Amelia Cook doesn’t remember a time when she wasn’t interested in science. Some of her earliest memories involve exploring the dry creek beds of Murray County with her father and talking to the bobwhite quail, wondering if they would talk back. This love of nature, coupled with her Chickasaw identity, affects the way she looks at science as she works to integrate First American perspectives into environmental education.
Cook didn’t always want to be a teacher. When she first went to college at Oklahoma State University (OSU), she planned on being a doctor. She was always good at science, and her high school counselor suggested that she would make a great doctor, so she decided to study pre-med. She excelled in her classes, but, as a first-generation college student, she never felt like she belonged. She decided to take a break before applying for medical school and went back home to Davis. Life moved along. She started a family, took care of her ailing mom and eventually moved to Norman after taking classes in the evening at the University of Oklahoma (OU) to see if she wanted to pursue a science education degree.
“OU has an important history in the contributions to science education,” Cook said.
Her mentor at OU, Edmund Marek, had been a student of Jack Renner in the 1970s, and Renner’s work changed the way people think about teaching science by focusing on inquiry-based learning. It was a change in the traditional methodology. Instead of students listening to lectures and memorizing information, this approach was much more hands-on, encouraging students to ask questions, engage their curiosity and explore their world, much like Cook had done as a child when she first developed her love of science.
Cook finished her master’s in science education in 2017 and started teaching at Norman High School. However, while studying at OU, she had the opportunity to intern at the South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC), working with the Tribal Engagement Program and youth outreach efforts.
“This work changed my perspective on science, teaching and community,” Cook said. “I developed a virtual science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) activity for a tribal summer camp, and as I was designing this learning activity, I really started questioning how we communicate about science and make collective decisions.”
This experience led her to pursue her doctorate in science education at OU in 2020 and add a focus to her program through the Native American Studies department.
Cook is currently finishing her dissertation, while also acting as the tribal liaison for CASC and the Chickasaw Nation Sustainability Science Manager for the Chickasaw Nation Department of Commerce’s Office of Land Sustainability and Services.
The work Cook is doing in science education takes the inquiry-based method a step further, infusing it with First American perspectives. She is currently working on a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for the Chickasaw Nation. The grant funded program, “Kinship for Climate: Shaping Resilient Futures,” is a partnership between the OU School of Meteorology, the department of planning and design at the University of New Mexico and the Chickasaw Nation.
For this four-year grant, nine college students from Oklahoma and New Mexico began their involvement with an eight-week research program. This group of students will be involved for two years, and in 2027, a second group of students will have the same opportunity. The goal of the program was to increase personal climate literacy in their respective communities. Instead of these students telling their community about the problems related to climate change, they became resources for their community and facilitated a community-led adaptation project that’s related to climate.
“Our students were engaged with their communities over the summer, asking questions,” Cook said. “What does my community know about changes in weather patterns and climate? What do they want to know? What are they concerned about? But we also don’t lead with the words ‘climate change.’ We use Indigenous methods to learn the stories of their lands. So, what are the voices of the land? What is water telling us? What are the significant plants telling us? And to hear their stories of change, you realize the community is concerned about climate adaptation, even though they may not say that.”
These conversations led to different projects for different students. One focused on bison restoration and how it would impact grassland ecosystems while another was looking at pollinator habitats and local plants within their community. Cook is excited to see what the students will accomplish in the final year of the program after working closely with their communities to find community-based solutions to their problems and concerns.
The First American approach to environmental science that Cook champions goes beyond the work being done with the NSF grant. It is also being used by the Chickasaw Nation Department of Commerce’s Office of Land Sustainability and Services in other projects as well, including a tree planting at Oka’ Yanahli.
Jennie Mosely, Chickasaw Nation Department of Commerce Director of Land Sustainability and Services, applied for a grant from the Oklahoma Forestry Services to plant 25 trees at the Oka’ Yanahli preserve on the Blue River to help with carbon conservation and climate mitigation. But in addition to the scientific reasons, the project is also important to Chickasaw heritage and tradition.
The site, located on the Blue River and less than a mile from Seeley Chapel, is significant, but it can also be a place where people can gather in the shade of the branches. All the trees are native to the area, and markers denote the Chickasaw name for each tree. Children from the Chickasaw Nation Head Start Program in Tishomingo helped plant the trees.
“We are making sure that we sustain the land and get back to traditional ecological knowledge and see how our land practices go back to how our ancestors managed land,” Mosely stated. “First Americans were our first true land stewards, and going back to those traditional ways can show our younger generations how to manage land.”
The work that Cook is performing strives to focus environmental education efforts within a First American framework while also utilizing the principle of seventh generation thinking.
“You don’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’ve come from,” Cook said. “Seven generations ago, decisions were made so that I would have the opportunities that I have now. And what am I doing now to help the next seven generations?”
Seven generations from now the trees at Oka’ Yanahli will be big and strong and the work of the scholars under the NSF grant can affect far-reaching and long-lasting change.
Just as the inquiry-based approach changed science education, Cook is taking the next step, centering education within a First American perspective, which has the potential for a significant impact in our world, and it is work that Cook is passionate about.
“I am truly blessed to collaborate with Indigenous communities to co-create educational spaces that center Indigenous futures, emphasizing participatory and intergenerational approaches to science education and research that sustain communities and support education for the seventh generation,” she said.