Explore and More: Supporting Research by Indigenous Youth

The Explore and More precollege program connects high school students with Oregon State University student mentors to co-develop creative research projects that address community needs using both Western and Indigenous sciences. This presentation will describe the formation of the program’s community partnerships and culturally responsive science education framework. It will also re-examine the definition of conservation science, exploring how the students in the program “walk between worlds” in their design of environmentally-connected projects, pursuing “conservation” in their own terms. Research on the program uses a qualitative case study design to make visible a sampling of the ways in which Indigenous youth envision and enact conservation science. Ultimately, we aim to make Indigenous students feel celebrated for their valuable perspectives and hope the field as a whole may grow to include more transdisciplinary connections and epistemological plurality.