College of Education & Human Development

Project CuRRENT

Canoe launch

Project CuRRENT (Culturally Relevant River Education for Nature-based Teaching), a collaboration with Turtle Mountain Community College and the International Water Institute (IWI), provides professional learning to elementary teachers in place-based, interdisciplinary curriculum focused on local watersheds to Indigenize STEM instruction.

What is Project CuRRENT?

Faculty from the College of Education and Human Development, the College of Engineering and Mines, and Turtle Mountain Community College secured a $449,999 Discovery Research Pre-K grant from the National Science Foundation (award #2201196). This award, titled Using Integrated, Place-based Watershed Curriculuum to Increase Teacher Self-efficacy with Culturally Relevant STEM, supports the design and development of Project CuRRENT.

Project CuRRENT aims to increase teachers’ self-efficacy with culturally relevant and place-based educational practices through a focus on local watersheds. The project provides professional development for teachers in customizing their science curriculum and implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) through a place-based, integrated approach, guided by the North Dakota Native American Essential Understandings (NDNAEU) and in partnership with the International Water Institute.

Participants

Project CuRRENT participants include 15 elementary teachers from three different schools, including two Tribal Schools. Teachers began Project CuRRENT with a two-day summer workshop in person at UND. During this workshop, teachers experienced the River of Dreams program, facilitated by IWI educators, as a model of integrated, place-based education to learn about the Red River watershed. In addition, they participated in learning sessions focused on place-based educational practices, the North Dakota Native American Understandings (NDNAEU), and had the opportunity to learn about embedding art into STEM education from renowned artist and enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Bennett Brien. As the project continues, teachers will:

Complete 7 online modules that extend their engagement with the NDNAEU and place-based education;
Meet periodically as a cohort with the research team to share learning and classroom strategies;
Convene at UND for another two-day summer workshop in which they develop their own integrated, place-based STEM curriculum aligned to the NDNAEU; and
Implement their curricular units within their own classrooms.

Program Goals

Project CuRRENT explores the impact of this professional development model on teachers’ self-efficacy with designing and delivering Indigenized, place-based curriculum aligned to the NGSS and NDNAEU. Our research questions include:

How do teachers engage in and perceive Indigenized STEM professional learning experiences?
What is the impact of PD that integrates culturally relevant pedagogy and local Indigenous community connections on teachers’ culturally relevant STEM self-efficacy?

Project CuRRENT researchers will employ quantitative, qualitative, and arts-based methodologies to explore a variety of data sources including survey measures, focus group interviews, arts-based artifacts, and classroom observations. The team will use these analyses to address the research questions, which will then guide improvements to the professional development and module content so that it can be shared widely with teacher education programs.

Project CuRRENT Team

Project CuRRENT is made possible by a collaboration of educators across institutions.