Students in the NWT will soon be able to earn science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) high school credits while gaining on-the-land skills.
Actua, a non-profit thatSA国际影视传媒檚 been around for 25 years, has a mandate to reach out to youth living in remote communities and introduce them to STEM, as well as girls, who are underrepresented in STEM fields.
SA国际影视传媒�InSTEM has been part of Actua from the very beginning as far as their outreach into say, underserved communities and in particular Indigenous communities,SA国际影视传媒� says Doug Dokis, the director for the InSTEM program.
Dokis says the program has historically been delivered through short events such as daycamps, but Actua has been working to deepen the program through credit-earning summer courses held out on the land.
Its aim today is to help boost high school graduation rates for Indigenous youth while exposing them to possible careers in STEM fields, and rooting teaching in land-based activity.
SA国际影视传媒�We show them that Indigenous communities and Indigenous knowledges have always known about stem ... just from a different perspective,SA国际影视传媒� says Dokis.
SA国际影视传媒�All of those high-level things that we learnSA国际影视传媒攎ath, geometry, engineering, astronomySA国际影视传媒攁ll of that knowledge exists now and always has within indigenous communities.SA国际影视传媒�
For example, groups might harvest fish while learning about water management science and fish biology.
SA国际影视传媒�Another one would be engineering. We build a birchbark canoe and then apply engineering activities like bridge-building, structures and tension, those kinds of things,SA国际影视传媒� says Dokis.
Actua has been operating in the North, holding workshops and daycamps in 47 communities throughout all three territories.
It recently got a federal grant that has allowed it to bring its programming up on a more permanent basis.
SA国际影视传媒�We donSA国际影视传媒檛 want to be in a position where we go in and we do this fantastic program for one year and the community and kids love it, they benefit from it, but then weSA国际影视传媒檙e not able to continue it on,SA国际影视传媒� he says.
The federal Future Skills grant will allow them to continue this program for the foreseeable future, he says.
The next steps are to work with the GNWT, regional education authorities and schools to determine, collaboratively, how each InSTEM program will workSA国际影视传媒攂oth what traditional practices will be focussed on and how it will fit into curriculum.
Beaufort Delta Education Council superintendent Frank Galway says the council has a good working relationship with Actua and was excited to see it acquire the funding.
SA国际影视传媒�[These will be] experiences that let the students know that school and the land go together,SA国际影视传媒� says Galway.
SA国际影视传媒�TheySA国际影视传媒檙e not mutually exclusive. They are part and parcel of how we are trying to teach kids and Indigenize education.SA国际影视传媒�
He says Actua and the council are looking at getting this program going in Inuvik, then expand it outwards throughout the region. Actua intends to hold this program throughout the whole territory.
SA国际影视传媒�We already have something similar happening in Fort McPherson,SA国际影视传媒� said Galway.
SA国际影视传媒�This summer we had fish camps going on, and the University of Calgary is involved with that one. There is a local person from Fort McPherson who is working in that university who is actually coming up and they working very collaboratively with [the school].SA国际影视传媒�
He says the council is looking at ways to tie that into school curriculum as well.
SA国际影视传媒�There is a significant appetite for that type of learning to occur.SA国际影视传媒�
