Dillingham to host Western Alaska science conference

KYLE VONBOSE

March 28, 2008 at 9:26AM AKST

Science, innovation and education will be the focus throughout the Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference and Forum taking place April 3-6 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Bristol Bay Campus in Dillingham.

Scientists, engineers and technologists from all across the state will meet to discuss energy, mining, fisheries, ecology, watershed conservation, water quality, subsistence and traditional knowledge, as well as math and science education and waste disposal.'a0

Keynote speakers Ray Barnhardt and Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley will address ways to integrate Alaska Native tradition with modern teaching.

Kawagley was born in Bethel, then called Mamterilleq, where he was raised by a grandmother who encouraged his obtaining a Western education, along with the education he received as a Yup’ik child in the camps along the rivers of Southwest Alaska.

Although this created conflicting values and caused confusion for him for many years, he feels he has come full circle and is now researching to find ways in which his Yup’ik peoples’ language and culture can be used in the classroom to meld the modern ways to the Yup’ik world.

Along the way, he has completed four university degrees, including a Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia. He recently retired as an associate professor of education at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Ray Barnhardt is a professor of cross-cultural studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he has been involved in teaching and research related to Alaska Native education issues since 1970.

Over the past 35 years, he has served as the director of the Cross-Cultural Education Development Program, the Small High Schools Project, the Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative and the Alaska Native Knowledge Network.

His research interests include indigenous knowledge systems, Alaska Native teacher education, distance/distributed/higher education, small school curriculum and institutional adaptations to rural and cross-cultural settings.

His experiences in education beyond Alaska range from teaching mathematics in Baltimore, Md., to research in Canada, Iceland, India, Malawi, Zimbabwe and New Zealand.

Invited to give plenary sessions are Ken Belcher, associate professor in the department of Bioresource Policy, Business and Economics at the University of Saskatchewan, and James P. Barufaldi, director of the Center for Science and Mathematics Education at the University of Texas at Austin.

Belcher will speak on "Ecosystem Goods and Services: Economic Interpretation for Conservation and Development." His research focuses on renewable resource economics and ecological economics.

Barufaldi will speak on "Using Best Practice to Enhance Science Literacy among Students." He has authored or co-authored more than 60 articles, books, chapters and book reviews and has presented more than 300 workshops, papers and seminars.

The conference is the culmination of much planning by local Bristol Bay Campus professor Todd Radenbaugh, who will discuss the urgency and need for more energy choices in Bristol Bay.

Kyle von Bose can be reached at (907) 348-2438 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 438.