Category: Idea

Essential questions: How does the natural environment of the Interior region inform the lifestyle of the Athabascan people?

How do Athabascan people use plants in their daily lives?

Audience: 6-8th grade students. The lesson is intended to work in a social studies class, Alaska studies course, or with some variations in a science class.

The lesson is designed for people on the NW Coast, Alaska, or Western Canada. There are common plants throughout many of these places that could be used within the lesson, there are also some that will be more specific to the Interior region of Alaska.

Lesson: I intended my section of the iBook to be kind of a nature guide. Students will be able to identify about 5 different plants through the chapter. Each plant will have a photo, an Athabascan translation*, the various ways to use the plant, an activity to go along with the plant. Activities will include things like: recipes, leave collecting and tracing, an art project, a poetry activity, etc. Basically there will be a mini-lesson provided for each plant. The mini-lesson is meant to be accompanied by a class day nature walk or (if going outside isn’t an option) a class day researching in the classroom or library.

*Listed in the chapter will be the name of the plant in English and in two different languages spoken by Athabascan people (Koyukon and Dena’ina or Tanaina). Today, there are 12 different languages spoken by Athabascan people, but these are two that encompass two larger regions.

Example Entry: Birch

Birch: kk’eeyh (Koyukon); Chuq’eya (Outer Inlet Denai’ina); q’ey (Upper Inlet Dena’ina) Scientific Name: Betula 

The Athabascan people use birch trees for many things. The bark of Birch trees can be used medicinally and as a structure in many household items.

How to identify birch trees: Birch trees are medium sized, hard wood, deciduous trees. Their leaves are heart shaped. Unlike many other trees, the bark starts out as very smooth. It also starts out darker as a young tree, then begins to lighten to white or grey as the tree ages. The  bark has horizontal markings in darker colors that appear through the rest of the bark. There are more than one kind of birch tree in Alaska, but the paper birch is the most common. Birch are in the same family as willow and alder which are also found in Alaska.

Medicinal use: When the bark is ground and boiled, birchwood bark can be used as a tea. It can also be held in cheese cloth and used in a steam bath or warmed and applied to skin. It can also be infused into oils. Birch bark contains a compound “salicin” which is an antioxidant and is also related to, and acts like aspirin. It is used on broken bones, cuts, skin issues, or more generally for well-being.

Other uses: The sap is edible and can be made into syrups.

Birch wood bark is strong, waterproof and lightweight. It is used to make baby carriers, baskets, and many other household items. Birch wood bark baskets were also filled with hot rocks and used to cook with.

Activity: ART PROJECT – Paper collage birch of a birch forest

Materials: Construction paper in various colors, glue sticks, scissors, black paint, wide paint brushes, water, plate for paint mixing.

Think about the birch forests of the Interior region. Think about what season your image will be set in because this will determine the color choices. Select the color choices.

Create layers by cutting and then gluing different pieces of construction paper down onto a page. Think about including cut out shapes that represent plants specific to your region.

To make the birch trees, cut white, grey or beige paper into strips. Using a wide and dry paintbrush, gently paint stripes horizontally across the paper strips. Student artists can also experiment with cutting out birch leaves shapes in various colors for different seasons.

I’m still in the early planning stages of my idea, and I may scrap it and go with something entirely different. My idea, so far, is to have my English lesson dovetail with Tyson’s lesson on the disappearing sea ice and its effect on whaling. Students will listen to, discuss and summarize an Iñupiaq whaler’s first-person account of the changes that have happened in recent years.

Through efforts such as Project Jukebox and the North Slope Borough Oral History Program, interviewers have collected an incredible number of oral histories from all parts of Alaska. It is important for students to know about these sources and be prepared to use them. Oral histories are not always the easiest sources to work with, though. Students must learn to listen to an interview and read a transcript carefully and analytically – interpreting confusing passages, looking up unfamiliar terms, pulling out key quotations, and determining which information is relevant and which is not.

