CONNECTED TO EARTH: HOW LEARNING IN PLACE, ANCESTRAL STORIES, AND CURRENT ISSUES CAN INFUSE SUSTAINABILITY IN K-16 EARTH SCIENCE CURRICULUM IN HAWAII AND WISCONSIN

In order to address critical issues of food sovereignty, protecting water quality, and direct and indirect impacts of climate change on society, it is essential for us to prepare future generations so they can face these challenges equitably and sustainably. For this we need to reach out to diverse cultures and incorporate different ways of teaching, learning, and knowing in K-16 geoscience curriculum. In our project “Connected to Earth: Cross-Cultural Knowledge Exchange for Advancing Earth Science Learning” funded by the GEOPAths program of the National Science Foundation, we are collaborating with Bad River and Red Cliff tribal members/educators and Hawaiian language Immersion educators to write K-16 geoscience curriculum based on traditional ecological and cultural knowledge and practices. As part of this project, representatives from Bad River and Red Cliff tribes visited Hawaii island to participate in a Hawaiian cultural and language immersion. This was followed by teachers, faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate students from UW Madison and UW Whitewater participating in the “Learning from the Land” youth workshop organized by the Red Cliff and Bad River tribes. Participants in both programs are developing K-16 curriculum based on the Hawaiian Ahupua’a agricultural system, manoomin (wild rice) harvesting and associated issues, and protecting freshwater in the Bad River and Red Cliff tribal lands. In addition, a collaborative project for helping K-12 students from Bayfield area create story maps based on their community-based projects is initiated as part of this effort.

Culturally relevant geoscience curriculum rooted in traditional practices and local knowledge can engage students from underserved communities in informal and formal geoscience learning, as well as promote the principles of sustainability that are practiced in indigenous cultures. In this presentation we share selected examples of how learning in place, ancestral stories, and current issues can infuse sustainability in K-16 earth science curriculum in Hawaii and Wisconsin and invite a discussion among geoscience educators and practitioners on this topic.