 I'm Professor of Physics and Mathematics at First Nations University. I'm going to talk about my project. It's called the Weissman Mathematics Contest. I initiated this contest 10 years ago, exactly in 2008. That was for grade 4 and 5 students of First Nations schools. Then we extended it to grade 6 as well. At the beginning the project was supported by NSERC, a Promo Science program. But now we continue the project. And within the project we provide some preparatory materials on mathematics to First Nations schools and math teachers across Canada from coast to coast. We started in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba, but now we have students from almost all provinces. This year we have from BC to Ontario. First we sent the preparatory materials. Then schools registered for the contest. And then we sent contests to teachers, math teachers. The students write the contest and then they send the contest to us. We grade those contests and then we send certificates for each student to receive the certificate of participation. After grading all contests we determined the winners, top winners, national winners. They received certificates for first place, second place and third place. All teachers who prepare students received certificates of appreciation. And we had one elder, Elder Chen Goodwill. He helped me a lot at the beginning when I started this project and I received his guidelines and blessings for the project. And eight years ago he passed away. And since that we've established the Memorial Award on his name. Elder Chen Goodwill Memorial Award. So now the schools receive those awards for the best performance. Not just the students but schools as well. And I can tell you that over these years, over ten years, we have thousands of students participated in this project. And I mean the kind of like map of the project. And you can see that almost from everywhere in Canada we have the schools participated in the project. Some teachers use materials for extracurricular activities. Actually that was the teacher's demand that we extended the age. At the beginning we had grade four and five. Then teachers asked us and we extended to grade six. Yeah, so yeah that's... And many institution scientific organizations they recognized the project. And we received, two years ago we received the award from ECE Saskatchewan. It's called the Regional Center of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development. This award was released by United Nations University. So that was in 2016. Even some politicians they recognized the project. I found some MPs they mentioned about our project. They found it very helpful for First Nations schools. Yeah, what is again I would say a two kind of uniqueness of this project. First of all this is the first mathematics contest specifically for First Nations schools. And before, I mean there are many mathematics contests in Canada and in North America. But this one is one, the first one specifically for First Nations schools. And what inspired me to do this contest is a... You know the many First Nations communities and schools as well are kind of like isolated. And this project built some network. And those schools, those students, teachers are connected around this contest. And there are traditionally schools they give the awards to students in ceremonies. They have kind of award ceremonies. And I try to participate every year in one community. I travel to communities and I meet the students. One student told me that he was great for a student. It was very touching. He said that you know I didn't know that there are so many... He didn't say First Nations or Indigenous. He said I didn't know that there are so many Indians writing mathematics. So you know, really because many of those communities, many of those students they never been outside of their communities. They don't know too much about other First Nations communities. And it's not a secret that our days we have many problems, many suicides, among those young Aboriginal people. And so one of the reasons is just that isolation. And I think this contest, this project helps. Maybe a little bit to break that isolation. So that's what the program is intended to do? Yeah, first of all, I joined the First Nations University 10 years ago, yeah. I don't attend more than 11 years ago. I received European education, kind of like Western type of education. I started doing some community projects. I started meeting Indigenous people, First Nations elders. And we had many discussions. I mentioned about the elder Ken Goodwill and many other elders. I communicated with them within my other projects, more research projects. And what I've noticed is the existence of two problems. Regarding the science, one problem is a delivery of, let's call that, Western science to Indigenous communities. And another problem, receiving, learning the Indigenous-based science, Indigenous knowledge-based science. So it has to be kind of like the two processes and we have to move towards each other. And this mathematics contest is kind of like one of the first steps for bringing the science to First Nations schools, to First Nations communities. And this is just one of the ways that we can bring that. Because again, it's not a secret that many communities, not only First Nations communities, I would say many rural communities, they have problems with communication, with the Internet, et cetera. They are kind of like isolated. And we try to bring this mathematics at least to First Nations schools. And not just in the way that they learn mathematics in schools, that's not a problem. But this is a little bit more competitive way, little bit different ideas, little bit different format. And it's very important that students, it's not just the mathematics that you learn in school, it's mathematics that you can become a winner. You can receive a certificate and you can be a top winner in Canada. So you can become a national leader. So those components, they are maybe secondary, but they came over these 10 years that they came to the project as well. But initially, of course, we try to bring a little bit different format of mathematics to schools. But I have to mention that we use all these materials, all these contest materials developed based on curriculum. Saskatchewan curriculum and we use some other provinces' curriculum. We don't go outside of the curriculum materials. Everything is within the curriculum, but maybe a little bit different format. So how do you measure the success of your program? As I mentioned, since we started this project 10 years ago, thousands of students, thousands of First Nations students, it's about 3,000, I would say, maybe even more students participated in this project. Every year we have approximately, from year to year, we change between 200 and 500 students. That's why I said about 3,000 students. We have, again, every year from 200 to 500 students participate in the project. And every year it's about tens of First Nations schools and from each school we have at least one, two or three math teachers, they receive the materials. So that's the, basically in mathematics, it's very easy to kind of like estimate that measure. It's basically a number of students participating in the project. And it's growing. We have a previous year, we never had a school from British Columbia. This year we have a student. So one school registered from British Columbia. Schools from three provinces are more active. Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. These are the most active. But again, one year we had a school from Nova Scotia. So we have that one. But more, again, as I mentioned, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, some years Alberta as well. So that's the, we try to extend that, the geography of the contest. So maybe I'll talk about that later. Okay. Do you have like some form of evaluation for the program? Like, do you get feedback? Oh yeah. They receive every year, I receive lots of comments from teachers mainly, even some parents. I receive them. I kind of like monitor the newspapers. I've seen some local newspapers in local media. I see the comments, the very good feedback. We have on the hallway, you can see some pictures. And I have in my computer some newspapers, articles that were the student teachers. They gave the interviews and they talked about the project. And yeah, we always consider and we change a little bit the format, let's say a number of questions. And as I mentioned, we extended to grade six. That's all we consider the feedback from teachers and we try to consider them. Definitely, we monitor that feedback. And very often I communicate with teachers by email, they send me their comments too. Also, we have our website on the social media. We have a Facebook website. And I see some comments, people send me the comments to my personal email address as well. In your opinion, what is Indigenous education? That's the second part of what I mentioned at the beginning. So we have a kind of like, we try to deliver this modern science mathematics to First Nations schools, Indigenous schools. And another way is to take something from Indigenous knowledge, Indigenous education. And it's very important too. It's not only for First Nations people. It's important for everyone. Since I joined the First Nations University I have done many community-based projects, research projects, science, the project about mathematical modeling. And I used Indigenous knowledge for developing the mathematical model of water quality. It's a very modern project and it's very alarming problem, the water quality. And just using the, again, the so-called western science, we cannot develop very reliable predictive model of the water quality. Not only water quality, but ecological processes. And we need to use Indigenous knowledge for that. And another, the same, similarly, we need to use Indigenous experience in education. Last semester I taught one educational mathematics course. That was, I'm really thankful that program leaders, they gave me that opportunity. Most of my students, they were Indigenous students from First Nations communities. And I asked them to bring some Indigenous elements, Indigenous content for teaching mathematics. And they brought some, they tried to find them in their community. They asked their elders, you know, parents. And each of those students, they brought one or two kind of like, mostly that was the manipulatives or games and et cetera. And they were very interesting, first of all. And second of all, they were very helpful for understanding mathematical concept. They have many games, let's say, about the probability that could help you to understand the probability or about empirical studies or about even simple addition, multiplication. I'm going to give them in future those elements, Indigenous elements in education. Again, those elements, those examples, they could be used in mainstream schools, not only in Indigenous schools. And that's very important. And we have, luckily, at First Nations University we have many Indigenous schoolers, educators. I communicate with them. I try to learn from them about the Indigenous pedagogy, Indigenous way of teaching. Again, there are lots of things that so-called Western education could take and use it. What is your vision for the future of Indigenous education in the community and in Canada? Yeah, that's what I was kind of continuing that what I told previously. First of all, we have to use those Indigenous elements in the element components in teaching at First Nations schools, Indigenous schools. And most of our students are Indigenous people. And we have to teach them that when they go back to their communities, they could use those elements. That's first. But I do not think it has to be something of local knowledge. It can become a national, nationwide process. And again, there are lots of interesting experiences, interesting ideas, interesting examples that we could take and use them in our mainstream schools. And one more example I'm collaborating with my colleagues from the University of Regina. We are within that project. We will develop the Indigenous-based example, Indigenous content in teaching statistics courses at First Nations University and the University of Regina. We are teaching, we are offering the stats statistics courses at the introductory level. And we will develop the example specifically for those courses. I mean, we are doing now that project is in process. We interview elders and Indigenous knowledge keepers and develop those examples. Like I mentioned about the probability, about empirical studies, about evaluation of environmental processes like water quality and temperature change and etc. So those we can bring and I think we have to bring to so-called Western science and use them. And basically, that's my creative, my understanding that as a person who grew up inside of the Western science and then in the last 11 years, I've been working at First Nations University, I do not think we have to kind of like emphasize and kind of like say this is Western science, this is Indigenous science. No, there is a science but there are different views, different way of understanding. But at the end, we are coming to the same result, to the same conclusion, but maybe in different ways and more ways, more diversity we have in understanding of the concept is better for everyone, for both. For Indigenous and for non-Indigenous people. And lastly, can you think of any types of information that if you had now it would help to achieve your vision? Sorry? Are there any types of information that if you had now it would help you with your vision with the program? I think that was one of the questions, one of the problems I mentioned that the communication in general in society, it's very interesting. In our days, because of the new technologies and etc., we have many ways of communication. But despite of that, people are getting more isolated. It's very interesting. When people didn't have a cell phone, it looks like they communicated even more than now when you have a phone you can call anytime to your friends, to your parents. But you don't do that often actually. It looks like before, you used to do that more often. We have this many, many new technologies for improving the communication. I think we have to use that and we have to improve the level of our communication with Indigenous communities, Indigenous schools. The information, and I tried to use any opportunity for delivering this information, particularly about this project. Some years, the non-Indigenous schools, they wanted to purchase between the project, I was very open for them because it helps to, you know, to increase the geography, to extend the geography of the project and more people are involved in the project. I think it's good for our communities and for Indigenous communities. Again, I would share that information if your website, your resources give that opportunity, that would be great. Aside from the programs in which you are personally involved, what information do you have on other Indigenous educational programs in Canada? Mostly, I'm aware of the educational programs that are developed in our university. I know that First Nations University organizes the summer camps for Indigenous students of high schools. My department had a professor who had a good pipe, for example. She organized that. I know about the National Science Camp last year that it's organized by INAC and last year, my university, First Nations University of Canada helped that camp and I volunteered, I participated in that. I think those type of projects are very important. Science and Mathematics is one of these. There are lots of things to improve but those are two areas that really need to be improved and to be extended to Indigenous communities. I know about those projects. I have some information about the project developed by the University of China. In some of them, I participate myself and in some of them, I hear from media.