Montana State University Courses - Links to Documents and Posters
Research and Creative Activity - University Core 2.0
AGSC 465R Health, Poverty, Agriculture: Concepts and Action Research
Expansive Collaboration NACTA Journal Article - December 2011
Poverty has no disciplinary home and so this course draws information and students from all disciplines including: economics, anthropology, microbiology, cell biology, architecture, agricultural education, film, engineering, as well as plant sciences, health sciences, sustainable foods, and entomology. Food production and health are given equal weight with exploring ways to listen in communities experiencing material-resource poverty. Practicing to communicate leads students to appreciate cultural wealth of the community-of-focus.
AGSC 465R is a University Core course in Research and Creative Activity. The course is based on the Expansive Collaborative (EC) Model for Service-Learning and Community-Based Research (Dunkel, F.V., A.N. Shams, and C.M. George. 2011. Expansive collaboration: A model for transformed classrooms, community-based research, and service-learning. North American College Teachers of Agriculture. 55 (Dec):65-74.). The (EC) model is built on the holistic process and, as such, serves as a companion course to LRES 421 Holistic Thought and Management.
Communities-of-focus and their site mentors form an off-campus teaching partnership for this course. To qualify, a community must have a long established relationship with the instructor or be an intact, indigenous community of the student. At MSU, communities-of-focus currently are: Sanambele, Mali; Lame Deer, Montana; and Crow Agency, Montana. Site mentors for Mali are mid-career scientists and one engineer who were brought to MSU for 2 years for training, some of which occurred in PSPP. Four of the site mentors for Lame Deer spent time in Mali and actually lived in Sananbele. The site mentor for Crow Agency is a former AGSC 465R student, member of the Apsaalooke, and manager of the Community Garden Greenhouse.
![Collective Teaching Learning Unit Diagram](/mali/images/CollectiveTeachingLearningUnitDiagram.jpg)
Figure 1. Expansive Collaborative Model for service-learning and community-based research.
Students tackle concepts such as: Easterly’s (2006) “Searchers vs. Planners”; Ayittey’s (2005) Africa Unchained and Indigenous African Institutions; Norberg-Hodge’s “Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh”; and Yunus “The Grameen Bank.” Simultaneously, students are introduced to their community-of-focus and given skills to communicate with them, particularly those of: Savory and Butterfield (1999) “Holistic Management”; Chambers et al. (1989) Farmer First; and Halvorson et al. (2011) understanding perceptions. Readings were selected by a team of MSU faculty during weekly discussions over a year.
The community selects the research question, or, rather, the topic emerges during holistic discussions with the community. Often community requests require multiple semesters to complete. Students build on predecessors’ research. Accomplishments include assisting a village to sustainably stop deaths of their children from malaria. In 2005, MSU students, site mentors, and MSU faculty listened to Sanambele women and men explain their desire to rid their village of malaria. MSU students began with storytelling the life cycles of mosquitoes that carry the protozoan and life cycle of the protozoan itself that causes malaria. MSU students assisted Sanambelean junior high students initiate a community awareness art project. AGSC 465R faculty and students majoring in French and Business encouraged village women to start a handicraft enterprise. During the 2008 malaria epidemic, was the last time a child died of malaria in this village. Students taught villagers how to manage mosquitoes sustainably in the larval stage by using a slurry made from neem leaves, Azadiracta indica. Now villagers have a successful, self-contained, integrated system for managing malaria and are sharing the life cycle stories with neighboring villages. Village women developed a handicraft cooperative and microloan system that also involves village men and youth. MSU students now help the village address the current barrier to attaining their desired quality of life: sustainably managing kwashiorkor, protein energy malnutrition. Crop selection, improving dairy forage, cricket farming, and teaching the basics of complete proteins to a village whose adults are 99% illiterate are challenges MSU students have addressed.
In the Apsaalooke community on the Crow Reservation, issues are similar, health, new knowledge that respects traditional ways, and sustainability. Yunus and the Grameen Bank began in a similar way with the professor (Yunus) and his students putting into action in local material-resource poor communities, concepts they discussed in the classroom. We encourage more courses to reach out across cultural boundaries to sustainably connect people with plants, health, and traditional knowledge.
