NASA MAIANSE

FY 2018 ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REPORT

FUNDING SOURCE: OFFICE OF EDUCATION MUREP

LINE OF BUSINESS: STEM ENGAGEMENT

MANAGING ORGANIZATION: GSFC OFFICE OF STEM ENGAGEMENT

ACTIVITY MANAGER: DR. ALICIA JOSEPH 301-614-5804 [email protected]

ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION

NASA provides financial assistance (grants and cooperative agreements) to the Nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), American Indian and Alaskan Native Serving Institutions (AIANSIs), Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs) and eligible community colleges. The Administration recognizes the valuable role that these institutions play in educating our citizens, as reflected in the five Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) focused Executive Orders signed by the President.

NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Activity (MUREP) investments enhance the research, academic, and technology capabilities of MSIs through multi-year awards. Awards assist faculty and students in research and provide authentic STEM engagement related to NASA missions. These competitive awards provide NASA specific knowledge and skills to learners who have been historically underrepresented and underserved in STEM. MUREP investments also assist NASA in meeting the goal of a diverse workforce through student participation in internships, scholarships, and fellowships at NASA Centers and JPL.

NASA Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) for American Indian and Alaska Native STEM Engagement (MAIANSE) is a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) engagement cooperative agreement that specifically targets TCUs as well as supporting American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) institutions. This project seeks to expand NASA-related education and research activities between NASA and tribal colleges and universities to increase access to NASA's unique science and exploration assets and data in the creation of experiential learning opportunities for students, faculty and staff; and high school students who are likely to matriculate to TCUs.

In July 2017, NASA's Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) awarded approximately $1.8 million in new three-year cooperative agreements to three Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). These agreements provide opportunities for TCU students, faculty and staff to engage in NASA-related science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) research and activities. The award was made jointly through both the NASA MUREP for American Indian and Alaskan Native STEM Engagement (MAIANSE) and the Earth Systems, Technology, and Energy Education for MUREP (ESTEEM) activities.

The selected institutions were: • Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico • , Lame Deer, • , Bellingham,

NASA MAIANSE continued to support these institutions throughout FY2018.

NASA MAIANSE also continues to support the following ESTEEM awardees who closed out their projects before the end of FY 2018: • , Pablo MT • Turtle Mountain Community College, Belcourt ND

1

ACTIVITY GOALS The goals of MAIANSE are to utilize NASA’s unique contributions in collaboration with tribal colleges and universities and tribal-serving institutions to improve the overall quality of the Nation’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.

To achieve these goals, MAIANSE seeks to:

• Increase the capacity to connect research to science, pre-engineering, and mathematics offerings through designed integration of math-science curricula in STEM • Increase the number of students choosing STEM majors upon enrollment in the Tribal College. • Increase the number of students choosing STEM majors and continuing in those majors upon matriculation to four-year colleges. • Increase learners’ involvement and interest in STEM, educate them on the value of STEM in their lives, and positively influence the perception of their ability to participate in STEM • Strengthen efforts to attract and retain increased numbers of students in NASA STEM programs • Increased student enrollment in STEM based classes.

ACTIVITY BENEFIT TO PERFORMANCE GOALS

FY 2018 Performance Goals

Contribute to the development of the STEM workforce in disciplines needed to achieve NASA's strategic goals, through a portfolio of investments.

The MAIANSE activity contributed to this goal by awarding Tribal Colleges and Universities, which are Minority Serving Institutions, with NASA cooperative agreement funding in order to increase their institutional capacity to deliver STEM degrees to their students. As a part of each award, students are directly engaged in STEM curriculum that utilizes NASA’s unique assets. Students at each MAIANSE awarded institution participate in NASA internship opportunities throughout the school year.

In FY18 MAIANSE directly engaged 1,211 undergraduate students attending Tribal Colleges and Universities in unique NASA related STEM Engagement experiences. Of those 1,211 students, 80 of them received direct higher education student awards. During FY18, 12 Tribal College and University students participated in NASA internships at a NASA center.

