The University of Windsor on Monday officially launched new program designed to encourage First Nations youth to pursue education in science, technology, engineering and math.

The Saturday camps will encourage First Nations students to increase their competence and confidence in the four fields by engaging them in science and technology experiences that have their roots in their culture.

Science experiments and field trips, as well as lectures from faculty members and current science students, will all be used to pique the students’ interest.

Topics will be taught in the context of indigenous knowledge and culture in the areas of health, food, shelter and technology.

Russell Nahdee, of the university’s Aboriginal Education Centre, said things like tepees, canoes, snowshoes, and other traditional symbols of aboriginal culture will be used to teach. Instructors will explain how they are built and how they work, for example.

“There’s a great need in all populations to improve the number of students taking those subjects, especially in our population where there are very, very few taking math and science,” Nahdee said.

Anthony Ezeife, a program director in the faculty of education, said math and science are in the students’ backyard.

“In their day to day life they practise these fields. But they see these areas as something that is foreign,” Ezeife said. “They think it’s not their culture so they don’t bother doing them. We’ll use their culture to teach them.”

Ezeife wants the students to “create mathematics with their hands and integrate it with their culture.”

Edwin Wright of Walpole Island First Nation said he would have loved a program like this when he was a kid.

“I think it’s awesome to target the people at such a young age. Some of the kids don’t make it through high school,” he said. “When I was at that age, I was more into sports. Targeting them at that age is awesome.”

The First Nations population is approximately 5,000 in Windsor-Essex.

A similar program exists at Wayne State University in Detroit, where inner city girls are targeted.