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Computer science (CS) teachers are still learning how to enact culturally-sustaining/revitalizing CS education for Indigenous students. In response, elementary teachers on the Wind River Reservation, a professional development provider, researchers, and the Wyoming Department of Education formed a researcher-practitioner collaborative to implement and study the implementation of culturally- sustaining/revitalizing CS lessons using design-based implementation research (DBIR) practices. Researchers collected data via interviews, reflection forms, and observations. Findings indicated that teachers used students’ funds of knowledge to support engagement and expanded lessons to reflect Indigenous priorities of language revitalization and Tribal sovereignty. Creating culturally-sustaining/revitalizing CS education was a collective activity, drawing on interdependence of teachers and students. 

Three Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone–serving districts formed a researcher–practitioner partnership with the Wyoming Department of Education, the American Institutes for Research®, and BootUp Professional Development to advance the computer science (CS) education of their elementary students in ways that strengthen their Indigenous identities and knowledges. In this paper, we share experiences from 2019 to 2022 with our curriculum development, professional development (PD), and classroom implementation. The researcher–practitioner partnership developed student and teacher materials to support elementary CS lessons aligned to Wyoming’s CS standards and “Indian Education for All” social studies standards. Indigenous community members served as experts to codesign culturally relevant resources. Teachers explored the curriculum resources during three 4-hour virtual and in-person PD sessions. The sessions were designed to position the teachers as designers of CS projects they eventually implemented in their classrooms. Projects completed by students included simulated interviews with Indigenous heroes and animations of students introducing themselves in their Native languages. Teachers described several positive effects of the Scratch lessons on students, including high engagement, increased confidence, and successful application of several CS concepts. The teachers also provided enthusiastic positive reviews of the ways the CS lessons allowed students to explore their Indigenous identities while preparing to productively use technology in their futures. The Wind River Elementary CS Collaborative is one model for how a researcher–practitioner partnership can utilize diverse forms of expertise, ways of knowing, and Indigenous language to engage in curriculum design, PD, and classroom implementation that supports culturally sustaining CS pedagogies in Indigenous communities. 

The development of inverse vulcanization has provided a simple method to create sulfur-based materials. The low cost, ease of synthesis, and variety of applications has led to a rapid expansion of the field. These polysulfides can be synthesized with a wide range of sulfur contents (20-90% S) depending on the desired properties. Garlic essential oil (GEO) has a high sulfur content, which offers the opportunity to replace sulfur, a petroleum byproduct, with a renewable monomer to make materials with moderate sulfur contents. Using a one-pot, solvent-free synthesis, comparable to inverse vulcanization, GEO can be polymerized to create renewable adhesives at temperatures as low as 120 °C with reaction times decreasing at higher temperatures. Here we have explored the composition of garlic oil from a variety of commercial suppliers by NMR. Through simple 1H NMR analysis, the major sulfur-containing compounds of GEO can be identified and differentiated by sulfur rank. These data were used to select garlic oils with varied compositions to examine the impact on the poly(GEO) properties using solubility, gel permeation chromatography, differential scanning calorimetry, and thermogravimetric analysis as well as adhesive performance. GEO was then subjected to different reaction times and temperatures and the degree of polymerization was monitored by 1H NMR. The polysulfides were then evaluated as adhesives at different extents of polymerization to better understand how the reaction conditions impact adhesive performance. The failure mode and mechanical properties of the polymers were analyzed using measurements of maximum adhesion strength and work of adhesion. This study has provided a better understanding of polymers formed from GEO, providing a viable route to developing renewable, S-based materials.