We hope you all have a great summer!

Reminder that the first day of school is Wednesday August 22, 2018!

First day of Pre School is Tuesday September 4, 2018!

Coming up during the last half of the summer thanks to the Native Village of Napaimute,

The George River Internship (GRI)

When: July 20 – July 28, 2018

Project Objectives:

1. Enlist 10 Advanced Interns annually to conduct assessments
2. Collect physical and biological data to establish baseline conditions
3. Provide experience at fisheries assessment projects (not just weirs)

Students applying to participate in the internship should be highly motivated individuals who are interested in learning more about the area’s natural resources. Students will be involved in assisting biologists with counting salmon, sampling fish for biological data, collecting habitat information, and completing a curriculum of learning activities ranging from fish dissections to analyzing fisheries data. Students will spend seven days at the remote field camps of the George River as well as the George River Weir.  Students will spend 5 days floating the George River as well setting up 5 more stations along the way.  The interns’ travel to and from the project site and room and board will be paid. The intern will also receive a $500 stipend after successful completion of the program. Interns must complete the written curriculum before the stipend will be paid.  Also High School Students can earn 0.5 credits in River Systems Ecology.

Qualifications

• Participants must be between 14-19 years of age

• Participants should be a resident of one of the Kuspuk villages but applications from other villages will be considered

• Participants must have completed 2 prior Math Science Expeditions on the Salmon / Aniak River.  Also must be recommended by MSE Staff

• Participants must have a mature attitude and good work ethic

• Participants must be motivated to complete all work and written assignments

Check out www.kuspuk.org/GRI

The Math and Science Expedition (MSE)

This centers on middle and senior high school students spending several days rafting down the Salmon and Aniak rivers in the company of several adults who engage students in a variety of math, science, and leadership activities. In recent years science and math activities have focused on conducting standardized surveys of the juvenile fish community at each campsite with the objective of assessing whether changes occur in the species composition as students progressed from subalpine headwaters where the narrow steep sided channel cuts through bedrock, to the mainstream Aniak River with a broad flood plain of braided channels lined with tall spruce and poplar trees and abundant in-channel large woody debris. At the end of the float trip each student leaves with a data set that includes speciated catches from replicate samples at each camp site coupled with paired fish length and weight measurements. Adult mentors follow-up to encourage students to use their data set in developing science fair projects.  The MSE is being presented here as a model that could be adapted at other schools to use citizen science as a means to increase research and monitoring capacity.  Students can earn 0.5 credits in "Introduction to Fish Biology."

When: August 10 – August 20, 2018

 What: Instruction and assessment

• Science (Fisheries Science / Biology / Safety / Wilderness First Aid)
• Math (measurement /Rates / Statistics / Graphing)
• Writing (Journaling / Reflection)
• Personal / Social / Service Learning - Leadership, team building,peer mediation, personal & team goal setting, independent living skills)
• Career & Technical Education - Employability Skills, Teamwork Skills
• Credits - 0.5 credits in "Introducton to Fish Biology" and 0.25 credits in "Team Building"

Who: 30-33 students / 7 facilitators

Check out www.kuspuk.org/MSE