Abstract
This article presents a framework to design lesson plans for elementary science teachers using insights from a summer-long research experience for teachers (RET) workshop (National Science Foundation Citation2021) to learn strategies to weave ISK (and WMS) into environmental science curriculum and instruction. While ISK has also led to technologies that optimize agriculture, stewardship of the land, and foraging and harvesting plants and animals, these activities should be implemented in sustainable reciprocity with the natural world, focusing on both conservation as well as preservation. Incorporating ISK to the elementary science curriculum will not only reconcile its historical absence but also helps to overcome 21st century challenges related to cultivating a sense of environmental stewardship and encouraging sustainable habits among youth as well as developing students' awareness of under-represented and diverse means of thinking about the natural world from ISK perspectives. This article, we explore ISK, WMS, and relationships therein and examine a framework to guide ISK lesson development in environmental science for an elementary audience that honors and amplifies the importance of ISK as intertwined with WMS standards and curricula. Further, one example lesson from the RET is provided on bison bone usage from the Apsalooké and other Plains Indian nations.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge program facilitators in the RET program at Montana State University, including Dr. Sweeney Windchief, Dr. Paul Gannon, Dr. Becky Hammack, Dr. Nick Lux, Ms. Suzi Taylor, and Dr. Abigail Richards. We would also like to acknowledge the teachers in the RET program, specifically Ms. Megan Brenna and Ms. Tori Prall for the use of their shared (and adapted for this article) lesson plan.
Supplemental Resources
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00368148.2024.2315672.
Sample 5E Lesson Plan
Online resources
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Linda Rost
Linda Rost is a science teacher at Baker High School in Baker, Montana. Rebecca Hite ([email protected]) and Gina Childers are professors at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. Sweeney Windchief is a professor at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana.