Engaging Native Alaskan Students and their Community in Local Hot Springs Research

Geoscientists, educators, and pre-service K-12 teaching students at Portland State University will collaborate with Southeast Alaska Native high school students, their teachers, tribal elders, and local government and business leaders to develop a series of innovative high school geoscience curriculum modules around the study of local hot spring ecosystems. The curricula will engage the students through hands on field- and laboratory-based experiences that build upon their cultural knowledge of, and experiences with, this type of local natural resource. The inclusion of community members in this inquiry-based research project and curricular development is key to motivating students to learn about geoscience-related concepts and issues. Traditional Native Alaskan knowledge encompasses an understanding of a geological setting as a habitat occupied by ecological communities that provide a number of agricultural, natural resource, and medicinal opportunities. In hot springs, microbial communities may alter their surroundings, enhance fishery resources, and concentrate mineral resources. The remains of these communities - when preserved in hot spring sinter deposits - can record a history of bacteria, plant and animal species associated with them. Hot spring mineral deposits have been used in a variety of ceremonial ways by indigenous communities, and their medicinal use has not been recorded. A major project goal is to present an opportunity for interdisciplinary study of a relatively simple (extreme and mineralizing) ecosystem that will pique the interest of these high-school students in teaching and research careers in the geosciences and help preserve a scientific and culturally important natural resource for Native Alaskan tribal communities.