Science and Culture Camp in Bethel
Students in the 2021 Science and Culture Camp in Bethel learned about a variety of subjects, including subsistence management of salmon resources.
Nov. 24, 2021
This past July, the Orutsararmiut Native Council’s Natural Resources Department partnered with the UAF’s Kuskokwim Campus to offer an intensive two-week science and culture class, where students from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta could earn 2 college credits.
With a fully vaccinated group of students and faculty, 15 students from across the Y-K Delta were able to come together in person for the full learning experience. These students were exposed to a range of classes, including subsistence management of salmon resources, moose biology, ethnobotany, and Yup’ik epistemology (way of knowing) and ontologies (nature of being).
Daytime activities involved classroom lectures and hands-on experiential learning. The settings ranged from science laboratories to a traditional fish camp and classes held on the tundra, and included drift net fishing, cutting and preparing fish, along with visiting a fishery sonar site. Laboratory classes learned about scientific ways of assessing the health of wildlife populations by articulating a seal skeleton and performing a necropsy on sea otters.
Partnership with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Kuskokwim Campus, allowed for the program to become a recognized undergraduate class. With the INBRE program’s support for curriculum development, Professor Shannon Atkinson served as the UAF instructor of record and partnered with UAF alumna Janessa Esquible, who initiated the science and culture camp through ONC in 2016. The class development team also included Katie Rearden, KuC assistant director; Ryan Henderson, KuC’s college readiness coordinator; and Karaline Black, Katie Russell and Danielle Lowrey, of ONC’s Natural Resources Department.
The program was funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Youth Initiative, First Alaskans Institute, Rural Alaska Community Action Program, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Orutsararmiut Native Council. ONC will work to continue the summer camp in 2022 with in-person instruction and university credit.
If you are interested in getting involved, please reach out to Danielle Lowrey at dlowrey@nativecouncil.org or call ONC at 907-543-2608 and ask for the Natural Resources Department.
Written by Shannon Atkinson, UAF Professor, Fisheries Department and Institute of Marine Science; Janessa Esquible, ONC Natural Resources Department director; and Karaline Black, Katie Russell and Danielle Lowrey, ONC Natural Resources Department