AGSC 465R is taught every semester. It is a 4 credit course and meets Thursdays from 4 to 7pm. Thirty-minute individual weekly mentor meetings with Dr. Dunkel are held in her office and laboratory. Students also are required to communicate with their site-mentors on at least a weekly basis via e-mail, Skype, phone, Polycom, or in person. During the semester each student is required to visit the Northern Cheyenne Reservation or the Apsaalooke (Crow) Reservation for 2 days with Dr. Dunkel regardless of their specific community-of-focus.
Midway in the semester, students are required to write a take-home exam applying concepts of the 10 author groups to their own community-of-focus. Since the course format is service learning, students are also required to keep a reflective log to monitor their own progress and track their cognitive dissonance. These logs form a basis for discussion at weekly mentor meetings in addition to advice on the research process. At semester’s end, students present publically their response to the request of their community and submit their mentored research paper in peer-refereed journal format to site mentors and Dr. Dunkel. All materials, video transcripts, and documents produced by the students are then given to the community-of-focus.
AGSC 465R - 4 Credits
This course was first offered in the Fall semester of 2011 and is the new version of PSPP 465R. Dr. Florence Dunkel is the professor/mentor.
Spring 2015 AGSC 465R Health, Poverty, Agriculture: Concepts and Action Research Poster Presentations
- Mallory Crandall - Use of Holistic Process in averting Preeclampsia in Haiti
- Julia Eltzroth - Nutritional Comparison of Common Traditional Apsaalooke Foods
- Emilia Hitchcock - School Community Garden IncorporatingTraditional Apsaalooke Plants Encourages Lodge Grass Students to Grow Traditional Apsaalooke Foods at Home
- Megan McGill - Stream Bank Restoration on Lodge Grass Creek
- Hannah Stewart- Engagement of Northern Cheyenne Youth with a Community Equine Program
- Veronika M. Tapia Giron - Dietary Screening for Students at St. Labre Indian School
- Holistic Management Concepts as Colored Balls (PowerPoint presentation)
Photo Galleries
- AGSC 465R - Spring 2016 - Class Activities Photos
- AGSC 465R - Spring 2016 - Sanambele Photos
- AGSC 465R - Class Visits to Northern Cheyenne and Apsaalooke Reservations - September 2014
- Pictures from Northern Cheyenne and Apsaalooke Reservations Conference, 8 - 10 March 2014
- AGSC 465R - Class Visits to Northern Cheyenne and Apsaalooke Reservations - January 2014
- AGSC 465R - Class Activities Photos - Fall 2013
- AGSC 465R - Class Activities Photos - Fall 2012
- PSPP 465 R - Photos of Spring 2011 Class Activities
- AGSC 465R - Class Activities Photos - Fall 2011
- AGSC 465R - Photos from Two Visits to the Northern Cheyenne and Crow Native American Reservations Fall 2011
Apsáalooke (Crow) Posters
- Transplanting Berry and Fruit Plants - Apsáalooke Reservation - Michael Logatto
- NACTA POSTER - Let's Pick Berries
- Caleb Killians Let's Pick Berries Poster
- Cultural and Nutritional Significance of Traditional Berries to the Apsáalooke People Greta Robison, Tracie Small, Caleb Killian, Tyler Nyman, Durc Setzer, Dr. Florence Dunkel
- Propogation of Culturally Significant Berry Plants for the Apsáalooke Durc Setzer, Tyler Nyman, Tracie Small
- Managing Berry Patches - Karen Page
- Reviving Berry Picking - Small, Tracie; Andrew Berg; and Chris Dauw
- Nick Miles Poster - Addressing Little Big Horn College Community Gardens Grasshopper Problems, Crow Agency, MT
- Jason Myers Poster - Community Gardens Little Big Horn College, Crow Agency, MT
- Mallory Ottariano and Maddie Kelly Poster Good Nutritonal Food, Crow Reservation, MT
Northern Cheyenne Posters
