CFOS Seminar Sept. 9: STEM teaching in rural Alaska

September 8, 2020

Alice Bailey

The College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences will hold its second weekly seminar Wednesday, Sept. 9, from 3:30-4:30 p.m. via Zoom. The talk will be offered by Sean Asiqłuq Topkok, an associate professor jointly appointed at UAF’s School of Education and the Center for Cross-Cultural Studies.

STEM Teaching in Rural Alaska Using Traditional Knowledge Systems

In this talk, Topkok will discuss a research project funded by the National Science Foundation that supports teaching science, technology, engineering and math in rural areas using Indigenous cultural systems. Topkok is part of a team from UAF that is working with the Northwest Arctic Borough School District to develop STEM lessons utilizing Iñupiaq knowledge systems and university research for middle-school-age students in three villages. The project is unique in that community members identified the research topic using a phrase an Iñupiaq person would say before going out hunting — "Uvvatuq naluallangniaqtugut," or, “I humbly hope we run into game.”

Join Zoom meeting

Meeting ID: 925 9428 5292, passcode: 396929

For more information, email Matthew Wooller at mjwooller@alaska.edu.