Teaching K-12 Students Stories and Perspectives of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail through Curriculum Development and Teacher Training
Project ID: P19AC01177
Federal Agency: National Park Service
Partner Institution: University of Oregon
Fiscal Year: 2019
Initial Funding: $123,868
Total Funding: $148,868
Project Type: Education
Project Disciplines: Cultural
National Park: Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
Principal Investigator: Wood, Stephanie
Agreement Technical Representative: Smith, Thomas
Abstract: Currently, four states relative to the Lewis and Clark National NHP (Oregon, Washington, Montana, and North Dakota) mandate “Indian Education for All” by law. These laws require that all students receive curriculum and instruction about American Indian peoples in their state. This
project will provide new curriculum to help meet that public need. Students in classrooms K-12 will benefit from this project by having their education professionals learn new curricula in order to provide teaching regarding the story of the Lewis and Clark National
Historic Trail. Nearly 50 teachers will receive training in delivering the new material, in addition, the new curricula will be publicly available via web site to reach unlimited K-12 classrooms.
Project Goals: This project will proceed in two parts simultaneously: 1.) teacher training and dissemination through one conference presentation and two workshops for educators, and 2.) curriculum development for K-12 education. The two workshops are scheduled to take place
in Yellowstone National Park, and will provide opportunities for the dissemination of Honoring Tribal Legacies (HTL). Teachings, lead to the development of additional curricula, and allow educators the chance to learn to play-and prepare to teach-traditional Native games (going
into depth with Teachings of the subject to existing materials). Together, these two parts of the proposed research and pedagogical endeavors have the objective of expanding curriculum available to teachers everywhere, particularly those that honor the shared Native and nonNative
history of the Trail.
B. Project Objectives: Investigators from the UO and NPS staff will collaborate to accomplish the following specific objectives:
1. Present the existing HTL program materials developed in the previous agreement at the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) Annual Conference in October, 2019, and engage with attendees to seek recommendations for future topics and curriculum designers
for the development of ten Teachings.
2. Development of ten new units of curriculum (Teachings), based on the HTL curricular frameworks.
3. When completed, make these ten Teachings publicly available online for classroom teachers, informal educators, and organizations that may benefit from the use of HTL. Disseminate the new Teachings on a publicly accessible website hosted by UO. Host 24 educator attendees at each of the two residential workshops (Workshop I and II being held at the Yellowstone National Park) for a total of approximately 48 educators.
The workshop objectives are for the participants to learn various historical and contemporary tribal perspectives and how to deliver that information for student-learning, by utilizing the HTL frameworks. The teachers will also develop activities for their own classrooms.
5. Have each workshop participant develop at least one lesson (Episode), complete with a lesson introductory activity, the lesson itself, and a post-lesson assessment, or “check for understanding.”
6. The HTL activities developed by the participants that are determined to be of high quality by both UO and NPS will be made publicly available online by UO for other educators.
7. Towards project completion, conduct marketing to disseminate the available program materials using UO, HTL, and NPS social media platforms, email lists, websites, and both public and internal newsletter forums.