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Making connections for Indian education

December 7, 2008 /

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“Not a lot of Native Americans are going into the hard sciences,” said Diane Friend, a University of Montana astronomy professor and part of BSSP. “That shouldn’t be the case. In K-8 classrooms, we should be exciting everybody.”

It rains on the just and the unjust, and the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.

But in Arlee, prepare for rain during the July powwow.

That extra bit of local knowledge makes many of Ronda Howlett’s fifth-graders perk up when she’s teaching weather science at Arlee Elementary School. Many of them are Salish or Kootenai tribal members, and having a lesson lock into something from their own experience makes a big difference, she said.

“Kids always relate to what they already know first,” Howlett said. “And in the Arlee area, they almost definitely know that during the (July) powwow, it’s going to rain.”

By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/articles/2008/12/07/news/mtregional/news07.txt