This multi-year project supported an international research interchange between students of three indigenous regions -  the ecologically minimalist North Slope of Alaska (Iñupiaq); the mega bio diverse Sierra Juárez of Oaxaca (Zapotec); and the Patzcuaro region of Michoacán (Purehépecha) – between 2008 and 2011. Additional time facilitated the completion of a student-produced film about the project which was first shown in public in 2014.

The project offered students hands on experiences with university as well as field-based scientific researchers, placed-based observation, language, and cultural processes in order to consider environmental processes in a holistic way. We provided potential young scientists with a unique learning opportunity to think beyond their local knowledge in an informed way. It introduced them to a variety of scientific approaches to environmental research, provided them with practical training in qualitative and quantitative research methods, and established international links between young members of indigenous communities with responsibilities for maintaining environmentally sound development strategies.  Every week students had to think (and articulate those thoughts) individually; they had to work as groups to present mini research challenges; they had to consult libraries and elders as well as working scientists; and they had to try to communicate with others whose first language was not their own. Our first outcome is the successful completion of a very ambitious program which depended on multiple collaborations. While the National Science Foundation provided the lion’s share of support, we would not have been able to put together this program without the active support of Ilisagvik College, BASC, the Barrow Rotary Club (who supported Spanish language training every year that students went to Mexico); University of Alaska, Fairbanks (in particular boreal ecologist Glenn Juday), CECYTE (Oaxaca), the University of the Sierra Juarez, COBACH (Michoacan); the communal authorities of Ixtlan de Juarez, Oaxaca and Nuevo San Juan, Michoacan and local families who provided hospitality.  We are profoundly grateful to them all. We are also happy to say that over the life of the project, we suffered not a single drop-out, despite the fact that many students felt very homesick.

Broader impact: According to parents, teachers, and the students themselves, these experiences were felt to be transformative. We are pleased to report that 10 years after our initial pilot project, many students maintain international contacts with each other; significant numbers have gone on to university (well above the average for any of the participating regions), studying to completion  - among other subjects - engineering; biology; genetics, ecology; international relations; archaeology and anthropology; Iñupiaq studies, and law. One participant from the Iñupiaq community of Point Hope, Alaska  produced a brief film based on his two years’ experience with the project; it was first shown at an international education conference in Cambridge, UK in October, 2014 and has been archived at the Tuzzy Library in Barrow Alaska. A doctoral thesis in Environmental Education under the supervision of Dr. Laura Barraza will shortly be submitted at Deakin University. In subsequent developments, five students have taken part in a project (for which Bodenhorn is international liaison) with primary school students who are participating in field-based activities as well as virtual interchanges in Alaska, Oaxaca, and East Anglia (UK) explicitly in order to share their experiences and knowledge with these younger scholars. Barraza is beginning to organise further comparative experiences incorporating Australian indigenous communities (see Barraza et al 2013) and Bodenhorn...

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