- Echinacea: Connecting Northern Cheyenne Medicine, Westren Science, and Community Pride Katie Chambers and Hannah Johnson
- Place based Environmental Education - Brady Hogan
- Solar for the Northern Cheyenne - Samantha Willits
- Yucca - Alan Balen
- Yarrow - Tim Mullaly
- Gretchen Troutman and Meredith Tallbull Northern Cheyenne Reservation, Lame Deer, MT
- Water Quality Northern Cheyenne Reservation, Lame Deer, MT - Chris Pruenninger
- Community Gardens Northern Cheyenne Reservation, Lame Deer, MT - Sarah Ragsdale
- Northern Cheyenne Health Promotion Calendar - Stuck and Mack
Palestine Posters
Sanambele, Mali Posters
- Managing Cricket Farming in Sanambele - Carisssa Stein
- Stopping Kwashiorkor in Its Tracks, One Cashew at a Time - Cody Howe
- Possible Missing Amino Acids in Sanambele - Rebecca Turley
- Using Milk to Combat Kwasiorkor in Sanambele, Mali - Tim Doherty
- Insect Farming to Combat Kwashiorkor in Sanambele, Mali - Hannah Fraser
- Cricket Farming to Combat Kwashiorkor in Mali - Andrew Stermitz
- Cotton Production Effects on Kwashiorkor in Mali - Jesse Young
- Kwashiorkor - Kathryn Gause
- Sanambele, Mali - Megan Sullivan
- The Two Orphans and the Boabab Tree: Preserving a Culture Through Storytelling Tammi Heneveld and Megan Haywood-Sullivan
- Malaria Poster Presented at the Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, December 2010
- Poster Presented at the Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, December 2010 - Ashley Alvarado
- Wendy Nickisch's 2009 Sanambele Malaria Poster
- Tiphani Lynn's 2009 Sanambele Malaria Poster
- Pauline Powers-Peprah's 2009 Sanambele Malaria Poster
- Gordon Sevee's 2009 Sanambele Malaria Poster
- Eva Mend's 2008 Poster: Exploration of Traditional Anti-malarial Medicinal Plants of Mali
- Yungben Yellvington's 2008 Lessons from Mali Presentation
- Jason Baldes, Fall 2011 AGSC 465R student and MSU grad student, plans to use national EPA Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Graduate Fellowship to help reintroduce buffalo to Wind River, WY reservation
- Bridgett McNulty, Fall 2011 AGSC 465R student and MSU grad student, wins $30,000 NIH Fellowship
Kwashiorkor Papers from AGSC/PSPP 465R students
- Rebecca Turley's Paper
- Alex Marten's Paper
- Adam Aucoin's Paper
- Dana Fejes Paper
- Kelsi Gambill's paper
- Kathryn Gause's Paper
- Ryan Momot's Paper
- Kalli Wedlake's Paper
PSPP 465R - 3 credits
This course was first offered in the Fall semester of 2008 and has been taught by Dr. Florence Dunkel each semester since its inception. In Fall 2012, the course was re-named AGSC 465R and was made a 4-credit course because of the required weekly mentoring sessions with Professor Dunkel
The Literature and Culture of Mali Capstone Course for French Language and Literature
MLF 450R - 3 credits
Fall 2011 Class Papers and PowerPoint presentations
Note: the PowerPoint presentations are large MP4 movie files and will take several minutes to completely download before they begin playing.
- Excision: Three papers in one document - Sara Cochennet, Heather Lee, and Elvis Akpla
- Sara Cochennet's PowerPoint Presentation
- Heather Lee's PowerPoint Presentation
- Elvis Akpla's PowerPoint Presentation
- Family Planning in Mali - Ariel Riccardi
- Ariel Riccardi's PowerPoint Presentation
- Microfinance in Rural Mali - Heather Weas
- Heather Weas' PowerPoint Presentation
- The Role of Animals in Mali - Galen King
- Galen King's PowerPoint Presentation
Insects and Society BIOO 162CS - 3 credits
- Medical-Veterinary Entomology Clinics for Undergraduates
- BIOO 162 CS - Photos of Spring 2011 Class Activities
Health, Poverty, Agriculture: Concepts: PSPP 480-01, 1 credit
Health, Poverty, Agriculture: Action Research PSPP 480-02, 2 credits
PSPP 480 was taught only in Spring 2008 and was replaced by PSPP 465R in Fall 2008
Last updated 7 April 2016