unique programs such as these, SEATC management acknowledges the importance of training, technology, and strong partnerships between educational institutions and tribal communities.
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Technology |
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Partnership |
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Plan to Enhance STEM Elements of SEATC programs
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics lend themselves to traditional place-based education better than most other areas of inquiry because learning occurs most effectively through hands-on practice and real-world experience. That so many of our students seem to find these subjects to be too difficult or uninteresting is due more to the misplaced focus of our institutions than to the student's ability or judgment. The Southeast tribal college will organize itself to address this problem by tying the ways faculty teaches and students learn to places in the region and to Southeast Native cultures. The steps outlined below will move the college toward achieving these ends:
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Implementation Strategy |
Proposed or Planned SEATC Activity |
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Course-Curriculum Development/Enhancement Development and introduction of STEM program offerings, Restructuring of STEM curricula, Incorporating new knowledge, Research-based teaching and learning techniques and practices, Integration of technology, Revision of gate keeping and "bottleneck" courses to ensure accomplishment, Integration of student research, community services and other active learning pedagogies |
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Faculty Professional Development Sabbaticals and exchange programs, workshops on innovative teaching and assessment, visiting faculty-including industry partners, seminars to enhance discipline knowledge, faculty reassign or release time for STEM activities, research and community service with students, faculty reassigned or release time to mentor students |
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Integration of Active Learning Pedagogies |
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Community Outreach |
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Student Support, Academic Enrichment Activities and Internships |
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Proposed or Planned SEATC Activity |
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In-kind from SENEA - lead teacher time at 100 hours x $25.00/hr.
Ten faculty @ $50.00/hr x 40 hrs for a total of $2,000 per faculty Two Consultants to draft curriculum @ $50/hr x 60 hours each
Two UAS/SJC faculty to adapt existing online STEM classes @ $50.00/hr x 100 hours each |
In-Kind
$20,000
$6,000
$10,000 |
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Summer fish camp workshop w/ Juneau School District Two faculty to develop classes @ $50.00/hr x 100 hours each Fees for in-service presenters and demonstrators Two research grants |
$10,000
$10,000
In-Kind
In-Kind |
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SEATC _ time administrator |
$37,500 |
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Personnel & Contractual Total |
$92,500 |
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Administrative Total |
$ 5,100 |
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$97,600 |
Project Staff
This is a project of the Southeast Alaska Tribal College. The project director is the President of the tribal college, Dr. Ted A Wright. This is the only salaried, non-contract/consultant position for year one. See attached resume.
The Project Director will be paid (one-half) FTE of $60,000 = $30,000, plus 25% fringe for a total of $37,500. The Director will coordinate all administrative activities of the grant, including contracting, curriculum development, and general project management. He will select faculty contractors, oversee the signing of contracts, guide development of curriculum, and coordinate with other regional projects to offer classes after Year One.
Contract Positions
Ten Faculty Curriculum Developers will be contracted at $50.00 per hour x 40 hours each for a total of $2,000 per contract x 10 = $20,000. Five of these consultants will be grade 13 and 14 faculty in STEM related Associate of Arts courses and five will be tribal college faculty teaching courses in one of the SEATC areas of focus outlined earlier in this prposal. The Southeast Alaska Tribal College will provide assistance to these consultants in the development of culturally appropriate, place-based offerings.
Two SE Native Charter or Secondary "School-Within-A-School" Curriculum Developers (certified teachers) will be contracted to develop culturally appropriate STEM curriculum that ties Alaska State standards to Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Curriculum. The faculty contractors will be paid at a rate of $50/hr x 60 hours each for a total of $6,000.
One UAS and one SJC faculty person will be contracted to incorporate traditional knowledge instruction with online technology for existing UAS and SJC course offerings @ $50.00/hr x 100 hours each for a total of $10,000.
One Secondary and One College Faculty to develop a place-based Native culture oriented course to further certify teachers as specialists in meeting Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Teaching/Curriculum/Schools @ $50.00/hr x 100 hours each for a total of $10,000.
Non-Contract Sponsored Project Activity
Sponsor tribal curriculum and instructional workshops for regional teachers/faculty interested in placed-based, Alaska Native culture themed instruction and curriculum. With Juneau School District @ $10,000.
Travel & Per Diem - two trips to Anchorage at $700.00, one trip to Fairbanks at $700.00, one trip to Bethel at $1,000, Southeast Alaska travel at $2,000 = $5,100.
Project Staff
This is a project of the Southeast Alaska Tribal College. The project director is the President of the tribal college, Dr. Ted A Wright. This is one of three salaried, non-contract/consultant positions for year two. In addition to the Project Director, funds will be used to support two half-time tribal college faculty positions.
The Project Director will be paid (one-quarter) FTE of $80,000 = $20,000, plus 25% fringe for a total of $25,000. The Director will coordinate all administrative activities of the grant, including contracting, curriculum development, and general project management. He will select faculty, guide distance delivery of courses, and coordinate with other regional projects to offer classes.
Two Faculty Positions will be paid (one-half) FTE of $50,000 each x 2 for a total of $50,000, plus fringe at 25% for a total of $62,500
Staff positions total = $87,500
Administrative
Costs
Communications
-telephone, web, other delivery methods = $5,000
Travel & per diem costs = $3,000
-3 trips to Anchorage @ $700.00 each-1 trip to Fairbanks @$700.00
-1 trip to Sitka @ $200.00
Use of facilities costs
(VTRC @ $30/hr x 100 hours) = $3,000
Instructional materials = $4,000
Administrative total $15,000
Project total =
$102,500
Note: Year three
budget same as year two.