HYDROLOGY OUTREACH ACTIVITIES TO TRIBAL YOUTH: INSIGHTS FROM COLD REGION HYDROLOGY WORKSHOP

As climate change becomes more evident, tribal communities are vulnerable to water security challenges. The lack of educational resources reflects an absence of awareness around the hydrologic cycle as it pertains to states of drought and deluge. This lack of capacity to research water affects tribal communities from understanding key hydroclimatic processes that contribute to water security. This is particularly true for tribal youth in White Shield, North Dakota. Two workshops (Feb 16^th and April 17^th, 2023) were facilitated with White Shield High School (WSHS), grades 9-10, to introduce the significance of SWE (snow water equivalent) and its contribution to streamflow generation, or lack thereof. WSHS youth were given background of the hydrologic cycle and trends of wetting and deluge in the state (particularly DLB). Youth were then taken to adjacent fields of school in small groups where they assisted in collecting and measuring snow core samples for weight, depth, and density. Two methods of estimating SWE through snow measurement are used to be compared. 1) Metric Prairie Snow Sampler (MPSS) method, which was designed after the Environment Canada ESC 30 and used for depth along with a calibrated SWE scale to measure SWE. 2) Gravimetric method involved measurement of snow volume was done by using snow tube depth and weight of the snow from scale. Using both volume and mass, snow density was determined where SWE was then estimated using snow volume depth and snow density as part of a large group activity with each student checked for work. In conclusion of the workshop, 5-point scale assessments with an option for a short feedback response were given. Results showed that approximately 60% of students were either “aware or very aware” of the importance of snow precipitation to the hydrologic cycle. However, when it came to being “very aware/ aware”, “neither aware or unaware”, “unaware/ very unaware” with SWE, preliminary results were 5%, 35%, 60%, respectively. Both times approximately 80-82% learned something new, with 86-90% saying that hydrological workshops such as these could engage other kids to be interested in doing or contributing to ongoing research around water. Facilitating workshops with the youth to expand awareness and cognitive reasoning around water resources and security possessed a positive outcome.