Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory Pacific Northwest Laboratory

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Connecting to Tribal Communities
Anna G. Cavinato Department of Chemistry
Eastern Oregon University La Grande, OR
97850 PKAL 2003
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Goals of todays discussion

• Reflect on the importance of creating learning
  experiences beyond our campus
• Explore service-learning

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Recruiting and retaining students in ERE programs

• Students learn better in the context of research
  than in the context of courses
• Real-world problems are much more interesting and
  challenging
• Small group cooperative learning supports women
  and minorities

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Cornerstone Experiences

• Undergraduate research
• Internship opportunities
• International experience
• Community Service Learning

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Service-Learning

• An opportunity to engage students and faculty in
  collaborative efforts with community partners,
  research labs, industry and government agencies.
• Commonly used in environmental science/study
  programs.

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Why do it? Who benefits?
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Why do it? Who benefits?

• Students
• Integration and validation
• Cooperation
• Confidence, satisfaction, motivation
• Sense of place
• Communication

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Why do it? Who benefits?

• Faculty benefits
• College benefits
• Community benefits
• Acting locally Concepts and Models for
  Service-Learning in Environmental Studies, Harold
  Ward, Ed. AAHE, 1999

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Challenges and Barriers
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Challenges and Barriers

• The two-master conflict
• Uneasy partnerships
• More work for all involved
• Additional costs
• Student evaluation
• Acting locally Concepts and Models for
  Service-Learning in Environmental Studies, Harold
  Ward, Ed. AAHE, 1999

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• Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
  Reservation

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Service-Learning in the Environmental Chemistry
Curriculum

• Initially approached by the Umatilla Tribe
  environmental scientists.
• Tribe concerned about safety of water supply,
  fish, and ceremonial plants.

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Structure of the course

• CHEM 361 Environmental Chemistry Lab
• 2 credits
• Assessment
• Participation in project
• Presentation of results
• Reflections on the service learning experience

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Meeting the tribe environmental scientists
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Chosen Projects

• Investigation of the snow pack composition of a
  commercial area within the reservation
• Analysis of ceremonial mosses for potential
  presence of PCBs
• Analysis of salmon liver from the Columbia River

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Students involved in all aspects of a research
project

• Search for appropriate methods of analysis
• Development of sampling strategies
• Choice of equipment and chemicals
• Collection of samples
• Analysis of sample
• Interpretation of data
• Presentation of results

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Search for appropriate methods of analysis

• EPA methods
• Challenge in reading and interpreting a method
• Other alternatives

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Developing appropriate sampling strategies

• Dr. John Cox, environmental coordinator of the
  Umatilla Tribe, demonstrates sampling of snow
  pack at Tollgate, OR.

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Sampling Bryoria fremontii (Bear Hair Moss) at
Tollgate, Oregon.
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Students sample steelhead livers at the Wallowa
hatchery, Wallowa, OR.
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Choice of equipment and chemicals

• GC-MS
• Glassware
• Solvents
• Standards
• Very challenging for students!

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Students learn about extraction procedures
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Interpretation of data

• Very challenging for beginner students
• Not enough time to produce meaningful results
• Assisted by tribe environmental scientists

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Sharing results with the tribe members

• Students present preliminary results of their
  project with an oral and poster presentation.

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Students reflection paper

• The service experience alone does not insure that
  either significant learning or effective service
  will occur.
• It is important to build in structured
  opportunities for participants to think
  critically about their experience and what they
  have learned.
• Hellen Porter Honnet and Susan J. Poulsen,
  Principles of Good Practice for Combining Service
  and Learning, The Johnson Foundation, Inc., 1989

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Assessment

• To assess students learning outcomes and
  perception of the service learning experience we
  developed an evaluation that was composed of five
  themes.

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• Students' self-perception of the Environmental
  laboratory
• Students perceived that they gained knowledge in
  new techniques, had to make use of critical
  thinking skills much more than in traditional
  laboratory experiments and felt better prepared
  for the real-world work environment.

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• Positive and negative feelings towards the
  laboratory
• Students expressed much more interest in the
  context-based experiments although also expressed
  frustration for the many challenges they
  encountered as they progressed in their work.
  They liked most aspects of the research project
  with sampling and analyzing the data as the
  most enjoyable.

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• Students' expectations about the laboratory
• There was a considerable difference between
  what students had expected from this experience
  and what they actually accomplished.
• Several commented about unexpected challenges
  and realizing that it takes patience and
  determination to bring even a small project to a
  successful completion.

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• What students feel they need to know and do as
  scientists
• Students realized that the limited background
  hindered their progress in successfully
  completing the project. They all felt that
• stronger instrumental preparation and further
  exposure to experimental techniques are
  important to become a successful scientist.

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• What students feel about the service learning
  experience
• Students expressed very positive feed-back
  about the service-learning component of the
  course. They felt that the work for the tribe
  gave a "real purpose" to their investigation and
  an opportunity to interact with scientists of a
  diverse background.

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Undergraduate Research Projects

• Students take leadership in continuing work on
  PCBs in salmon liver.
• Determination of maturity status and gender in
  salmonids

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Acknowledgements

• National Science Foundation CCLI program
  (CCLI-0127120) and MRI program (MRI-0116971) for
  financial support.
• Dr. John Cox and members of the Confederated
  Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation for
  assistance in the service learning project.

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References

• Acting locally Concepts and Models for
  Service-Learning in Environmental Studies, Harold
  Ward, Ed. AAHE, 1999
• When Community Enters the Equation, Campus
  Compact, 1998
• Connecting Cognition and Action Evaluation of
  Student Performance in Service Learning, Campus
  Compact, 1995
• K-H Partnerships Tool Kit, Campus Compact, 2000
• Arthur I. Blaustein, Make a Difference, Heyday
  Books, 2002
• Janet Eyler, Dwight Giles, Angela Schmiede, A
  Practitioners Guide to Reflection in
  Service-Learning, 1996.
• Gender, Science, the Undergraduate Curriculum,
  Caryn McTighe Musil Ed., AACU, 2001.

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Connecting to the real world

• Ideas that suggest action at the institutional
  level
• Ideas that suggest action at the
  departmental/programmatic level
• Ideas that call for personal attention