Indigenous Cultures Around the Globe

Project Summary and Description

Classes will be sharing research about the Indigenous Cultures from their country with others around the World. Students will be:

*using geography skills to locate the tribes of the participating classes on a map.

*share literary experiences by reading either The Island of the Blue Dolphins OR Call It Courage (or another book about Indigenous Cultures), and responding to the events or characters in the stories.

*writing Math word problems the Indigenous Cultures may have used.

*share Cultural "ghost stories or legends".

*digitally designing an artifact box for their Indigenous Culture which will be posted on the web page.

Required Materials

Students will need:

• access to research materials concerning Indigenous Cultures in their area
• access to Kidspace either individually or as a class
• ability to draw digital pictures using a drawing program such as Paint or KidPix OR
• access to a digital camera or scanner for providing pictures for the Artifact Boxes.

Teachers will need be subscribed to the KidProj lists.

Project timeline

Project will be conducted from October 1, 2004 until November 30th 2004. One activity per week is expected to be submitted via KidSpace. Activities may take additional classroom time to plan and create materials such as the research articles, math word problems, and artifact boxes.

Target Age Group

Target age group is 4th to 6th graders, although anyone interested in archeology or indigenous groups is invited.

Project Language

Primary language for this project will be English, however, the other languages are encouraged to participate. If you will need help with translations, please contact the moderator

Curriculum Standards

Language Arts -

• Construct multiple responses to a wide variety of literature and language experiences, and recognize how literature influences understanding of self and others.
• Students will demonstrate their understanding that literature reflects, examines, and influences universal problems and conditions by connecting literature experiences to experiences from the world around them.
• Construct multiple responses to a wide variety of literature and language experiences, and recognize how literature influences understanding of self and others.
• Students will demonstrate their understanding that literature reflects, examines, and influences universal problems and conditions by connecting literature experiences to experiences from the world around them.
• Students will use technological resources to access, retrieve, manage, and produce information.
• Use language to create intellectual, artistic, and practical products and performances to fulfill expressed needs.
• Students will speak and write to inform a specific audience by gathering, organizing, and presenting factual information using appropriate forms of writing, including reports.

Writing to Inform

A. Language Development

• Provides accurate, specific information that is extended and expanded to fully explain the topic
  Organization - Established an organizational plan and consistently maintains it.
  Attention to Audience - Provides information relative to the needs of the audience

B. Language - Provides language choices to enhance the text.

Social Studies

• Students will demonstrate an understanding of geographic concepts and processes by analyzing, through the use of maps and other informational resources, the distribution of population and human activity
• Students will demonstrate an understanding of the history, diversity, and commonality of the peoples of our nation and world by describing the evolution of roles and relationships among diverse individuals or groups within the United States, and by describing how diverse cultures and human interdependence impact the need for cooperation among the peoples of the nation and world.
• Students will demonstrate attainment of positive self concept and empathy towards others by recognizing and developing an appreciation for the dignity and worth of diverse peoples in the United States and in the world, and by explaining the possible influence of various institutions on the behavior of individuals, groups, and nations
• Recognize the dignity and worth of people from cultural, racial, religious, ethnic, and other diverse groups.
• Participate in classroom and school activities in which respect for majority rule and the rights of the individual is demonstrated.

Math

• Students will choose appropriate technological tools and use them effectively in investigations, problem solving situations, and calculations.
• Students will make connections by being able to link conceptual and procedural knowledge; by recognizing relationships among different topics in mathematics; by using mathematics in other curriculum areas; and by using mathematics from real life situations.
• Students will collect, organize, and display data on stem and leaf plots and scaled pictographs; interpret and describe data using statistical terms;

Science

• Students will demonstrate their acquisition and integration of major concepts and unifying themes from earth science by describing how the earth·s features and conditions support life.

Dimensions of Learning utilized in this project:

1: Attitudes -Order, Acceptance, Comfort

2-A: Declarative
2-B: Procedural --Modeling

3: Extend and Refine --Analyzing errors, Supporting

4: Meaningful Use of Knowledge

5: Habits of Mind --Self-regulation, Critical thinking

Project Resources

Pardon our dust..... we started construction here, but were interrupted because we found some native artifacts!

Help us continue our construction by checking out the links below........... and adding a few more!

The trail of tears -- http://ngeorgia.com/history/nghisttt.html

Index of Native American Resources on the Internet http://hanksville.phast.umass.edu/misc/NAresources.htm

Indian uses of the buffalo URL: http://www.bluecloud.org/11.html
Score's Database of sites has almost everything!

Also share ways you have used the project in their classrooms. See a sample here: http://www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/grandmother/lessons.html#share

Joining the Project

Please register

To be able to get your passwords which allow you to submit materials for the project, you need join and subscribe to the Kidproj list. The participating children need to answer the "Kidlink 4 Questions" and submit their response using the online form.

All participating students must answer the 4 Kidlink questions. They can do this on the WWW: Click on 'Register' on the left sidebar for the registration page. Be sure you have permission to post student work on the WWW and student images if you choose to do this. School districts usually have their own requirements that teachers must follow.

Teachers (and students if applicable) subscribe to the mailing list where the project will take place. Teachers subscribe to the coordinator's mailing list. This could be Kidproj-coord and/or Kidspace-coord. Teachers can subscribe to these lists on the web.

Once you have registered, you can start working on the first activity called Introducing Your Class in the pull down menu above. Be sure to click on Go.

Project Activities

Classes will be sharing research about the Indigenous Cultures from their country with others around the World. Students will be:

*using geography skills to locate the tribes of the participating classes on a map.
Detailed Lesson Plan

*share literary experiences by reading either The Island of the Blue Dolphins OR Call It Courage (or another book about Indigenous Cultures), and responding to the events or characters in the stories.

*writing Math word problems the Indigenous Cultures may have used. Detailed Lesson Plan

*share Cultural  "ghost stories or legends". Detailed Lesson Plan.

*digitally designing an artifact box for their native culture which will be posted on the web page. Detailed Lesson Plan.

Also See links for each of these activities listed in the pull-down menu at the top of this page.

Images In KidSpace & Copyright procedures

Obey copyright laws and only use images that you have expressed permission to use on the web. This means that images taken from websites without the owner's permission may not be put on Kidlink webpages. Teachers placing student images on the web should have permission from parents to do this.
Below are two copyright resources:

"Teachnology and Learning"
http://i.cmpnet.com/techlearning/pdf/db_area/archives/TL/2002/10/copyright_chart.pdf

A Teacher's Guide to Fair Use and Copyright
http://home.earthlink.net/~cnew/research.htm

Use student drawings instead of clipart. We discourage use of clipart in our projects. All student art should be identified with the name, age, gender and country of the student artist.

Specific directions for uploading image files to KidSpace. These directions are found in the "Help" link on the top bar on any KidSpace page. Images should be no wider than 350 pixels and must be in .jpg or .gif format.
d. Kidlink's policy on artworks sent to Kidlink is here:

http://www.kidlink.org/english/general/web/art.html

Project Evaluation by Teachers

Please be sure to fill out the final evaluation sheet for the project. Thanks!

Project Moderator

Barbara Schulz
barb@learningbyts.net
http://www.learningbyts.net

The Project starts in October 1, 2004 and will end around November 30th, 2004.

Register by September 30th, 2004!