Cultural Connections to Alaska Science (CCAS) is a statewide Alaska-based project that tests and implements a model for co-production of K-12 educational resources (videos, curriculum, teaching tools, Indigenous language tools) to support creation of supplemental science teaching aids for rural Indigenous learners. This website is funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation (#2201324).
The model, known as the Cultural Connections Process Model (GI/UAF 2018) engages Indigenous communities early and throughout development. Small groups of local knowledge and culture bearers are asked to form a local CCAS Team, which then chooses the science topic and outlines the important concepts associated with that topic, for GI/UAF education staff to develop into supplemental teaching tools.
Since 2015, educators throughout Alaska have engaged in this process. As each resource is developed and then implemented, feedback from the community has led to first the creation and then the refinement of the Cultural Connections Process Model. that can be used to augment mainstream curricula with place-based and culturally inclusive content. The model was developed through an Alaska Native Education Program grant awarded to the University of Alaska Fairbanks by the US Department of Education (2015-2018). Two units of instruction (Elementary and Middle School) on the Northern Lights were created in two Iñupiaq dialects (North Slope Iñupiaq, and Coastal Iñupiaq). A 20min feature video and corresponding portable planetarium video also were created, along with an online, Alaska Native Language pronunciation guide.
Further testing of the model was performed in Kotzebue, AK through a Discovery Research K-12 Program grant from the National Science Foundation (STEM Teaching in Rural Areas using Cultural Knowledge Systems [STEM TRACKS] 2018-2022). STEM TRACKS yielded one unit of Middle School curriculum and five short educational videos on the topic of snow.
Overlapping with the STEM TRACKS grant, an I-TEST project was funded by the NSF, which yielded four units of technology-focused Elementary level instruction on drones and how they can be applied to local priorities. The work was collaborative, with UAF developing the instruction, and the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage performing the project’s research. These resources did not test the co-production model, but were created in harmony with the model.
CCAS, another NSF DRK-12 project, is a scale up of the STEM TRACKS project, broadening the reach encompass four rural communities–Kotzebue, Fort Yukon, Kodiak and Metlakatla (visit our “Communities” and “Languages” tabs to learn more about these sites).
For each community served, two short educational videos and a set of classroom lessons will be created based on each community’s input. In addition, advisors from each of the four rural communities will come together annually to develop two videos and sets of corresponding classroom lessons as a statewide development team. At grant end (2026), ten new educational videos and sets of corresponding lessons will be added to the resources listed above as the start of an online repository for Alaska-based K-12 science teaching resources.