Faculty from NDSU and the University of North Dakota are being sought to participate in the 2011-12 activities of NATURE (Nurturing American Tribal Undergraduate Research and Education).

NATURE is an educational outreach designed to attract and retain North Dakota American Indian college and high school students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degree programs. The activities focus on environment, energy and emerging technologies relevant to the reservations and include a summer camp at NDSU for tribal college students and faculty, summer camps at the tribal colleges for high school students, academic-year Sunday academies at the tribal colleges for high school students, and a collaborative research co-mentoring program for tribal college students.

The summer camp at NDSU is scheduled for June 6-17. In the camp, the tribal college and university faculty and reservation high school teachers collaboratively develop all activities for high school summer camps and Sunday Academy. In the research co-mentoring program, tribal college students work on semester or yearlong research projects at their campuses with the guidance of tribal college and university co-mentors. Rather than discovery, imparting research skills is the focus. Other than a modest monetary compensation, NATURE provides excellent opportunities for participating faculty to gain an understanding of cultural sensitivity, particularly in relation to the American Indian culture and learning styles of American Indian students.

NATURE is funded by the North Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. Visit www.ndsu.edu/epscor/NATURE/index.html to learn more.

Faculty interested in NATURE and research mentoring should contact G. Padmanabhan at g.padmanabhan@ndsu.edu or 1-7043. Individuals interested in summer camp should contact Robert Pieri at robert.pieri@ndsu.edu or 1-8673, and faculty interested in Sunday Academy should contact Chad Ulven at chad.ulven@ndsu.edu or 1-5641.