Student University of North Dakota Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States
Introduction:: A growing affliction among Indigenous students at Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) is the feeling of being an imposter in the academic and scientific community. Indigenous students seem to respond poorly to traditional, more standard teaching methods and it makes them less confident in their skills. Historical pedagogy for indigenous peoples was rooted in storytelling, and hands-on demonstration. A pilot program has been started to reincorporate the spirit of the way the tribal elders learned but with advanced manufacturing techniques and engineering methodology.
Materials and Methods:: The way we are countering imposter syndrome is through a hands-on approach to vocational training, allowing the students to grow both their knowledge and applied skills. Because of the legacy knowledge found at the TCUs in North Dakota, the development of training in advanced manufacturing methods was chosen. Additive manufacturing is an emerging method supporting engineering advancement and innovation. Incorporating additive manufacturing training as part of the pre-engineering curriculum will advantage tribal students when transitioning to a bachelor/graduated degree. This is done through project-based learning, PBL, where students fabricate assignments in a safe-to-fail environment that utilizes ungrading practices. Positioning students and faculty on the bleeding edge of research and education.
After learning the skills for innovative product development and rapid prototyping, the students can take a class where they can employ their skills to make an impact. First identifying a gap, which could be a need within the college, or the community. Then a project pitch where the student walks through their proposed solution for the problem displaying it to a panel of faculty members for feedback and approval. After approval and critiquing, the student team designs, builds, and tests their solution. A full product report is written over the semester detailing both engineering and business concepts. This process models what it's like to work in the real world, bring a product to market, or own a business. Students instilled with these practices will be more confident and better prepared to improve their communities for the generations to come.
Results, Conclusions, and Discussions:: This pilot program has already instructed students from two separate Tribal Colleges and will be offered to five in the future. This program has constantly engaged the students as course owners, not just participants. Students have even suggested homework assignments for themselves to show mastery in that week's topic of instruction, displaying a level of personal ownership in their education. The methods adopted by this program have recently been highlighted by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), with a feature publication in Winds of Change, a nationally distributed magazine focused on career and educational advancement for American Indians/Alaska Natives/Native Hawaiians/First Nations, with an emphasis on STEM. The group has also been advising American Indian Higher Education Consortium, AIHEC, on its NSF regional engine proposal and in advance manufacturing plus STEM education and instruction for every TCU in the nation. Research opportunities working as equal partners with state-funded research institutions have also blossomed. One such project developed and tested an innovative new prosthetic limb, published results in a Bioinstrumentation Journal, won a conference award, and was used in obtaining a NASA grant to develop parts for the Artemis spacesuits that will potentially be supporting Lunar and Martian missions. We have also helped the Geology department digitally reconstruct a Triceratops fossil and fabricated scale replicas. Partnering with a laboratory that specializes in artificial intelligence and virtual reality, students have used laser scanning equipment to preserve culturally significant items such as an eagle feathers. They converted the scan into 3D printable files which they then manufactured. Students have also been helping with the installation of virtual reality treadmills to be used for national defense research. VR training will allow the tribal college students to create virtual blueprints to make 3D walk-though building tours in collaboration with the construction department at the TCU. This supports an in-process grant application to potentially build a factory producing accessible housing to address housing insecurity found on many tribal nations.
Acknowledgements (Optional): : Cankdeska Cikana Community College. Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of North Dakota. University of North Dakotas Computational Research Centers Laboratory for Digital Realism in Engineering and the Applied Metaverse, (DREAM).