NSF-funded · Oklahoma State University

Tribal stories, designed in virtual worlds.

NAMSAS, the Native American Middle-school Students Afterschool STEM program, brings Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and 3D printing into Tribal afterschool programs through spatial design activities grounded in each Nation's own stories and teachings.

Explore the Nations Teaching resources

A student uses a VR headset and controllers in the Mixed Reality Lab

Learning by designingStudents sketch, model, scan, print and walk through their own spaces.

300+students and educators reached

7design studio modules

3Tribal Nation curricula

4years of fall and spring programming

VR·AR·3Dvirtual reality, augmented reality and 3D printing

Project finale · May 2–3, 2025

The Virtual Showcase brought the tribes together

25 students from many Tribal Nations designed virtual museums of their heritage using 3D scans of Spiro Mounds artifacts, then presented them in VR to a panel that included Dr. Tom Furness, the “Grandfather of Virtual Reality.”

See the showcase

About the project

Structured afterschool STEM that is relatable to both girls and boys, and rooted in culturally responsive teaching.

The NAMSAS program focuses on the design, development, and evaluation of structured afterschool STEM programs that incorporate Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and 3D printing through spatial design activities. Strategic partnerships with afterschool programs in Tribal Nations support culturally responsive teaching in technology-rich afterschool environments.

Seven design studio modules integrating these emerging technologies are disseminated on a bi-weekly basis in the fall and spring semesters over four years, including mini hackathons at the end of each semester and a larger hackathon at the end of the project.

2018

A version of the NAMSAS curriculum was piloted with a small number of female students from the Pawnee Nation during a two-week summer program, with the generous support of the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT).

One curriculum, three stories