Raising Educational Achievement through Cultural Heritage (REACHUp) News
ReachUp Hosts Final Culture Camp
In August, 2018, REACH Up held a culminating science and culture professional development workshop in a rustic camp setting several miles outside of Unalakleet, Alaska. This multi-day intensive camp featured a variety of science and Alaska Native cultural activities, including presentations and hands-on lessons on weather observation and measurements, and cold climate building science, REACH Up lesson and video viewing related to these topics, cultural knowledge activities such as ruff and mitten making, akutaq making, and storytelling on animal subsistence and history of the land.
REACH Up also conducted another site visit in Gambell and Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island in September, bringing an ocean acidification expert to the classroom and having meetings to discuss ocean change with community members.
Raising Educational Achievement through Cultural Heritage Up (REACH Up) develops place-based and culturally relevant supplementary STEM curricula and offers professional development support to teachers and paraprofessional educators in rural Alaska through workshops, courses and scientist site visits.
Most recently, the REACH Up team has been updating lessons with national science standards and revising videos so that teachers and students can continue to use up-to-date materials in the future.
Our curriculum development program is excited about the continuation of an existing successful project and starting a new project (see our TASK news page).