Elementary Education professor Irasema Ortega receives the 2012 Selkregg Community Engagement and Service Learning Award

Irasema Ortega, assistant professor of Science Education in the UAA College of Education, is the recipient of the 2012 Selkregg Community Engagement and Service Learning Award.

This year's Selkregg project, The Will of the Ancestors: A Framework for Culturally Responsive Science, seeks to strengthen an existing partnership between the Kashunamiut School District in Chevak, Alaska and the College of Education. Ortega wrote, "Currently, there is a need to prepare, support and retain Alaska Native teachers to effectively support the academic preparation of students in rural Alaska. This entails fostering the transmission of native language, culture and indigenous science knowledge and traditions." Ortega will train Alaska Native teachers to teach science from Native and Western perspectives, including knowledge of the elders and promoting a more harmonious, sustainable view of the natural world. Ortega is very thankful to the Selkregg family and the Selkregg Award for supporting the collaborative science curriculum writing project with in-service teachers from the Kashunamiut School District.

Visit the Center for Community Engagement and Learning (CCEL) website for more information about the Selkregg Award and other opportunities available through CCEL.