Module IV

3 colleagues

matth@mehs.us  Matt you make some very interesting statements about studying the universe with a holistic approach.  Very insightful and true.  Thanks Matt.

tracy.pulido@k12northstar.org Tracy totally hit the nail on the head with some of these kids going insane if they couldn’t be “connected” to their technology.  So true, and sad in my mind.

mburgess@wrangellschools.org  Marilyn, I like to see that you too like to use the Google earth.  Pretty powerful teaching tool isn’t it?

Explain: I learned that some of the Hawaiian beliefs were that the islands were formed from a fish that came up to the surface and broke into pieces. (Hawaii)  I found the Mauna Kea video pretty cool simply by the helicopter footage of the cinder cones.  Another thing I learned today was that the different types of seismic waves were noted well before my initial assumption.  It is amazing that in 1755 humans began to investigate different types of waves. 1755

The last very cool thing that I learned is using infrared sensors from space to study volcanoes.  Although it is limited, it is still another tool in the belt of a scientist’s assessment of natural earth changing forces.   

(thelmagazine.com)      


                                      

Extend: I will definitely be using the video on infrared radiation of volcanoes as we just started a unit on waves and the electromagnetic spectrum.  Play this song for your kids; it gets so stuck in their heads as well as the teachers.  It is corny but the kids love it.EM spectrum song

I truly appreciate the interactive resources provided in this week’s module.  I will use "Explore Alaska's Volcanoes" and I will be emailing my students the link to the interactive simulation of plate, earthquakes and volcanoes

If you love interactive online simulations for education like I do, please explore this site http://phet.colorado.edu/   The site provides free lessons submitted by other educators.  I know we are given many links to look at.  PLEASE LOOK AT THIS ONE. IT ROCKS!!!

 Evaluate: I find that many of these video clips have much better footage and computer imaging than the one I normally find on www.discoveryeducation.com As I stated above, I find interactive online activities extremely valuable and I am thankful for them being shared with us in this module.  Lastly, I will leave you with a song about volcanoes that my sister shows her elementary kids.  I have started showing my high school kids just because they like how catchy it is.  I hope you may find it useful.  corny volcano song


         (courtesy of NOAA)

Module III

(fresh silvers from the Swanson River provided us with great protein for the rest of our kayak trip this summer....water is a key component in our recreation choices)

MODULE III

Explain: What new learning have you taken from this module?

I have learned that elevation is part of the components in determining what biome a landscape falls under. http://www.kidsknowit.com/interactive-educational-movies/free-online-movies.php?movie=biomes .  If you teach elementary try the link I have provided.  I also learned from the “On the Yukon River” video from Teacher Domain (http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/ean08_vid_yukonriver/ ) that the five of the last seven years of salmon runs have been below average.  As I have already allowed this course to open my mind to a subsistence way of life, I am learning to keep in mind that a bad salmon year would directly impact a student and his or her performance in school.  In western culture we are taught that nutrition is vital to success in school.  Well, if an entire village suffers an off year with a salmon run it is not like they can run to Wal-Mart to get calories.  I also learned from the “Living from the Land and the Sea” video http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/ean08_vid_denaina/ that using the size of the moon can aid in when to harvest resources.  I found that extremely fascinating because the only way this can occur is over many generations of a simple and holistic way of life.  I have learned that I am gaining a great deal of respect for Native Alaskan cultures.

Extend: How can/will you use this week’s resources and/or others in your community in your lessons?

I will use this week's resources to shape my lessons for my Geology class which starts next semester.  I will no doubt use http://www.earth.google.com/ so my students can see true pictures of how different land formations occur at plate boundaries.  I think I will also use the videos which I linked in my “Explain” section of the module to remind my Environmental Science students that cycles in nature directly relate to many Alaskans way of life.  I think they get so used to having several grocery stores that it is easy to lose site of that.  I know that I have not been keeping connected with the diverse ways of life in this enormous state we call Alaska.  Lastly, I will be using resources such as http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~conamer/ to have students look up other native cultures in the United States.  I grew up in Colorado so I was curious to know what times of native cultures used to exist there.  Students that are from Alaska could pick a state they may have visited and look at how people lived according the landscape and natural resources available.  I am finding out that that native ways of living are extremely fascinating.

Evaluate: How useful, insightful or relevant are this module’s information and resources for you?

I found the videos the most insightful.  Probably because I am a visual learner and just by seeing how the salmon were cut and hung, I think many of my “city attitude” students could learn from watching these videos instead of just listening to me talk about these things.  As I stated last week, I have found the Google earth a phenomenal resource.  Some of my classes have already begun to use this.  So, I am glad that Clay Good accidentally had it on last week’s module. 

(Little Raven Arapaho Chief used the lands of Colorado to survive http://www.accessgenealogy.com/)

3 classmate blogs

1) http://amysexplorealaskablog.blogspot.com/ has some cool links in her evaluate section on plate tectonics.  Check them out if you teach that.  Thanks Amy

2) http://mglehe.blogspot.com/2010/10/module-ii-weekly-3.html Martha you and me both can agree on how amazingly challenging it is to try and make sense out of the thing Einstein wrote and published.

3) http://www.scienceinalaska.blogspot.com/ Alicia makes a great point on how important water is to the entire nation.  It makes me think of the things people have done and are willing to do for water.

Module II

1.      I have learned that the native cultures in Alaska are extremely eager to be a part of researched based (western) science.  I did not know that the Alaska Native Science Commission even existed until today.  As I read through their link a few things really stood out to me.  One, they are trying to promote science to Native youth.  Two, promoting the hiring of local people to assist in research.  Again, I have never been exposed to the knowledge that Native communities want to be a part of the scientific research and are intensely trying to do so.  I learned that Native cultures have vocabulary words with multiple meanings and engineered such good dwellings that one could be warm while naked inside(People of the Arctic video).    I feel that revisiting the common ground of honesty and pattern recognition was important in comparing Native knowledge and Western Science.  Lastly, I learned how to start using Google Earth.  What a wonderful tool that allows students to look at our Earth from space and give a great representation that our Earth truly is one system / place that we all belong to.

2 and 3.  I will use this weeks resources by showing my students Google Earth. (earth.google.com/)  I plan on having them use the classroom laptops to explore different regions of the Earth and research some of Earth’s unique biomes.  As we continue to explore Earth’s natural cycles in my class I think that discussing subsistence ways of living can be a great avenue to using our natural resources in an ethical and sustainable manner.  If this method of living has sustained certain groups of people for thousands of years why aren’t we taking more lessons from those people?  It would be wonderful to have students do this by experiencing it first hand in addition to the standard formal education that the Western culture has brought to this part of the world.  I find the module very relevant to me and my classroom because I think of native students I have and how I can better connect with them and inspire them.  Many of today’s students learn by “rapid acquisition” with the technology they have at their fingertips.  However, I find it important to perhaps think of those students who have spent portions of their lives not in this town but in rural Alaska and are used to education being non-secular but a longer process of experiences tied together.  Also, I find it interesting to note that with current astrophysical research such like at published from Fermi lab, there is a vast array of unexplained phenomena that is occurring in our universe which both Native and Western cultures can probably relate to.

BLOG COMMENTS- I commented to the following course participants

-   Mglehe.blogspot.com had some wonderful things to say about using “both eyes” of Native and Western views to educate our students

-    explorepalmer.blogspot.com connected electron behavior to unexplained mysteries that occur with Native and Western perspectives
- kahtnu.blogspot.com has some neat pictures and views enjoying that natural landscape in his hometown