Wakinyan Spotted Tail-Brown and Jordan Spotted Calf stood nearby with their fingers in their ears and waited.
Nearby Eric Haas, Ph.D., an associate professor of chemistry at Creighton University, picked up a torch and held it under the blue balloon filled with hydrogen and oxygen.
The explosion was loud enough to rattle the windows of the Rigge Science building on the Creighton University campus.
“That was neat!” the boys from Todd County Public Schools on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota said in unison.
The demonstration was just one of the many highlights during the annual SEPA (Science Education Partnership Award) Health and Science Fun Camp held June 5-8 in Omaha, Neb.
More than 50 youths ranging in age from 6 to 18 and representing seven different Native American tribes from Nebraska and South Dakota – including the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, Umo~n ho~n Nation, Winnebago, Santee Sioux, Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota Sioux, Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, and the Yankton Sioux Tribe — took part.
The camp, which is funded by a five-year, $1.3 million National Institutes of Health SEPA grant, is aimed at strengthening the math and science curriculum of American Indian youths. Maurice Godfrey, Ph.D., a professor in the Munroe-Meyer Institute at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, is the principal investigator on the grant.
During the four-day camp, the students took part in numerous hands-on activities that included:
- Dissecting sheep brains;
- Playing soccer with the members of the Creighton men’s soccer team;
- Touring the Center for Nursing Sciences simulation center at UNMC where they listened to heart and lung sounds on mannequins;
- Visited the UNMC Mind & Brain Health Labs where they tested their driving skills on simulators; and
- Got a behind-the-scenes tour of the Walter & Suzanne Scott Aquarium at the Henry Doorly Zoo.
The students also heard from several Native American speakers, including Ramona Zephier, a physician assistant and member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, who told the students “you too can dream big and achieve your goals.”
“This camp really opens your eyes to the possibilities in life,” said Moses Renville, a rising senior at Tiospa Zina Tribal School on the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Sioux reservation in South Dakota.
“It’s a great opportunity that shows the kids that even though a lot of bad stuff happens on the reservation, not everything is bad and if you stay in school and work hard you can do some pretty great things,” Renville said.
Erica Jensen, a kindergarten teacher with St. Augustine Indian Mission on the Winnebago Indian Reservation in northeastern Nebraska agrees.
“The camp has given the kids a chance to explore careers in chemistry, genetics and neuroscience – things they never would be exposed to on the reservation,” Jensen said.
We are Nebraska Medicine and UNMC. Our mission is to lead the world in transforming lives to create a healthy future for all individuals and communities through premier educational programs, innovative research and extraordinary patient care.