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Earning credits on the land

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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.

Participants in a recent Actua workshop in Aklavik learn to make SA国际影视传媒渟cribble bots,SA国际影视传媒 which are small robots with art supplies for legs. The robots are set on a piece of paper so that they move about and scribble. Photo courtesy of Actua

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

Two Aklavik students work on little robots during a recent Actua workshop. Photo courtesy of Actua

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





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