Science Career Inquiry - Exploring Native Cultural Experiences (SCI-ENCE) program introduces an innovative way to teach science to students in grades 2-8; by culturally appropriate and locally applicable storyboards. Students will meet local STEAM scientists, learn of their career pathways, and participate with them in increasingly complex science activities, games and experiments through a set of ten age-appropriate storyboards. With this curriculum, elementary and middle/intermediate school youth will gain greater understanding of STEAM fields and the concepts of scientific research while exploring their local resources and habitat in a culturally appropriate learning methodology.

The goal of the SCI-ENCE Program is to increase interest in science and science careers by creating and implementing an elementary and middle/intermediate school science curriculum based on storyboards, or illustrated descriptions of the science pathways that local individuals have taken to pursue science careers. These pathways are scattered with age-appropriate and NGSS aligned games, activities and experiments for students to do during each age group from grades 2 to 8. Students will visit with 10 different STEAM scientists over the course of their learning and grow their science skills and career awareness with the protagonists of their storyboards. These will be performed in both school based and after school program, supplemented with meeting the STEAM scientists, field trips and recommendations for additional informal science activities.

SPECIFIC AIMS:

The SCI-ENCE program aims to accomplish the following goals:

a. Create a culturally-based curriculum for youth in grades 2-8 based on ten different STEAM career storyboards using age-appropriate presentation materials and activities that increase fascination with science in 60% of involved students.

b. Implement the curriculum with over 1,000 students in schools and after school community programs using hands-on, age-appropriate research, activities and experiments that will result in increased confidence or interest in STEAM careers in 60% of participants over the course of the grant.

c. Develop a website with free access to all educational materials, instructions, and a facilitator guide to be used for training educators and eventually serving as a platform for mentoring these educators to train other individuals. 

d. Provide teacher training and classroom support for science training to 100 teachers over the grant period through face to face and distance training, videos and a public website that will result in 50% of teachers increasing confidence in their science teaching skills.

Through this curriculum, elementary and middle/intermediate school youth will gain greater understanding of STEAM fields and the concepts of scientific research. Youth will get to know the 10 featured scientists early in elementary school, and return to further explore science with them during each year of school. Through this process, students will gain the confidence and excitement to pursue careers in these fields, consequently building a diverse science workforce in the State and surrounding Pacific region.

SCI-ENCE Project Narrative:

The SCI-ENCE Program will increase interest in science and STEAM careers by creating and implementing an elementary and middle/intermediate school science curriculum based on storyboards, or illustrated descriptions of the science pathways that local individuals have taken to pursue science careers. These storyboard pathways are scattered with age-appropriate and NGSS aligned games, activities and experiments for students to do during each year of school from grades 2 to 8. Science fascination, career interest, confidence, engagement and literacy will be increased, as will teacher confidence in teaching science as a result of this program.