by Julie Dodd
Congratulations to the team of Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) employees who received the 2023 Excellence in Education Award for creating a curriculum project that integrates Cherokee culture and traditional ecological knowledge with park themes.
The team was recognized at the National Park Service Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C., in August 2024.
Following the ceremony, team members were photographed at the National Mall, and that photograph is at the top of this story. Recipients (from left to right) are: Malia Crowe, Natrieifia Miller, Kaylyn Barnes, Callia Johnson, Susan Sachs, Beth Wright, and Kahawis. The photograph was taken by Laurel Rematore of Smokies Life.
As part of the team’s acceptance presentation at the awards event, GSMNP Education Branch Coordinator Susan Sachs thanked the “generous funders” of the curriculum project – Cherokee Preservation Foundation, National Park Foundation, Friends of the Smokies (FOTS) and Smokies Life.
Curriculum based on collaboration
Park staff and educators from Cherokee and other middle schools co-created “Seeking Paths in Nature” (SPiN), which began in 2014 and has expanded its outreach over the years.
SPiN was created to address a desire of the Cherokee community to provide an opportunity for non-tribal students in the region to gain a deeper understanding of the culture of their Cherokee neighbors. The project and resulting classroom units are an active way to acknowledge the park’s location within the traditional homelands of the Aniyuwiya (Cherokee).
The classroom units and activities were designed through the collaboration and coordination of middle school teachers at several school districts, cultural experts and members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and National Park Service staff.
The collaboration ensured the curriculum meets educational standards, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) requirements, and appropriately incorporate Cherokee culture. All the SPiN programs meet the North Carolina Essential Standards.
Teachers at 42 public schools throughout a portion of the traditional homelands of the Cherokee in Western North Carolina receive the classroom units after attending a 4-hour training workshop led by park education staff.
A training will be held on December 6, 2024, at NCCAT (North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching) for any Western North Carolina Middle School that hasn’t yet received the SPiN curriculum.
Cherokee culture incorporated into hands-on activities
The curriculum includes six classroom units that illustrate how the Cherokee have used science throughout their history.
Through the units, students learn how to use observation to improve their understanding of interactions in nature and then use art, stories, and other creative endeavors to share their observations. Each unit culminates in ideas for additional lessons to offer student the opportunity to extend their learning and their impact in their communities.
One SPiN unit is centered around Rivercane, a traditional plant for the Cherokee. The students learn about the plant and its restoration through a mapping activity. The unit includes a physics lesson as students learn how Rivercane was used as a blowgun hunting tool.
The “Genetics of Selu” unit teaches students about Selu, the Cherokee mother of corn, and corn. The unit includes a genetics exercise to enable students to examine generations of traditional corn that has both blue and yellow kernels.
Funding from Friends of the Smokies through a Cherokee Preservation Foundation grant has helped purchase materials included in the curriculum’s teaching kits, including the special corn and materials for creating the blowguns. The funding also is used to provide substitute teacher stipends so teachers can attend their training.
Sachs said that the activities have been so successful with students that the curriculum supervisor at Cherokee Central Schools has been using them as a model for teachers in elementary and high school on how to embed Cherokee culture into standards-based education.
Curriculum Team Members
NPS employees who helped create and implement the SPiN project include: Kaylyn Barnes, Callia Johnson, Kahawis, Erin Lamm, Jessica Metz, Natrieifia Miller, Susan Sachs, Malia Crowe Skulski, Kristina Virgil and Beth Wright.
External team members include: Jessica Metz, Science teacher at New Kituwah Academy; Joel Creasman, Principal, Cherokee Middle School; Beth Bramhall, Visual Information Specialist, US Forest Service; Rhonda Wise, Zone Partnership Coordinator, US Forest Service; Tinker Jenks, Senior Program Manager, Cherokee Preservation Foundation; and Laura Pinnix and Marie Junaluska, Cherokee Speakers Council members.
The award was dedicated posthumously to Julie Townsend, who served as SPiN Project Coordinator from 2015 to 2019.
Information about the 2023 award winners, including a video of the GSMNP team, is posted on the NPS website.