PLACE-BASED INDIGENOUS AND HISTORICAL NARRATIVES AS A BEST PRACTICE FOR GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION: BEGIN WITH STORIES, END WITH PURPOSEFUL SCIENCE

Over its 1,600 mile span from southeast to northwest, the State of Hawaiʻi includes Loihi, an active submarine volcano, Hawaiʻi island’s active Kilauea and Mauna Loa, the dormant and extinct volcanoes of Maui, Lanaʻi, Molokaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Oʻahu, and Kauaʻi; Midway and Laysan atolls and ends with the Emperor Seamounts. The islands are both the source of and recipients of deadly tsunamis triggered by Pacific Rim earthquakes. Yet despite Kilauea’s eruptions since 1983, monthly tsunami tests, a museum commemorating victims of 1946 and 1960 tsunami, and the interactions of volcanic landscapes with everyday phenomena, e.g., beaches, surf, clouds, rainfall, streams, erosion, and vegetation patterns, teachers choose earth science at even lower rates than physics and chemistry. Research with K-12 teachers suggests that place-based indigenous and historical narratives learned in conjunction with place-based, on-site, active interdisciplinary earth science learning engage educators who are not earth science majors and provides a model for developing and teaching place-based lessons. This presentation provides a research-based framework for teacher education and curriculum development that enables teachers to intersect place, culture, and science to create curriculum relevant to their students’ familiar worlds that addresses NGSS standards and supports student engagement. Action research by co-author J. Winquist a white, male biology teacher from a Midwest state in an urban school serving predominantly Asian and Pacific Islander students illustrates this approach. Research reported in this presentation was supported by NSF Award No. 1721356.