Attract and retain students in STEM disciplines through a progression of educational opportunities for students, teachers and faculty.

The MAIANSE activity engaged students in experiential learning opportunities, where they could develop a greater understanding of what STEM looked like in their own communities. Summer Intern/externships allowed for an increase in the number of TCU and AI/AN students exposed to STEM activities.

For example, bringing the NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) Mars Rover competition to the American Indian Higher Education consortium’s National Student Conference allowed for students to engage in a STEM education activity that aligned to a NASA mission and

2 utilized unique NASA assets. See below for more information on this particular activity and its accomplishments.

ACTIVITY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

MAIANSE sought to contribute to the Agency’s efforts in broadening participation of underrepresented groups in STEM. This was accomplished through attracting and retaining tribal college students. MAIANSE programs provided mentoring support, academic development and enhancements, social and professional networks and have helped students to complete undergraduate degrees. Activity accomplishments are representative of events that took place during the 2018 fiscal year. These accomplishments are reflected in the following highlights:

Highlights of some of the MAIANSE/ESTEEM PIs in FY 2018

Northwest Indian College, Bellingham WA

• Northwest Indian College completed an international search for qualified GIS faculty, and hired Dr. Sylvie Arques in Year 1.

• Dr. Arques has taught four classes (some multiple quarters per year) related to GIS and remote sensing, including NESC 215: Climate Change in Native Lands, ENVS 265: Introduction to GIS and Remote Sensing as both an on-site class and a distance learning class, ENVS 375: Exploring Places Through Imaging, and ENVS 389: Tribal GIS Mapping. 41 students have taken classes from Dr. Arques. Other current classes that have expanded to include remote sensing/GIS in their curricula are ENVS 320: Environmental Toxicology, ENVS 310: Ecology, and ENVS 440: Salish Sea Ecology. Some of these classes are new to Northwest Indian College and have been through curriculum committee procedures, some have been updated to reflect recent learning objectives, and some will go through curriculum committee in the near future. Dr. Arques works both with the Coast Salish Institute at Northwest Indian College and and Swinomish Natural Resources GIS departments to identify community research projects and goals. Dr. Arques also taught a tuition free summer Introduction to GIS course (2018) that offered both academic and community education credits. Student projects are routinely presented in a community setting.

• NWIC continues to meet regularly with their NASA partners to include NASA ESS activities in our classes. Breana Nguyen (NWIC student) presented her work at the Tribal ARC-GIS conference in early November 2018, and Tamara Tso and Talon Arbuckle (students; Fig. 1) presented posters at AGU in December 2018 (Nguyen et al. 2018; Tso et al. 2018; Arbuckle et al. 2018). Breana also presented her senior thesis capstone on remote sensing of harmful algae in Bellingham Bay, WA (Fig. 2) to the Lummi Natural Resources GIS department, and is in the process of formatting her work as a journal article. One current student intern, Dineh Judd, has been accepted into a Master of Science at State University of New York School of Environmental Science and Forestry as part of the Coupled Natural and Human Systems program.

3

4

Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute

MAIANSE is enabling SIPI to expand and proliferate the Program that we developed under the NASA TCU-ELO Grant from 2014-17. Since receiving the NASA MAIANSE Grant in July-August 2017, SIPI has focused their efforts on expanding capabilities on the SIPI campus and proliferating project tools to Native American-serving secondary schools, colleges and universities.

There are four Levels to the I-C-MARS Project: • Level 1: Foundations in Space Sciences and Technologies: Course modules and activities in Physics, Mechanisms, Arduino and Robotics • Level 2: Simulated Mars Exploration though 10 "virtual" and " game" like missions using the ROS and Gazebo Simulator environments • Level 3; Simulated Mars Exploration through 10 hands-on, tele-presence missions using the SIPI Large Mars Yard. • Level 4: Creation of a user community for designing and implementing user-designed "Missions"; Creation of an app for smart phones to expand the user base.

