Documenting Outcomes of the 2008 Native American Outreach Program
Lamour Peshtony1, Benjamin Herman2, Carolyn Lawrence2
1Northern
Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
2Iowa
State University, Ames, IA 50011
3USDA-ARS,
Ames, IA 50011
Abstract
Materials and Methods
A website was created to illustrate the 2008 Native American Outreach Program (NAOP) research
outcomes. The NAOP interns’ research work and findings are documented at the website alongside a
video documentary about the program, as well as biographies on the student and mentor participants.
The website was coded by hand in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and can be accessed online at
http://www.lawrencelab.org/Outreach by clicking the link to 2008. Although this work is not a
traditional research project, documentation is an integral part of research in so far as data that goes
undocumented are effectively lost. This work is a part of the Iowa State University George Washington
Carver (GWC) Internship Program, which includes research activities by day coupled with various fun
and educational activities for interns on nights and weekends.
The materials used in this project were common technologies including a simple camera, a Macintosh
computer, a microphone, and software for photo editing and video clipping. More details are available
in Table below. The digital camera was used to take pictures and record video. The Macintosh
computer was used to create and serve the website, and the microphone was used to collect
recordings that serve as the audio for the video documentary. HTML pages were coded by hand
based upon online tutorials created by Joe Barta (1). A color scheme that controlled for
deuteranomoly (colorblindness which affects 5% of all males and 0.4% of all females) was chosen
using an online tool called the Color Scheme Generator (2), and various publically available websites
such as the 2007 NAOP Website (3) were used as models for the website layout and as examples for
how to code particular functionalities. The books Advanced HTML Companion (4), HTML 4 for
Dummies (5), and HTML & XML for Beginners (6) books were consulted for other HTML Coding
Techniques.
Introduction
Because the involvement of Native American students and researchers in plant genome research is
minimal, an effort was initiated in 2006 on the Iowa State University campus to increase their
representation in the research community by mentoring Native American/American Indian
undergraduates in plant genomics research. Participating interns study various plant species including
plants of importance to many Native Tribes.
&3
A documentary website and ancillary video were created and can be accessed online at
http://www.lawrencelab.org/Outreach by clicking on the link to 2008. Over the course of creating
these materials, L.P learned to code HTML by first creating a personal home page then created the
outreach program’s website which entailed outlining the program’s goals, participants, and research
outcomes. L.P. also created a video documentary about the program, which is available via the
website. All the information posted on the website was collected throughout L.P.’s experience at Iowa
State University as a summer intern and from previous years’ documentation as well as from fellow
interns and mentors.
About Me
My name is Lamour Peshtony-Thompson, originally from the Navajo Nation in a little community
called Hardrock, AZ. My interests are working with Computers and Law Enforcement. My college
career would have to be participating in the George Washington Carver Internship Program basically
working with computers. My Professional Career is working with computers, completing a variety of
computer tasks, from simple Word Processing to Web Building. Working with the Navajo Nation
Emergency Medical Services, Navajo Nation Fire Department, Navajo Nation Police Department, and
Coconino County Detention Center. My Career Goals are to finish college and receive my Computer
Engineering Degree, then start working on my Criminal Justice Degree.
My project here at Iowa State University as an intern with the Native American Outreach Program is
creating a web site and documentary. I’m going to create a website for our program which will be
available to the public for information and somewhat recruitment for other interested people in
agriculture, corn specifically. The reason I participated in this program was because I looked at it in a
way to try different opportunities, and to learn more about computer programming with hands on
training. I think this internship will help me in a variety of ways, for instance it will help me become
successful in web site creating, and it will look good for future reference on trying to obtain a similar
job career. Also showing I have experience and knowledge with computers.
The purpose of L.P.’s project is to record and present the research experiments the NAOP interns have
completed and the outcomes of those experiments. A website with information posted by the interns
(Nathan Etsitty, Marcus Begay, and Lamour Peshtony) and documentary was created. Without
documentation, the outcome of the interns’ work is effectively lost. Documenting the interns’ work as
well as information on the Iowa State University GWC Internship program and the NAOP program via
a website and ancillary documentary video is the focus of the work described here.
Nathan (Nate) Etsitty an intern under Dr. Suzanne Hendrich3, studied the absorption of Ursolic Acid
derived from sage extracts with the CaCo-2 cell. Ursolic Acid has been found in other studies as a
cancer-fighting agent, and has anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory qualities as well. Studying the
absorption of Ursolic Acid by the CaCo-2 cell model (which is a model for colon cancer) will serve as
the basis for further research to determine the effective concentrations of sage extract for fighting
colon cancer.
Marcus Begay is an intern under Dr. Candice Gardner. He participated in a research program to learn
about plant conservation at the USDA Plant Introduction Station. His primary goal was to create
several lesson plans for elementary level students. Along with his lesson plans he created a website
containing links to his lesson plans so that other educators can access those materials. He also
created a brochure for the Plant Introduction Station which describes their holdings and pictures the
GWC NAOP participants as well as a Navajo Nation flag.
Acknowledgements
Conclusions
L.P. learned to code HTML and some ‘best practices’ for how to build a website. One example of the
‘best practices’ learned includes choosing a color scheme that enables the color blind to see the entire
website easily. Similarly, L.P. learned that fonts to be read on a screen should be ‘sans serifs’. This
enables readers to better make out letters and numbers on a computer screen. An example of ‘sans
serifs’ font (and the font used for the most of the website) is ‘Verdana’. Fonts that have serifs (like
‘Bookman Old Style’ and ‘Times New Roman’) have embellishment on the tips of many of the
letters which looks blocky online but can help increase reading speed in a printed document, and
‘Sans Serifs’ fonts are more screen legible (6). L.P. also learned how to organize files on the machine
serving the website to support online navigation and learned how file ownership and permissions
must be set such that anyone could read the file in order for the files to be accessible for viewing
online.
For the overall project, it is the authors’ hope that those considering running an outreach project like
the NAOP project could benefit from the NAOP website, and that it and the video documentary could
be used as a recruitment tool for both the NAOP and GWC programs to bring in students who might
have an interest in participating in the future. The website also can be used by the interns once they
return home to show others what they accomplished during their summer internship.
-FundingUnited States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service and National Science
Foundation
-MentorsDr. Carolyn Lawrence, Mentor, Iowa State University (http://www.lawrencelab.org/)
Benjamin Herman, NAOP Student Mentor, Iowa State University
-George Washington CarverMary DeBaca, Program Advisor, Director of Diversity Programs
Aurelio Curbelo, Program Assistant, Graduate Student
Marcus Glenn, Graduate Student, Program Assistant
LaJoy Spears, Program Assistant, Graduate Student
Dustin Thunderhawk, Graduate Student, Residential Aid
Sarah Bracy, Undergraduate Student, Residential Aid
-References1. Stanicek, P., (2005) Color Schemes generator 2.
http://www.wellstyled.com/tools.colorscheme2/index-en.htm (June 2008)
2. Schengili-Roberts, K. (1997) The Advanced HTML companion.
3. Schultz, D. and Cook, C. (2007) Beginning HTML and CSS and XHTML : Modern guide and
reference
4. Lemay, L. (1999) Teach yourself Web Publishing with HTML 4 in 21 days
5. Tittel, E. and Pitts, N. (1999) HTML 4 for dummies
6. Morrison, M. (2001) HTML & XML for beginners
7. Personal Interview. June 2008 USDA-ARS, Iowa State Univ. Ames, IA 50011 (June 2008)