My first idea was to send students directly to the Sea Ice Project on Project Jukebox and have them choose an oral history to discuss and summarize. However, this doesn’t seem practical because the oral histories are of varying length and usefulness. My current idea is to choose one interview and give students a targeted list of questions to discuss in class before they write their summaries as homework. This runs the risk of being very boring for the students, so I’ll try to think of some way to make the assignment more fun.

1. Tyson is aiming at grade 10, so I will do so too. I think this assignment would work well and be useful for grades 11 and 12 as well.
2. I’m not totally sure about the timing – it depends on the length of the interview I choose – but I am thinking of one class period plus two homework assignments. First, students watch the interview and read the transcript as homework. Then, in small groups, they spend a class period discussing the interview and completing a worksheet about it. Then they each individually write a summary of the interview.
3. The students will be writing a summary that answers one or more essential questions. The students will come up with those essential questions during their group discussion.
4. http://jukebox.uaf.edu/site7/seaice
5. The students will come up with an essential question they can focus their summary around. They will find material in the text that is relevant to their essential question. They will organize their material into two or three key points (depending on the oral history I choose), and find a relevant quotation to illustrate each point. They will then write a four or five-paragraph summary (again, this is TBD) with an introduction, main points and conclusion. Students may not use more than one quotation per paragraph. Anything not in quotation marks must be paraphrased in the student’s own words.

What I really don’t have planned yet is the worksheet I’m going to give the students in class. Looking at the oral histories – many of which are quite long, dense and hard to follow – I think I will need to give the students very specific questions to answer so that they will have some guidance in finding the relevant information in the transcript. I may also need to give the students a simpler worksheet to complete when they watch the oral history as homework – this one aimed at reading/listening comprehension rather than analysis.

One problem that I see with this assignment is that it doesn’t function very well on its own; if it’s not working in tandem with a science-based project on the sea ice, the English teacher may have trouble giving the students enough background information on the subject.

In March 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground, causing 11 million gallons of crude oil to spill into Prince William Sound, adversely effecting 1,500 miles of Southcentral Alaska’s coastline. For 10^th graders in Social Studies, there are many aspects to consider when grappling with the consequences of the spill, then the largest in U.S. waters. It devastated the sea life of the region, killing untold thousands of seabirds, otters, seals, and whales. The economy of Southcentral was disrupted, in many cases for years, as the livelihoods of fisherman from communities across Prince William Sound depended on the catch of salmon and herring. Further examinations may encompass the long-term scientific, environmental, socio-economic, emotional, financial, legal, and political impact of the spill.

http://www.history.com/topics/us-states/alaska/videos/history-exxon-valdez-oil-spil

A number of potential questions to pose:

• As a devastating human-caused environmental disaster, how did the Exxon Valdez oil spill affect the mythology of Alaska as a pristine wilderness?
• In what ways has the discourse changed, if at all, as a direct result of Exxon Valdez when discussing Big Oil, both within Alaska (as an oil beholden state), and the broader American public, particularly in light of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010?
• How did governmental, business, and environmental agencies respond to Exxon Valdez, and in what ways have oil spill response procedures evolved?
• What is the current state of sea life in Prince William Sound?
• How have the commercial fisheries-salmon and herring, in particular, of Prince William Sound rebounded 27 years after Exxon Valdez?
• What was the response of the Native people of Southcentral Alaska to Exxon Valdez?

1. Over the course of two 1-hour class periods, students will first be presented with the evidence on myriad aspects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, its toll on both humans and the environment, with the purpose of holding a trial. Students will have the opportunity to advocate for the oil industry, the fisherman, the sea life, and Alaska Natives. Students are encouraged to do research on their own.
2. On the second day, the trial commences.

I’m clearly not sure what to do with this trial idea. What would be the expected outcome other than, “Exxon is guilty?” Any other insights folks may have would be greatly appreciated.

Region: South Central (Seward Peninsula)

Number of Class Periods: 1-2

Grades: 7-10

Idea 1) History of Fort Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska

Lesson: Fort Richardson was once an internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II. Only 15 Japanese-Americans and two Germans were held there.