In FY 2018, SIPI continued to deepen their relationships with local high schools in their region. They also increased their collaborations and partnerships with other Tribal Colleges across the United States, in order to broaden the reach of their MAIANSE project’s impact.

Chief Dull Knife College

• Genetics at Chief Dull Knife College: A four day camp was held on CDKC’s campus directed by Dr. Christa Merzdorf and Dr. Jen Forecki. The focus of the camp was genetics and advanced cell biology. Eleven (11) students participated and three (3) faculty. A range of topics and hands on methods were employed to build interest and inform students about base biological concepts of genetic transfer. These topics would be expanded on in later workshops held at in Bozeman and in Helena, Montana.

• Goddard Space Flight Center visit: Twelve interns and three faculty members spent two days at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland in mid-June. The intern group was on the way to the Wallops Island Flight Facility and scheduled the days to become familiar with the research projects being undertaken by Goddard. Students visited the NOAA center, were updated on GSFC’s contribution to the James Webb telescope, saw presentations on global climate, including the new ICESatII, and toured other outstanding portions of the Goddard facility. The intern groups was divided into groups for more in depth hands-on experiences in virtual reality in the STEAM innovation lab, the hyperwall, mission control, and the earth science labs.

• Rockon! 2018: A group of twelve (12) students and three (3) faculty members traveled to Wallops Island, Virginia for the 11th annual Rockon! Experience conducted by the Colorado Space Grant Consortium in conjunction with the Wallops Island Flight Facility. The group participated in developing their own payload assembly for a Orion based sounding rocket. Students built and programmed almost all aspects of the payload and made sure that their work would integrate with the carrier rocket, provided by NASA. All students and the faculty mentors stayed on Wallops Flight Facility in dorm rooms provided for guest of the base. The 5

workshop begins Saturday morning and lasts six full days culminating in the launch of the payload on Thursday morning at dawn. Students learn coding, electronics, group cooperation, and integration with NASA flight coordinators.

Salish Kootenai College

Salish Kootenai College is a Tribal College and University located in Pablo, Montana and serves the Séliš, Ksanka and QÍispé communities located on the Flathead Reservation. In FY 2018 SKC finalized their ESTEEM project “Living Landscapes” which culminated in the production and distribution of their climate science curriculum that approaches teaching STEM through a Traditional Ecological lens.

Salish Kootenai College is. In 2014, Salish Kootenai won a NASA cooperative agreement under the Earth Systems, Technology and Energy Education for Minority University Research Education Project (ESTEEM) for their proposal “Living Landscapes”. The Salish Kootenai College project, “Living Landscapes” uses the concept of storytelling in various ways to communicate climate science more effectively to indigenous students. The core content of this project is a series of ten videos filmed and produced on the Flathead Reservation featuring two young Séliš tribal members and a Séliš elder. The use of story here, from the perspective of a Séliš woman, inherently enhances the curriculum’s ability to engage other Native American students due to its cultural relevancy and place-based nature. Germaine White, one of the producers of the project explained, “Our culture and traditions are extraordinarily important to us. When we pass oral traditions from one generation to the next, we do that with love and respect. It’s the foundation of how we ensure cultural competence for the next generation.” White further emphasized the importance of familiarity the projects offers to students. “I believe that this culturally and place-based project, developed by tribes and that uses the voice of elders and storytelling, will be something that students can relate to because it’s their relatives’ voices that they hear, it’s the landscape they’re familiar with and see, and it’s the culture and the language that they know.”

Highlights of some of the MAIANSE Management Team in FY 2018

NASA MAIANSE supported the agency’s presence at American Indian and Alaska Native higher education conferences throughout FY18. The goal was to increase American Indian and Alaskan Native (AIAN) students’ interest in STEM and to share opportunities for students to engage in NASA's work and missions. MAIANSE supported the following conferences in FY18 with pertinent outcomes listed below:

• The 2017 Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) Conference was October 18-21 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The NASA team directly engaged 725 participants at the conference over the course of three days of meetings.

