The STEM fields provide numerous life-changing opportunities for tribal college students. STEM careers are experiencing high demand for workers, growing twice as fast as non- STEM jobs and paying nearly double on average (Fayer et al., 2017). STEM fields also provide students with opportunities to engage research areas that serve tribal interests ranging from natural resource management and protection to renewable energy development to improving human health and safety to the use of technology for cultural and language recovery. Many tribal colleges are already leaders in STEM education, receiving millions of dollars annually from federal funding agencies and private foundations. Nonetheless, recruitment of tribal college students to STEM fields remains a challenge (Boyer, 2014).

While the pipeline metaphor has often been cited in relation to STEM education, a formalized pipeline structure involving a series of well-defined stages with strong institutional supports can provide an attractive pathway to STEM fields for underserved students and can reduce pipeline leakage (Allen-Ramdial & Campbell, 2014). Such a model is under development in the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) program at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College (FDLTCC). As a 1994 Land Grant institution, the college houses an environmental institute that provides extension programming and serves the research needs of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. STEM education is also written into the school’s mission statement, which includes mandates to “respectfully promote the language, culture, and history of the Anishinaabeg” and “provide technological opportunities and experiences, preparing students for the future.”

The college’s GIS program provides some of these opportunities. GIS is a set of computer technologies and concepts that applies geography to solve problems in a wide variety of fields, including civil engineering, environmental science, forestry and wildlife management, geoscience, agronomy and soil science, epidemiology, disaster management, human services, and web-programming (ESRI, 2019). As a cross-cutting discipline, GIS effectively introduces the technology, problem solving, and research skills that undergird STEM. At its most user friendly, GIS involves the use of map-based web applications such as ArcGIS Story Maps to create shareable content. More powerful desktop GIS applications provide map design and data analysis tools through a graphic interface. At its highest skill level, GIS involves scripting and programming for custom processing jobs and application development. Students must learn attendant skills and concepts, including critical and computational thinking skills, geographic coordinate systems and projections, data models, spatial topology, data processing workflows, spatial and statistical analyses, and cartographic design to effectively use GIS tools (DiBiase et al, 2006). The skills learned through GIS education are thus easily transferrable to other research, engineering, and technology fields (Baker, 2012).

The GIS program at FDLTCC offers an Associate of Science degree for students wishing to pursue a career in GIS and a five-course certificate for those seeking to apply GIS skills to other fields. Both center on core courses that form the backbone of the STEM pipeline (Figure 1). Four of the five certificate courses are also required for the college’s environmental science associate’s degree program. The certificate provides employable skills for students in other major programs, including electric utility technology, human services, law enforcement, and nursing. Certificate courses are offered in two semester blocks with introductory GIS-methods courses offered every fall semester and intermediate-level, application-focused courses offered every spring. The full associate’s degree in GIS requires additional courses. An internship or undergraduate research project is required as a capstone experience for the degree and is available as an option to students seeking certificates.

Figure 1: The GIS-driven STEM pipeline at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College

PIPELINE COMPONENTS

The “Introduction to GIS” and “remote Sensing of the Environment” courses serve as fall-semester entry points to the STEM pipeline, introducing GIS-software tools along with basic geospatial data and analysis concepts through readings, lectures, and hands-on lab assignments. The “Using Global Positioning System” course adds a basic introduction to GPS technology and recording and finding waypoints. Fall semester is also a time of recruitment and activity for the GIS Users’ Club, an extracurricular student organization that engages in GIS-related activities such as geocaching, orienteering, and small mapping projects. In early October, preceding the statewide GIS Consortium conference, the club sponsors a campus-wide lunch with practice presentations by advanced students planning to present their work at the conference. The club also sponsors a spring trip to visit local GIS employers, allowing students to see how industry professionals use what they are learning in school.

