Math in a Cultural Context (MCC) is a long-term set of interrelated sponsored research, funded by the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Education and by support from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Math in a Cultural Context is a rather extraordinary three decades-long collaboration of educators, Yup’ik elders and teachers, mathematicians and math educators, Alaskan school districts, and more recently includes Greenlandic Inuit, Sami, and Pacific Islander partners. We have had the privilege to learn together and understand how the underlying principles that support everyday practical knowledge can inform teaching and learning in a school context. Central to MCC is its long-term collaboration with Yup’ik elders, teachers, and academics that developed into a vibrant learning community. We are deeply inspired by the steadfast support of so many elders who shared their knowledge. Alaskan school districts and teachers opened their classrooms to MCC as we developed, tested, and revised our materials and pedagogical approach.

Pilot and TV Personality Ariel Tweto shares advice on the importance of seeking out new experiences through traveling, working hard, and meeting people of different backgrounds.

This video adapted from KTOO explores the impact of oil contamination on the herring population of Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1999, 10 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

This video segment adapted from NOVA follows the clean-up effort after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska. Also featured is a marsh where an oil spill occurred 20 years earlier; analysis suggests that environmental damage may last for decades.

This video, adapted from material provided by the ECHO partners, illustrates how Native people preserve history and tradition through art, music, and dance.

This article assembles free resources from the Peoples of the Arctic issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine into a unit outline based on the 5E learning cycle framework. Outlines are provided for Grades K-2 and 3-5.

As the number of ice-free days in the seas surrounding Alaska increases over time, so do opportunities. Oil and gas companies are ramping up offshore exploration and drilling in the Arctic and the shipping industry is increasing traffic around and through the region. As a result, Arctic residents may have new opportunities for jobs and development across the region. There’s also a downside to the increased activity. Oil and gas extraction operations occasionally have accidents—events that can result in massive oil spills.

Rising seas and coastal erosion are eating away at the barrier island on which the Alaska Native Village of Kivalina rests. Residents and others are making concerted efforts to move the community to safety.

This National Park Service website offers links to a variety of articles about the history and politics of Alaska. Users can download PDF articles about World War II in Alaska, the Alaska Goldrush, and national historic places. The site also features links to educational resources such as teachers' guides to teaching about historic places and culture.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Rising sea levels are the catastrophic image of global warming But the threat of melting ice at high latitudes goes much deeper Locked within the frozen soil in these regions are vast pools of prehistoric carbon Once freed, this carbon has the potential to accelerate the current rate at which the earth is heating up thanks in large part to microbes in the soil A new study shows that 5 years’ worth of warming is enough to seriously alter communities of bacteria priming them to convert newly thawed carbon into greenhouse gases like methane Experiments in Alaska revealed dramatic changes to the composition and functional structure of microbial communities which suggested an evolving sensitivity to warming over time The findings contrast those obtained from a similar experiment conducted over only 1..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This is a short lesson of some of the significant historical events and national personalities who shaped Southeastern Alaska. Additionally, learners will explore the rich heritage of the Southeastern Native Alaska Tlingit-Haida culture.

Note: This work is licensed CC-BY-SA unless a resource is licensed differently. Original authors still hold their own copyrights.

Homer, Alaska, has been taking action to reduce climate change for almost a decade. As the ten-year anniversary of their first plan looms on the horizon, the community is engaging in conversations about adaptation.

This article provides a lesson plan that teaches elementary students to write poems about home using sensory language and imagery. Examples of student work are provided.

Students and community residents of four remote Alaskan villages measure environmental data to identify their climate vulnerabilities.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Mosses are ubiquitous in northern ecosystems. Their critical ecological roles include insulating soils, maintaining soil moisture, and mediating carbon and nitrogen cycles. Like all plants, mosses associate with microbes and some of them are key contributors to nitrogen dynamics through their nitrogen fixation functions. To better understand the importance of moss host species and environmental factors in structuring these microbial communities, researchers studied 26 boreal and tundra moss species across 24 sites in Alaska. They found that both host species and host evolutionary history predicted moss microbiome composition, and microbe nitrogen fixation rates also varied by host species. To a lesser extent, light availability and temperature also influenced the composition and function of moss microbes. Finally, they identified putative nitrogen-fixing bacteria specific to some moss hosts, including some outside well-studied cyanobacterial clades..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.