• The 2018 American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) Student Conference was held March 11-14 in Bismarck, North Dakota. The NASA team directly engaged 117 participants at the conference over the course of three days at the exhibit booth and conference competitions. The NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars competition was held at the AIHEC Student Conference March 11-14 in Bismarck, ND. The NCAS Mars rover competition directly engaged 24 students and 4 faculty members from 3 TCU teams.

6

• The 2018 American Indian Science & Engineering Society (AISES) Conference was held October 3-6 in Oklahoma City, OK. NASA Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) was a conference sponsor, seeking to increase American Indian and Alaskan Native (AIAN) students in STEM. The NASA team, with participants from 7 NASA Centers engaged with indigenous students at Riverside Bureau of Indian Education School at an outreach event in Anadarko, Oklahoma. During the event, the NASA team directly engaged 160 students through STEM engagement activities that promoted the science mission and engineering technology directorates. At the Career Fair the NASA team interacted with over 175 students from 21 minority-serving institutions. The Government Relations Council, of which NASA is a member, coordinated a resume workshop over two days for 100 students.

NASA MAIANSE also maintained its commitment to American Indian and Alaska Native student engagement through the following FY 18 activities:

• April 2018: MAIANSE made site visits in order to build relationships and better engage AI/AN students at the following South Dakota AI/AN serving schools: o Sisseton Wahpeton College o South Dakota State University o o o South Dakota School of Mines and Technology In addition to visiting these schools, MAIANSE also had meetings at USGS EROS. The purpose of this trip was to make individual connections with Tribal College and University educators and administrators as well as those of non-Tribal institutions serving American Indian students. The objective of these connections was to learn about their programs, to inform them about MAIANSE, and to encourage them to participate in NASA-associated outreach programs.

• April 2018: MAIANSE participated in the First Nations Rocket Launch Competition April 19- 21 in Kenosha, WI. The First Nations Rocket Launch is a collaboration between the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium and Kennedy Space Center.

• May 2018: MAIANSE participated in the 2018 Rising Voices conference. Rising Voices seeks to diversify scientific research and inform culturally appropriate solutions to weather and climate extremes with a focus on Indigenous science. The theme of the 6th Rising Voices workshop was “Rising Together: Mobilizing and Learning from Local Actions.” The theme reflects the meeting objectives which were to: o Review what we have learned from previous Rising Voices gatherings o Mobilize diverse knowledge systems toward appropriate climate solutions o Learn from local partners and actions in the Great Lakes area

• Summer 2018: Out of 24 Tribal College applicants for NASA summer 2018 internships, 12 Tribal College students were selected across 7 NASA Centers. These 12 TCU interns participated in the brand new Tribal College Intern Collaboration, managed by one of the MAIANSE interns. The collaboration provided an opportunity for Federal government interns from TCUs to interact with each other and share their individual internship experiences, including challenges and accomplishments. o Improve the internship experience. o Collect TCU intern data o Recruit more TCU applicants for NASA internships.

7

• Summer 2018: Zane Ducheneaux from and Karen Moore from Sinte Gleska University interned for MAIANSE in the summer of 2018. Zane worked from Goddard Space Flight Center to advance the MAIANSE student engagement mission, creating a collaboration of Federal government interns from the Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). Karen Moore worked from Langley Research Center to create a social media presence and a brochure for MAIANSE to better connect with students at TCUs and other tribal-serving institutions.

• June 2018: Arctic and Earth SIGNs collaboration with MAIANSE team member: MAIANSE attended an Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) (http://www.ansep.net/) event. Participants at the event, hosted at both at Anchorage and Fairbanks campuses included Iḷisaġvik Tribal College, Alaska Space Grant, NOAA Observatory in Utiavik/Barrow Collaboration, Tribal College and Hawaii representation at Alaska GLOBE workshop

• July 2018: MAIANSE participated in the 2018 Native Youth Community Leadership and Adaptation Congress in Shepardstown, WV at the National Conservation Training Center on July 5th, 2018. MAIANSE participated in a career fair that served 30 American Indian and Alaska Native college students as well as 80 American Indian and Alaska Naïve high school students. MAIANSE also collaborated with Dorian Janney, a NASA GLOBE Observer Program Specialist to deliver 4-hour long workshops on GLOBE Observer protocols to 60 American Indian and Alaska Native high school students.