Students who have completed “Introduction to GIS” are eligible to participate in the second major pipeline component, consisting of work-study jobs doing mapping and data management projects in partnership with the Fond du Lac Band’s resource Management Division. Up to four paid work-study positions are funded by NASA’s Center for Applied Atmospheric Research and Education (CAARE), a partnership among FDLTCC, San Jose State University, the University of Alabama at Huntsville, the Universities Space research Association, and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Ames research Center. CAARE, in turn, is funded by a NASA Minority University research and Education Project Institutional research Opportunity grant. The work-study jobs give students real-world experience using GIS to further the natural resource management goals of the Fond du Lac Band. Since 2017, work-study projects have included the visualization of data from in situ air quality monitoring, the design of a multi-tribal spatial database for environmental mercury observations, and the creation of a unified database of invasive species survey data.

Students who have completed the “Introduction to GIS” course can also enroll in the spring “GIS Applications” course, which includes a semester-long project designed by each student from initial brainstorming to the final product. Students can create their own research question or product goal, or take on a project solicited by a real-world client. The “Cartography and Visualization” course, also offered in spring, focuses on the cultural power of maps and develops design skills for effectively communicating geospatial information. Students complete mapping assignments on real-world scenarios and a final project on a topic of their choice.

The projects chosen by students for their spring courses can be extended as the basis of a summer undergraduate research experience, the fourth and final component of the STEM pipeline. Our CAARE partnership provides two paid, 10-week summer internships per year for qualified FDLTCC students at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Under the mentorship of NASA scientists and through the use of NASA datasets, students develop their preliminary class projects into publishable scientific results. CAARE also provides funding for students who have completed an internship to present their work at professional conferences. Students may alternatively complete an on-campus, independent research project or an internship with a local employer.

RESULTS AND PROSPECTS

Since the fall of 2017, six FDLTCC students have participated in GIS work-study projects, two completed NASA summer internships, and another completed an on-campus independent research project. Of the six work-study participants, four graduated from FDLTCC (three with a GIS certificate), one transferred out, and one will continue at FDLTCC during the 2019–2020 academic year. Both students who completed NASA internships have transferred to four-year institutions and plan to attend graduate school. The student who completed an independent research project hopes to graduate this spring.

The number of students in FDLTCC’s GIS program has increased during the 2019–2020 school year with over a dozen students each in the fall offerings of “Introduction to GIS” and “remote Sensing of the Environment.” Four new certificate-seeking students, plus one returning GIS major, have been active in the GIS Users’ Club so far this fall. While students in the program have not been formally surveyed as to their reasons for taking GIS courses, anecdotally there seems to be growing interest in the opportunities for research and career skills afforded by them. Provided there is continued funding for work-study positions and internships, the GIS–STEM pipeline will be further promoted to recruit and train FDLTCC students while conducting real-world research to address local needs. Whether focused on GIS or other STEM fields of inquiry, the pipeline framework may serve as a holistic model for developing STEM capacity at other tribal institutions.

Carl M. Sack, PhD, is faculty at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College.

REFERENCES

Allen-ramdial, S.A., & Campbell, A.G. (2014). Reimagining the Pipeline: Advancing STEM Diversity, Persistence, and Success. BioScience, 64(7), 612–618.

Baker, T. (Ed.). (2012). Advancing STEM Education with GIS. retrieved from https://www.esri.com/content/dam/esrisites/en-us/industries/education/assets/advancing-stem-education-with-gis-2019upload.pdf Boyer, P. (2014, October). Tribal Colleges as STEM Leaders. Native Science Report. Retrieved from https://nativesciencereport.org/2014/10/tribal-colleges-as-stem-leaders/

DiBiase, D., et al. (Eds.). (2006). Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge (1st ed). Washington, DC: Association of American Geographers.

ESRI. (2019). What Is GIS? retrieved from https://www.esri.com/en-us/what-is-gis/overview

Fayer, S., Lacey, A., & Watson, A. (2017). STEM Occupations: Past, Present, and Future. retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2017/science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics-stem-occupations-past-present-andfuture/ pdf/science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics-stem-occupations- past-present-and-future.pdf