Join us to explore the theme: Advancing Indigenous People in STEM at the 2022 AISES National Conference! The national conference is a unique, three-day event focusing on educational, professional, and workforce development for Indigenous peoples of North America and the Pacific Islands in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) studies and careers. Attendees include Indigenous high school and college students, educators, and professionals, including representatives from Tribal Nations, Tribal enterprises, and Indigenous-owned businesses. The conference also includes the LARGEST college and career fair in the U.S. for Indigenous students and professionals! Exhibitors at the College and Career fair represent a diverse range of corporations, educational institutions, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, Tribes, and Indigenous-owned businesses.
The 2022 AISES National Conference will be in-person on October 6, 7 and 8 at the Palm Springs Convention Center in California with pre-conference activities, including hackAISES (hackathon) and STEM Activity Day for Indigenous middle and high school students on October 5.
Call for Sessions
AISES has opened the call for session proposals and encourages a diverse array of session presenters and STEM topics. If you have not yet presented at an AISES conference, we encourage you to submit a session proposal.
Sessions AISES is Specifically Seeking this Year
While we encourage you to propose any session that fits well within one of our nine tracks and/or for STEM Activity Day, this year we are also specifically seeking session proposals that address the topics listed under each track. We encourage sessions that are interactive, upbeat, and inspiring. Sessions that draw the largest attendance and best evaluations are those that include activities and audience participation. We encourage panel discussions that offer diverse insight and information. We have also found that attendees like “themed” sessions that drawn on contemporary pop culture (movies, music, etc.) to help contextualize the content.
All sessions must fall into one of the following tracks:
- High School
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Target audience includes: high school junior and senior students
Sessions in the high school track should be designed to raise awareness and inspire high school students to pursue college majors and careers in STEM. Sessions should aim to expose students to various STEM opportunities, programs, and careers, and support students in discovering, pursuing, and sustaining their interest in STEM as they prepare for college, careers, and beyond.
AISES Seeks Sessions that Demonstrate:
- STEM Career Exploration (highlighting STEM career opportunities or possibilities)
- Yes! Computer Science is for You! (Encouraging students to pursue college degrees/careers in CS)
- Yes! Engineering is for You! (Encouraging students to pursue college degrees/careers in engineering)
- Applying to College (Tips for applying to college)
- Prepare for the College and Career Fair (How to prepare for the AISES college and career fair)
- Science of Music (Sound wave energy, musical instrument design, acoustic resonance, electronic amplification, etc.)
- College
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Target audience includes: undergraduate and graduate students
Sessions in the college track should be designed to increase access to resources and promote success in STEM degree programs for Indigenous college students. Topics could range from mentorship to preparing for graduate school and beyond.
AISES Seeks Sessions that Demonstrate:
- How to Ace Your Job Interview (Job interview preparation)
- Should You go to Graduate School? (Information about graduate school/applying to graduate school)
- Faculty Careers in STEM (Information about opportunities/navigating pathways to faculty careers)
- Preparing for the College and Career Fair (How to prepare for the College and Career Fair/meeting potential employers/exploring graduate school opportunities)
- Evaluating Job Offers (How does one evaluate and/or negotiate a job offer)
- Transitioning from Campus to the Workforce (Help transitioning from student to professional such as interview tips, presenting your best self, etc.)
- Leadership Development (Personal and professional leadership development)
- Professional
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Target audience includes: professionals and AISES partners
Sessions in the professional track should be designed to support Indigenous professionals as they advance their career pathways in STEM. Topics could range from professional development, team building, networking, indigenizing STEM careers, and opportunities to mentor and support Indigenous students in STEM.
AISES Seeks Sessions that Demonstrate:
- Executive Mentoring (How to obtain or provide mentorship)
- Managing Stress/Avoiding Burnout (Tips to help professionals handle stress and burn-out in their careers)
- Career Pathways (Help professionals chart or plan their career path)
- Financial, Investment Management, and utilitzing your job benefits (How to manage finances or investments and how to get the most out of your job benefits)
- Creating and Supporting Effective Teams in the Workplace
- Leadership Development (Creating and advancing opportunity for others)
- Marketing Ourselves for Success (Developing a successful image of ourselves)
- Building a network of support within your company (Creating Native ERG)
- STEM & Business
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Target audience includes: all students, professionals, and tribal business and entrepreneurs
Sessions in the STEM & Business track should be designed to explore the intersection of STEM and business as well as to support students, professionals, and Tribal Nations interested in developing STEM focused businesses, including supporting entrepreneurship; or building STEM infrastructure within Tribal Nations.
AISES Seeks Sessions that Demonstrate:
- Patent and Trademark (Process, application, time considerations)
- Entrepreneurship (Access to Capital and/or Developing a Business Model)
- Utilizing/Supporting STEM to benefit Tribal Communities
- Innovative Tribal or Indigenous Owned Business examples/models
- Agricultural Sciences
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Target audience includes: all students and professionals
Sessions in this track should be designed for all students and professionals with multi-faceted interested in education, advocacy services, research, or agricultural business. Sessions could have a focus in animal science, business management, fisheries management, climate change, sustainable food systems, soil and forestry services, organic and aquaculture farming, and traditional agricutlural farming and practices including traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and agri-business. Topics could also include environmental, economic, cultural, and social factors that influence agriculture and/or that explores themes, problems and solutions, trends or careers that connect STEM to agriculture and agriculture related fields for indigenous farmers, ranchers, and students.