• September 2018: MAIANSE participated in National Science Foundation Tribal College Research Symposium, where approximately 80 students shared presentations on research and presented a NASA Lunch panel.

ACTIVITY CONTRIBUTION TO ANNUAL PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (APIs)

FY 2018 Annual Performance Indicators

1.2 Student Support: Provide NASA competency-building education and research opportunities to individuals to develop qualified undergraduate and graduate students who are prepared for employment in STEM disciplines at NASA, industry, and higher education.

• In the 2018 fiscal year, MAIANSE and ESTEEM jointly provided 80 significant direct higher education student awards to students attending Tribal Colleges and Universities, 24 of whom were women. These significant direct awards totaled a combination of $91,355 and 27,361 hours. This contributes to the API ED-15-1 by providing these awards to students attending Tribal Colleges and Universities and ensuring that awards went to women.

ACTIVITY IMPROVEMENTS MADE IN THE PAST YEAR (e.g. activity management, cost efficiencies)

MAIANSE and ESTEEM transition into one activity management team: 8

• NASA MAIANSE and NASA ESTEEM, both MUREP activities targeted towards Tribal Colleges and Universities merged to form one management team in FY 18. While this proved to have its challenges as any transition does, the newly formed team brought many benefits to the effectiveness of the team overall. This change brought improvements to strategic communication, awardee management, partnership building and better student engagement between the MAIANSE activity team and AI/AN students at Tribal Colleges and Universities.

New MAIANSE Communication Products • Website: The launch of the new MAIANSE site on the Drupal system used by the Agency vastly improved MAIANSE’s external communication. The new site helped MAIANSE move towards its goal to become a hub for American Indian and Alaska Native students and the institutions that serve them to connect and engage with NASA’s Missions through various NASA unique and authentic learning experiences. • Brochure and Handbill: MAIANSE also created and published its first external engagement materials in the form of a tri-fold brochure and also a post-card type hand bill. Both products had a very similar look to keep in line with MAIANSE communication brand standards as well as NASA style guide rules. The creation of these materials increased MAIANSE’s ability to better communicate its mission to AI/AN faculty and students interested in engaging with NASA unique assets and experiences.

ACTIVITY PARTNERS AND ROLE OF PARTNERS IN ACTIVITY EXECUTION

MAIANSE engages a multi-faceted approach in order to build strategic partnerships. These partnerships act as a collective unit to foster inter connectivity and knowledge sharing, in both physical and virtual settings, through which American Indian and Alaska Native serving institutions grow their networks, technical base, and professional connections and develop a sense of community. Our goal is to provide an environment for the MAIANSE community to collaborate in a niche group, encouraging expansion into larger and broader interactions.

The following American Indian and Alaska Native advocacy partners were instrumental in activity execution: American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Latinos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS).

MAIANSE activities engage directly with various NASA Mission Directorates. The work completed by MAIANSE awardees incorporates data and resources related to the NASA mission directorates, thus strengthening the awardees’ institutional capacity and complimenting the work of the mission directorates.

MAIANSE also works closely with the Space Grant Consortium in each state. Below is a list of some examples of Space Grant opportunities:

• Wisconsin Space Grant - First Nation Rocket Launch • Colorado Space Grant - RockOn Rocket Competition

Other NASA Programs MAIANSE collaborates with to meet activity goals: 9

• The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program • NASA Applied Sciences • Arctic and Earth STEM Integrating GLOBE and NASA (SIGNs)

Our network continues to grow with the addition of other Governmental entities looking to support the Minority Serving Institution community that MAIANSE has established.

These other entities consist of, but are not limited to;

Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Fish and Wildlife Service - Native Youth Community Adaptation and Leadership Congress Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) NOAA Sea Grant

10