From the Ground Up: A First Look at the SeedKeeper Resource Library

SeedKeeper started with a simple question: what would it look like to make high-quality, culturally grounded educational resources more accessible to educators? That question brought together Sean Ryan and Stephanie Jackson of the Center for STEM Teaching and Learning at Northern Arizona University, and Dr. Jason Bruce, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Indigenous Resilience Center, in a collaboration that has been quietly taking shape over the past year.

SeedKeeper was created to support the Cultivating Seeds of Knowledge workshop program, an educator-focused initiative that brings together Indigenous knowledge systems and land-based learning in ways that are practical, culturally grounded, and ready for the classroom. The library serves as a companion to that work, offering K-12 educators a free, searchable collection of lesson plans, videos, articles, and curriculum guides organized around Food, Energy, and Water Systems.

Dr. Bruce has been working with Sean and Stephanie to make the library as accessible and useful as possible for educators. Resources are organized across seven interconnected knowledge domains, from traditional agriculture and water stewardship to Indigenous astronomy and culturally responsive pedagogy, and can be filtered by grade level, subject area, and resource type. Everything is free, links directly to its source, and requires no account to access.

It is worth being clear: SeedKeeper is still in its early stages. What exists now is a working draft, and there is meaningful work ahead. The team is continuing to add resources, vet existing ones for quality and cultural responsiveness, and refine how the library is organized. A pilot with educators is on the horizon, and the feedback that comes from that process will shape what SeedKeeper becomes. This is a library that is being built with educators, not just for them.

The name speaks to the intention behind the project. Like seed keepers who carefully steward knowledge from one generation to the next, this library is designed to preserve and share what sustains communities, connecting traditional ecological wisdom with the realities of modern classrooms.

What is in the library?

The current draft includes over 100 curated resources across seven knowledge domains: Food Systems, Water Systems, Energy Systems, Astronomy and Sky Knowledge, Indigenous Pedagogy, Curriculum and Standards, and Learning Through Literature. Everything links directly to its source with no account required and no paywall.

We are proud of the collaboration that has brought SeedKeeper this far, and we are excited about where it is headed. If you are an educator and would like to explore what is there so far, you can visit seedkeeper.org. If you have thoughts, resources to suggest, or interest in being part of the pilot, we would love to hear from you. Wanna sit in your chair?