By:
Sarah McDowell, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Maryville College
Kat Gardner-Vandy, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Oklahoma State University
Stephanie Hathcock, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Oklahoma State University
Indigenous students may find that science education can be a discouraging experience. Science content often seems disconnected from their cultural beliefs, values, and heritage. The disconnection can create a sense of alienation, making it difficult for students to relate to or engage with the traditional classroom “science-as-taught” curriculum. As Michie, Hogue, and Rioux (2018) noted, this disconnect can leave students feeling that the “science-as-lived” in their communities is undervalued or ignored within the classroom. One promising approach to bridge this gap and improve student outcomes is incorporating Indigenous culture and ways of knowing into the STEM curriculum (Stowe et al., 2017).
As part of the Native Earth | Native Sky (NENS) program, we collaborate with Native Nation partners to co-create, test, and modify curricula designed to help Indigenous students see connections between their cultural knowledge and STEM concepts. Central to our approach is Place-Based Education (PBE), which builds upon local immersive experiences as a foundation of science (Stansbery et al., 2023) and the Two-Eyed Seeing (TES) framework, which encourages students to view the world through both Indigenous and Western scientific lenses (Bartlett et al., 2012). This framework allows for a deeper understanding by integrating both ways of knowing and seeing them as complementary rather than opposing viewpoints (Bartlett et al., 2012). One of the most effective applications of TES in our program has been through traditional Indigenous stories, which serve as a tool to engage students by linking cultural wisdom with scientific principles (Gardner-Vandy et al., 2025).
How the Curriculum Interweaves Indigenous Culture and Traditions with STEM Principles
The Hunter and the Alligator introduces science concepts to students using the lens of a traditional Choctaw story (Mould, 2004). In this story, a struggling hunter helps a dying alligator by carrying it to a pool of water despite the hunter’s fear of the alligator’s strength. Grateful, the alligator promises to make the hunter a great hunter in return. The alligator instructs the hunter to “greet” the young deer and does so, only using his bow and arrows on an old buck who is “ready to give itself to you” (Mould, 2004, p. 93), which will ensure his success and honor as a hunter. The hunter follows the alligator’s wisdom, becoming the greatest hunter in his village, and shares the wisdom of the alligator with others, leading the Choctaw people to become skilled deer hunters.
When cultural context is incorporated into lessons, students find greater relevance and deeper meaning in the material, allowing students to see science as something that connects to their heritage (Stowe et al., 2017). Two examples are lessons developed in collaboration with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma that use the traditional Choctaw stories The Hunter and the Alligator as a launch point to understand how energy moves through an ecosystem and Tvshka and Walo to explore the Earth-Sun system. This approach pairs a scientific context with engaging students’ imaginations, creating a powerful connection between science and Indigenous cultural narratives.
The Hunter and the Alligator lesson is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) middle school standard MS-LS2-3, where students “develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem” (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Students use the traditional story to anchor learning by creating food chains and later a food web representative of the Choctaw’s Mississippi homelands, where this story takes place. This alignment ensures that students are not only engaged but also meeting academic standards. Students examine the energy flow and discuss how changes, removal, or introduction of species populations might impact the ecosystem.
Students examine the role of the Hunter throughout the lesson, explaining how the Hunter’s actions and the Alligator’s advice might impact the ecosystem. At the conclusion, students will create a public service announcement describing how energy flows through an ecosystem and the impacts of potential disruptions or changes in that flow. Students are encouraged to consider which species are more crucial and why, what features make an ecosystem stable, and the importance of abiotic factors. This lesson builds upon students’ understanding of the environment and the role of particular species; by connecting to prior science understandings and student knowledge of local ecosystems, we encourage students to engage in science with their Indigenous eye and their western eye.
Like The Hunter and the Alligator, Tvshka and Walo introduce science concepts to students using the lens of a traditional story. Tυshka and Walo is a story about two brothers fascinated by the Sun’s journey across the sky daily. The boys’ adventure began in the ancestral homelands of the Choctaw Nation in modern-day Mississippi. According to the story, “Every morning they saw the Sun rise above the horizon, pass high overhead, and late in the day die in the west” (Mould, 2004, p. 81). At the age of four, the brothers embarked on a journey to discover where the Sun went when it “died” in the west. They followed the Sun’s path westward until they reached the “great expanse of water” (Mould, 2004, p. 82). By the time they reached the water, the brothers had matured into young men. The story then tells of their meeting with the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, who revealed the mysteries of the cosmos to them. After a conversation about their quest, the Sun called a buzzard to carry them home, flying through clouds and wind until they returned to their mother.
