Student Organization Helps High School Students Explore Science and Engineering

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The members of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society

The University of Arkansas chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society has received a mini-grant from the National Science Foundation. This grant will support a project to raise awareness and increase interest in geoscience fields among Native American students at Sequoyah High School in Tahlequah, Okla.

The AISES students are organizing a competition in which teams of high school students look at land-use change using Google Earth tools. Each team will study the land-use change in a specific area of the country and will produce a pamphlet that highlights the changes and the environmental implications.

Megan Dunn, the regional representative for AISES and a chemical engineering major at the University of Arkansas, explained why understanding land use is important for Native American communities. “A lot of native communities are subsistence farmers, so they rely on the land,” she said. “Things like water and vegetation are affected by sprawl. We are going to have the students draw attention to that.”

Dunn, who is a member of the Cherokee tribe, is eager to expose other Native American students to science and engineering — her favorite subjects — and hopes to provide them with the same kind of motivation and support that has allowed her to be a successful engineering student. “I’ve had a really good experience with engineering. It’s opened a lot of doors,” she explained.

For some of the high school students AISES interacts with, college may seem like an unrealistic goal, and Dunn knows that interactions with student mentors can change that. “It’s really cool to see these students get excited about something,” she said. “Mentors are really good examples. It gives them somebody they can talk to so they don’t feel intimidated.”

The AISES student chapter involved in this project includes Elizabeth Ashley, Shawn Belcher, Amanda Compean, Gabrielle Compton,  Katelin Cherry, Sydney Dickson, Kathryn Dunn, Zachary Eldridge, Spencer Foust, Zhana Gentle, Bethany Gregory, Zachary Jones, Ezekiel Kindle, Taylor Martin, Thomas Potts, Mallory Scheurer, Derek Williams and Joe Wyatt.