AISES Seeks Sessions that Demonstrate:
- Connecting Indigenous communities through traditional food, farming, and education
- Farming integrating math and science in curriculum and youth engagement
- Mathematical, scientific, technological, or engineering applications
- Exploring traditional food and agriculture-focused economies
- Topics blending STEM education and farming
- STEM and its use in agricultural technology
- Entrepreneurial education and concepts for classrooms connecting agricultural science to real life
- Models that enhance support for farming, ranching, natural resource management, forestry, and success stories from Indigenous communities
- Health and Medical Sciences
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Target audience includes: all students and professionals
Sessions in this track should be designed to support research development, opportunities, and educational pathways in health sciences and health professional careers including traditional (Indigenous) health practices/knowledge. Best practices that guide and support students to pursue health research, health professional careers, and promotes collaborative research with Indigenous communities.
AISES Seeks Sessions that Demonstrate:
- Successful programs designed for underserved Indigenous populations
- Exploring educational pathways and careers in health sciences and medicine
- How to apply to medical school
- Expertise, experience, and explanation about research or changes in health policy and practices that reduce health disparities within Indigenous communities
- Serving the community through education and outreach-based health science programs
- Funding resources, fellowships, and other sustainable measures that support pathways to research training and careers
- Sustaining Indigenous life through social, cultural, and spiritual balance
- Computer Science
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Target audience includes: all students and professionals
Sessions in this track should be designed for those who are currently engaged or interested in computer science, including artificial intelligence, computer systems and networks, security, database systems, human computer interaction, vision and graphics, numerical analysis, programming languages, software engineering, bioinformatics, theory of computing, as well as computer science/tech adjacent fields/careers.
AISES Seeks Sessions that Demonstrate:
- Targeting people who have not necessarily considered pursuing a major/career in computer science
- Non-technical career fields in computer science
- Beyond coding: careers in computer science
- Understanding computer science research
- Educator
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Target audience: includes PK-12 educators
The purpose of the educator track is to provide content specifically for PK-12 educators and support staff working primarily with Indigenous students. Topics could range from securing teaching positions in Indigenous communities, culturally relevant curriculum, and supporting extra-curricular STEM activities for Indigenous students.
AISES Seeks Sessions that Demonstrate:
- Indigenous Education Policy (PK-12 and/or Higher Education)
- Effective Models for Supporting STEM in PK-12
- Culturally relevant STEM education resources
- STEM Activity Day
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Target audience includes: middle school and high school students and educators
AISES is also soliciting proposals for activities presented during STEM Activity Day on Wednesday, October 5. Activities should be hands-on, engaging and STEM-themed ideas and challenges.
Examples of activities include:
- Robotics Demonstrations
- Jeopardy Style Science Bowl
- Simple Science Experiments
- Engineering and Design Projects
- Research
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Target audience includes: all conference attendees.
The purpose of this track is to promote and highlight STEM research conducted and presented by Indigenous middle school, high school, undergraduate and graduate students, and professionals. To submit a research presentation visit: http://conference.aises.org/agenda/research
Session and Research Logistics
Sessions are scheduled for October 6, 7 and 8 (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday).
Research presentations are scheduled for Friday, October 7.
Session Presentation style:
Session Length: 50 minutes
Informational with some interactions
Session Workshop style:
Session Length: 1 hour and 40 minutes
Activity focused with minimal lecture time
Research format:
Poster presentations: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Oral presentations: 20 minutes
Each room will be equipped with a projector, screen, presentation clicker, and Windows computer with internet access and connected to in-room sound system. Each room will also have a podium with microphone and head table with microphone and chairs. Bring all presentation materials on a flash drive or other USB storage device. Presentation laptops are not equipped with CD/DVD drives.
Poster presentations will take place in the exhibit hall with poster boards, push pins, and a chair provided.
STEM Activity Day Logistics
STEM Activity Day interactive sessions are scheduled for Wednesday, October 5.
Interactive style:
Activity Length: 1 hour and 15 minutes
Your activity will run for the entire STEM Activity Day (12:00-4:00 pm), with breaks built-in to the four-hour time block. Your activity should be able to be repeated at least two times in a 4-hour time slot so that students are able to rotate amongst the various activities.
The STEM Activity Day room will have a microphone to make announcements. Computers, electricity, and AV set-up are not available for these activities.
Required Information for Session Proposals
- Presenter’s contact information
- Presenter’s biography (bio) of 100 words or less; written in 3rd person
- Session abstract (description) of 150 words or less
Timeline and General Information
- Deadline for submission of session proposals: July 8
- Notification of acceptance for session proposals begins: August 3
Presenters are invited to submit multiple proposals. For those that have presented at an AISES conference before, please propose a new session. Preference will be given to interactive, engaging, and innovative session proposals.
Conference Logistics for Presenters
Conference presenters are responsible for their own travel, lodging, and related conference expenses. Conference registration is required. Each accepted session will receive up to two full conference registrations discounted by 50%, regardless of how many presenters are participating in the session. Discounted registration codes will be provided after sessions are selected and presenters are notified. All refunds are subject to the Cancellation and Refund Policy.
Online Submission Forms
Online submission forms must be completed by July 8, 2022, to be considered for review. Only complete session proposals will be reviewed.
For More Information
If you have any questions or concerns, please email: conference@aises.org