This traditional story forms the cultural context for a lesson plan focused on the Earth-Sun system. The lesson meets the NGSS standard for middle school students (MS-ESS1-1), which requires students to “develop and use a model of the Earth-Sun-Moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, and seasons” (NGSS Lead States, 2013). By linking this scientific content with Tvshka and Walo’s journey, students learn about the Earth-Sun system but also experience how Indigenous knowledge can help explain phenomena. Building the lesson around Tυshka and Walo allows students to explore and understand the cyclical movements of the Earth and Sun in a way that resonates with the students’ cultural understanding of the world, making abstract scientific concepts more relatable.
As part of the lesson, students are tasked with modeling the brothers’ journey. After exploring each scientific concept, students draw the path they believe Tvshka and Walo would have taken. They are encouraged to think critically and use the scientific knowledge they have gained to explain their reasoning. The goal is not for all students to arrive at the same conclusion, but for them to justify their paths based on the scientific principles they are learning. This iterative process allows students to refine their understanding of the Earth-Sun system (see photo), prompting students to reconsider and revise their earlier scientific assumptions. By the end of the lesson, we found that students often present the boys’ path entirely differently from how they did at the beginning, reflecting a deeper understanding of the science involved.
Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Science Instruction
NENS supports and promotes the importance of including Indigenous knowledge in science education – not as an add-on but as a meaningful part of students’ sensemaking. Indigenous knowledge systems are rooted in generations of careful observations, experiences, and deep relationships with land, water, and sky. By building a curriculum woven with Indigenous culture, we have observed strong student engagement in science and a renewed sense of cultural pride and inclusion among Indigenous students, reinforcing the importance of culturally relevant education. This approach reflects the belief that education should be a space where all students feel seen, valued, and empowered to learn in ways that honor their heritage and the broader scientific world.
Indigenous ways of knowing are inherently science-based knowledge systems, although they may not follow the same structures or language as Western science. By respectfully incorporating Indigenous traditional knowledge, educators offer students a more holistic and inclusive view of science that values multiple ways of knowing.
To do this well, educators acknowledge that Indigenous communities are diverse, and each Nation has its own teachings, stories, and ecological relationships. By partnering with local Indigenous knowledge keepers, educators can ensure that the knowledge shared in the classroom is accurate, place-based, and culturally appropriate. A practical way to begin this process is to include Indigenous approaches to land management in ecology lessons or discuss oral histories of natural events in earth science. Students might learn how Indigenous calendars align with seasonal plant and animal life changes or how traditional weather prediction may be based on careful observation of natural patterns.
Respectful integration also means using resources created by Indigenous educators and organizations and crediting the source of the knowledge. It involves moving away from generalized or tokenistic representations of Indigenous knowledge and embracing depth, context, and specificity. This approach also helps students see science as a dynamic field informed by many cultures. By exploring Indigenous and Western perspectives, students understand that science is not a single story – it is a braided river with channels filled with different ways of knowing. In honoring Indigenous knowledge within science education, teachers help build academically rich, culturally respectful, and inclusive classrooms. The result is deeper learning, stronger connections to place, and a greater appreciation for the diversity of human understanding.
Acknowledgment
Native Earth | Native Sky was funded by the NASA Science Activation program from January 2021 to March 2025 and is currently funded by Boeing.
![](https://aaas-arise.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/S.-McDowell.png")
Sarah McDowell, Assistant Professor, Maryville College
sarah.mcdowell@maryvillecollege.edu
![](https://aaas-arise.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/K-Garner-Vandy-e1748977769342.png")
Kat Gardner-Vandy, Assistant Professor, Oklahoma State University
kat.gardner-vandy@okstate.edu
Kat Gardner-Vandy (citizen of Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) is an Assistant Professor of Aviation and Space in the School of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Aviation. She is a geologist, planetary scientist, and private pilot. Dr. Gardner-Vandy is the Principal Investigator of the Native Earth | Native Sky program and the President-Elect of the OSU Native American Faculty and Staff Association. She was named a Native American 40 Under 40 by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development in 2022. Her research interests include STEM curriculum development with Native American nations, student pilot training, pilot weather data collection, meteoritics, cosmochemistry, and experimental petrology.
![](https://aaas-arise.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/S-Hathcock-e1748978269194.png")
Stephanie Hathcock, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Oklahoma State University
stephanie.hathcock@okstate.edu
Stephanie Hathcock is an Associate Professor of Science Education at Oklahoma State University. Her work focuses on the study of change in science education and its ripple effect from teachers to students. Her research agenda is influenced by place as a key starting point for change and creativity as a necessary component and byproduct of change. Dr. Hathcock began her teaching career in 2001 as a 6th grade science teacher in Arkansas. Her public school teaching career included working with each grade level from K to 8th grade in both suburban and urban communities. Dr. Hathcock now works with elementary preservice teachers and science education graduate students.