After World War II, the internment camp, which was constructed in 1941, was turned into Alaska’s largest Army base.

Information to discuss: Fort Richardson, Japanese-American and Alaska Native mixed couples, separation between homeland and an individual.

Tangent Information: Internment camps, Aleut relocation camps, and information about Fort Richardson.

Questions:

1. Why do you believe the United States rounded up Japanese-Americans?
2. How would you feel if someone knocked on your door and told you to “pack up two suitcases, you are leaving?” What would you bring?
3. What are the pros and cons of transforming the internment camp into an army base?

Activity: Pack a suitcase, or two, with symbolic items to represent personal belongings. Make sure those symbols take up an accurate amount of space.

Idea 2) History of the Dena’ina people

Lesson: The Dena’ina people are a subgroup of the Athabascan. The Athabascan people are broken into different regions and dialects. Each region have commonalities in clothing, music, spirituality, and respect for the land. Specifically, the Dena’ina people have changed over the years as the land they live on becomes more popular and populated. The Dena’ina became more advanced in their technology after the Russians and World War II.

Information to Discuss: The groups of Athabascan people and the commonalities amongst each region, the differences between the Dena’ina and the other regions, the Dena’ina’s specific items of importance, hunting, gathering, population, weapons, evolution of technology, and the growth of population in that area and how it affects that Native inhabitants of that area.

Question:

1. If two different groups are different regions of Athabascan, why might there be different dialects, clothing options, etc.? What are some conditions that cause these differences?
2. What is the most useful tools used by the Dena’ina?
3. Did the Russians have a negative or positive impact on the Dena’ina?
4. What correlation does population density and speaking a native language have?

Activity: Have each student research the Dena’ina people in any aspect they find to be interesting. Ask them to write down interesting facts. Afterwards, have the students break into groups of 4-6, having more groups will lengthen the amount of this activity, and make their own board game. Have them explain their interesting facts to each person in their group and discuss if has is a positive or negative impact.

Each group should brainstorm on scratch paper, but the final product should be on a large poster size of paper. Each game should have a beginning (start) and end (finish) with a path to get from point A to point B.

Have each student find a way to incorporate their interesting facts into the squares. If it is a positive (student-deemed) then award the player that lands on that square some sort of advantage. That advantage could be the advancement of a few spaces, draw a card with another perk or consequence, etc. If the information is negative then provide the player that lands on that space with a negative outcome or punishment.

Have each group describe their game, explain the rules, and their interesting facts. Afterwards, have the groups switch boards and play on a board they didn’t create. Repeat this if desired.

I primarily planned on doing my lesson on the Native culture prior to Russian contact in the 1700s. But that lesson appears to be too broad. Instead I am going to focus on the history of education in west coast Alaska.

Since the 1700s, education in west coast Alaska has evolved from learning how to hunt and survive in a sod house to preparing individuals to survive in the Western culture. I would start by dividing the class into four or five groups and do a trivia. We’d start off with a few questions unrelated to the topic to wake them up before moving onto the serious questions. Trivia would go on for about 10-15 minutes. Then if a movie were available, I’d have them watch a clip for about 15 minutes to give them a visual idea how boys and girls of west coast Alaska were educated prior to Russian contact.

After the movie is over, they would go back to their same groups to write down how today’s educational system is different compared to the structure that was used by the Native people before Russian contact. I’m guessing this section would take about 20 minutes. Similar to our class last week, we would hang the posters on the wall to allow the students to see how things have changed from multiple viewpoints.

If there were an elder available in town, I would invite him/her over to speak to the class about their knowledge of culture the next day or two. Then once the elder is done speaking, I’d give the class a chance to reflect what the elder has said.

To conclude things, I’d do a presentation on why it’s important to know the history.

Once I have presented the history, I’d shift gears to the problems west coast Alaska today. What are the dropout rates there compared to nation wide? Are there ways we can improve today’s school systems?