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Production will be completed this fall on an educational video entitled "We are Scientists," as part of Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College's Space Grant activities. If we regard science as our species' attempt to define and explain the world around them, then native peoples must be regarded as scientific scholars. All indigenous groups across the Americas, from the Intuit to the Maya and the Incas, had a profound and complex order and understanding of the world around them.
The need to tell American Indian children of their rich scientific heritage is essential if they are to follow in their ancesters' footsteps and become modern day Indigenous scientists. Unfortunately, the chances of an American Indian becoming a Ph.D. scientist is the lowest of any ethnic group. This comes as no surprise, considering the pool of potential scientists is rapidly drained beginning with a 36% high school dropout rate and equally depressing negative statistics at each step of the educational ladder.
This video, intended for elementary students, will focus on Native American perspectives on science and how their ancestors were accomplished scientists in their own right. The video will stress the importance for Indian kids to become scientists, so they can bring the ancient knowledge of living in harmony and balance with nature to the forefront in the effort to save our Mother, the Earth.
Copies of "We Are Scientists" will be nationally distributed to Tribal schools and colleges this fall, with a follow-up evaluation slated for the following year. The video will be accompanied by a teacher's manual that will facilitate classroom discussions. Also, selected PBS stations will be offered the program for possible airing in their educational and public programming schedules.
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Sixteen professional women in science- and mathematics-related professions presented exciting 30 minute hands-on activities to young women attending the third annual An Eye to the Future: New Choices career conference held Saturday, April 1, 1995, at Augsburg College. Fourteen of the conference participants attended the conference on scholarships, 11 of which were provided by Computer People Unlimited, the employer of a presenter. Four additional scholarships were available from individual donations. For next year's conference, the goal of the conference committee is to offer at least 20 scholarships.
Two hundred and thirty young women attended fifteen different conference sessions with titles as diverse as Arches, Domes and Flying Buttresses; Ethnobotany -- From Rain Forest to Laboratory; Twisty Math: the World of Topology; and What Your Doctor is REALLY Doing with All Those Little Instruments. The 130 interested adults attending the conference were offered a special session on "Encouraging Young Women in Mathematics" presented by Jackie McClees, Coordinator of Dissemination, Equals Project Minnesota.
There are two main goals for the Program Committee in the coming year. One is to restructure the conference to accommodate additional young women. This year over 80 young women were on a waiting list hoping to get a spot. Two, make use of a video of the past year's conference produced by an Augsburg undergraduate majoring in film and video. The committee plans to use this video to assist them in obtaining additional corporate sponsorship for the conference.
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