Volunteer science programs are designed to increase public understanding and appreciation of science by creating opportunities for the public to engage in science. This research assesses the impact of Map of Life-Denali on its volunteers. This program calls on park visitors to record wildlife observations while they visit Denali National Park and…

Place-based education (PBE) is a situated, context-rich, transdisciplinary teaching and learning modality distinguished by its unequivocal relationship to place, which is any locality that people have imbued with meanings and personal attachments through actual or vicarious experiences. As an observational and historical science, geoscience is…

Indigenous methodologies for guiding, advising, and educating children have been in place since time immemorial. Those well-honed approaches to education were built to support whole and healthy individual development while also establishing a lifelong awareness and reverence for community, connection, kinship, and reciprocity. In Western cultures,…

This article describes how superintendents approach the administrative processes of recruiting, hiring, and training new teachers to work in Alaska's rural schools. Drawing from interviews of superintendents and administrators in 32 rural Alaska school districts, the data show not only the amount of time and responsibility that rural…

Eco-heroic quests for environmental communion continue to be represented, mediated, and glorified through film and media narratives. This paper examines two eco-heroic quests in the Alaskan "wilderness" that have been portrayed in two Hollywood motion pictures: the movies "Grizzly Man" and "Into the Wild". Both films…

Each of the papers in this collection offers a much-needed antidote to the forces that disconnect educators from the places in which they teach, learn, and live. Together, they provide an opportunity to reflect on the power of place in education. This issue offers an opportunity--an invitation--to embrace all that the places both in and outside…

We have developed the traditional science fair format into an ocean science fair model that promoted the integration of Western science and Alaska Native traditional knowledge in student projects focused on the ocean, aquatic environments, and climate change. The typical science fair judging criteria for the validity and presentation of the…

During 2010-2012, three professional development workshops brought together K-12 educators and scientists conducting research in the geographic and ecological context of Alaska's three large marine ecosystems (Bering Sea/Aleutians, Gulf of Alaska, and Arctic Ocean). Educators successfully applied new scientific knowledge gained from their…

Context-responsive teaching is defined in this project as teaching that responds to individual student needs and interests, linguistic backgrounds and family characteristics, the local community and the local natural environment. Context-responsive teaching, as defined in Chapter 1 of this dissertation, consolidates into one concept the…

Guidelines are presented that address issues in the documentation, representation, and utilization of Alaska Natives' traditional cultural knowledge. This guidance is intended to encourage the incorporation of indigenous knowledge and teaching practices in schools by minimizing the potential for misuse and misunderstanding. The guidelines provide…

Four elementary schools in Washington, Alaska, and British Columbia are cooperating on a project to explore issues surrounding the Pacific salmon fisheries. Place-based techniques and interactive media are used to bring together science; global concerns; the histories of Canada, the United States, and First Nations peoples; background on the…

This science curriculum was written to inspire rural Alaskans, primarily Alaska Natives, to find science in their local environment. The author lived a subsistence lifestyle in the Alaskan bush for over 30 years and claims that understanding science has often kept him from being stuck out in the woods. Section 1, Skills, Tools, and Craftsmanship,…

In 1995 the National Science Foundation funded the Alaska Rural System Initiative (RSI), a joint effort of the Alaska Federation of Natives and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Among its goals, the RSI aims to increase the presence of Alaska Native knowledge and perspectives in all areas of science and education in rural Alaska, develop…

Award-winning teachers from rural Oregon, Alaska, and Idaho discuss their innovative programs and the advantages of small-town life and small schools. Teachers, students, and community members know each other and participate in school activities, teachers have more flexibility and control over what they teach, bureaucracy is minimized, and…

Alaska Native educators have developed standards that schools and communities can use to examine the extent to which they are attending to the educational and cultural well-being of their students. These "cultural standards" are intended to complement Alaska state content and performance standards. Standards have been developed for five…