Pam of Grassroots Science Visits Anchorage

An example of blogging networks at work. Pam from Grassroots Science is in town. She emailed me before coming and I invited her to lunch yesterday. She had a beautiful day, probably the nicest we've had all summer and we were able to eat on the deck.

And she told me about things she's working on/interested in. She lives in Bethel, is a Biological Anthropologist by degree, and she tries to make science understandable so people can benefit from it.



It was clear there were people in Anchorage she should know, so we went over to ISER (Institute for Social and Economic Research), the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies, and to ANSEP (Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program).

The ANSEP program is run by Professor Herb Schroeder and has been phenomenally successful in doing what few higher education programs have been able to do - recruit, retain, and graduate Alaska Native students. In Engineering this is even more unusual. Herb has done this by recruiting at high schools around the state, working with the high schools to make sure students get the curriculum they need to do the work, having summer prep programs, dorm space for the students participating so they can lessen the shock of moving from village Alaska to Anchorage and so they can eat some of their traditional food together.

The program got a cover story in the December 2007 issue of PE (The Magazine for Professional Engineers.) Herb said it was the engineering equivalent of being on the cover of Rolling Stone. (The PE song hasn't come out yet.)



We also stopped at the UAA Bookstore where she (and I) picked up a copy of Traditional Food Guide. And I went upstairs to the Apple store and finally got Leopard. But I've been too busy to install it.




The book is really quite amazing, combining Western knowledge about nutrition with Traditional knowledge about the various animals and plants that Alaska Native peoples have eaten for centuries. Here are some examples. Books can be purchased through ANTHC.




So now I know what to do with all the cow parsnips we have around here.





I've picked out some of the more exotic foods for non-Native people.





























She was staying with a friend whose RV is parked downtown at the Ship Creek Landings RV Park, a place I never knew existed. It's at the end of Ingra on First Avenue. It was surprisingly well surrounded by trees to hide it from its industrial surroundings. But it is basically a parking lot.

My way of thinking about transportation has made a serious shift since we got back from Thailand and I found myself hesitating before offering to drive her around. I thought about us taking bikes to do our errands, but eventually I was going to have to get her downtown and come back alone.