Grant will help American Indian students blast off in rocketry science
GREEN BAY — The Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and the College of Menominee Nation will use a $150,000 grant to engage American Indian undergraduates in challenging, NASA-inspired engineering and rocketry activities.
The grant, from the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, will create a national Tribal College Rocketry Consortium that will get American Indian students interested in aerospace science. The College of Menominee Nation, which has campuses in Keshena and Green Bay, is the host institution, with the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium acting as a partner.
The partnership will create a rocketry community within the tribal higher education community, providing challenging, NASA-related experience in a culturally-relevant environment.
“In many indigenous cultures, youth see no connection between themselves and space exploration,” said Prof. R. Aileen Yingst, director of the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium. “This project is a crucial tool in helping American Indian students see themselves at NASA or in other science fields. The Tribal College Rocketry Consortium will change students’ attitudes toward science itself, replacing a general negative attitude about space exploration with a positive one.”
The participation of the College of Menominee Nation’s Five Clans Rocket Team at Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium’s 2006 Rocket Competition was the spark that led to the development of the new national consortium.
Through Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium funding, the team constructed a rocket on the principle of sustainable development, a strength of the College’s curriculum. The rocket was constructed of 95 percent sustainable materials and finished fourth in the competition, earning the Director’s Award for Most Innovative Solution to the Engineering Problem.
Tribal students’ interest in the rocketry competition grew from there, and the consortium’s 2008 Rocket Competition saw three teams from the College of Menominee Nation compete.
The Tribal College Rocketry Consortium will build upon this success by expanding rocketry activities and opportunities to more College of Menominee Nation students and to a wider network of American Indian college students through the creation of a national network of tribal colleges, all dedicated to providing similar life-changing, academically challenging experiences to their students and communities.
The grant will provide funding for travel for face-to-face meetings with tribal college administrators, travel to American Indian Higher Education Consortium and American Indian Science and Engineering Society conferences, and for hosting workshops and rocket launches for student teams.
Organizers expect to connect with at least 10 other tribal colleges for participation in the consortium and to develop rocketry programs at them similar to the program at the College of Menominee Nation.
“The consortium is dedicated to providing American Indian students with confidence and experience in challenging aerospace activities,” Yingst said. “The long-term result will be more American Indians majoring in science, technology, engineering and math disciplines, thus feeding the needs of the nation, the state and NASA for a more diverse workforce.”
The one-year grant will provide start-up funds for the project, which should be self-sustaining after June 2010.
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