High School Prep

The Native Academy has just completed its summer programming for the summer of 2005. There were approximately 50 students participating in 3 summer components:

  • Tech Interns project
  • Earth and Space Science class
  • High School Skills class
Earth and Space Science covered a full year's worth of science, fulfilled the Minnesota Graduation Standard for Earth and Space Science, and granted credit to the students who completed it. The overarching concept for this course was to have as much hands-on learning as possible and to make the learning relevant to the students' lives.  As such, students spent a lot of time getting their hands dirty in labs and looking at/studying science outside.

The class began with geology.  In this section students studied geologic history, plate tectonics, glaciers, mass wasting, rivers and water erosion, and minerals and rocks.  Students, in small groups, did a geologic field guide of a chosen area of the Minnehaha Falls Park, which they presented via a handout and a guided "Geology Hike" to the community during MIGIZI's July Family Night.  The class also went on a tour of St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, toured Crystal Cave in Wisconsin, and took many trips to analyze various geological formations in and around the area. Students studied how the Lakota and Ojibwe traditionally viewed geology and worked with younger students on making and then exploding paper mache volcanoes.  Many of the concepts the students were able to understand and explain in their own words, such as Bowen's reaction series, how different types of magma are formed, and the chemistry of mineral formation, are generally considered too advanced to be taught in a college level introductory geology class.

Oceanography followed geology and was introduced through the environmental project of determining how what is happening to the Mississippi River in Minneapolis/St. Paul is influencing the Gulf of Mexico.  From there, the class studied waves, shoreline erosion, layers of the ocean floor, water quality and composition, the movement of water throughout the world, and ocean life.  The class used Lake Nokomis as a way to look at some of the oceanography concepts.

Astronomy and meteorology/weather and climate were taught concurrently so the students could study what was happening to the earth and compare it to other worlds.  This section began with the basic question of why we have seasons, which was looked at in terms of direct and indirect ray as well as rotation and revolution.  This also allowed the class to look at climate changes on earth and the climates on different planets.  Students were given the opportunity to observe the quickly changing weather in the Twin Cities and include that information in their classroom activities. In Astronomy, general concepts studied included stars, galaxies, energy distribution, the expansion of the universe, formation of the solar system and celestial bodies, and multiple current hypothesis of the origin of life. Conversations and connections to native astronomy were made at each opportunity and in-creased student interest and sense of relevance of the subject matter. Students also enjoyed studying space exploration and the chance to watch the Space Shuttle Discovery's lift-off.  Another highlight of this section was a visit to the Science Museum of Minnesota and a chance to watch the film "Mars 3-D." As a hands-on effort for students to bring together their astronomy learning into something hands-on, they were given a chance to design and paint an "art car" to be entered into a parade as part of the Uptown Art Car Parade. As part of the design, students included constellations, a scale model of the solar system and nebula they learned about in class.

The students participating in the Earth and Space Science class were recruited from a group of students identified by teachers in our partner schools and by our Native Academy staff as being in need of credits in science or being generally credit deficient. Through the motivation provided by the instructor and the hands-on activities each of the nine students earned credit as participants in this six-week program. Students reported that the rea-son that they were able to be successful is that the instructor was able to "make science fun."


Results

Our first year evaluation reflects some significant positive results. The following highlights some of the results as reported to our evaluator by the Research and Evaluation Department of the Minneapolis Public Schools:

  • NAC students had a higher passing rate than the matched comparison group on the MBST Math test at both the 8th and 9th grade levels, outperforming their peers by 20 percentage points.

Math MBST Scores

 

  • Ninth grade NAC students outperformed their peers by 20 percentage points on the reading component of the MBST


Reading MBST Scores

 

  • The majority of NAC students had attendance rates between 90-100%, while the majority of the comparison group students had attendance rates less than 85%.

NAC Attendance

 

Success on the above indicators is critical to reversing the high dropout rates, and low graduation rates of Indian students in the Minneapolis Public Schools. Equally important is that success on these indicators provides hope that there is much that schools and community organizations working in partnership can do to overcome the paralyzing effects of poverty and low socio-economic status on the educational performance of Indian students and others.

These results could not have been attained without the hard work of the students and the cooperation of each of the partner schools. Again, we wish to thank the students, their families and the educators within our partner schools for their support.

For a full copy of our evaluation, please contact Graham Hartley, Director of Education.

Home | CCL | MIGIZI | Tech Interns | HI-Prep | Forum | Recent