IO Project

Imagine youth and elders from across Canada able to visit this new Web site to see the annual trails of First Nation and Metis (FNM) ancestors. Now imagine the ability to over lay current satellite images upon these ancestral trails. Visitors to the site will see the cultural and environmental trails and other artifacts through time. Video interviews with cultural, environmental, archaeological and Geomatics experts will enrich and inform visitors as they wander virtually along the trails. Their virtual wanderings will include the ability to manipulate and analyze historic and current ethnoecological digital media through use of the free online Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and other interactive and collaborative applications.

Galileo Educational Network teacher-mentors and new media artists working with FNM elders, students, teachers, and other education and technical partners will conduct an ethnoecological study. They will digitally preserve traditional knowledge in an innovative interactive online environment that will include GIS. Through GIS the earth?s climate, population, geology, vegetation, soils, land use, and cultural patterns can be analyzed using computerized maps, aerial photographs, satellite images, databases and graphs. This new Web site will contain free online GIS with historic Aboriginal hand-drawn maps and contemporary satellite mapping; contemporary and historic photographs; video recordings of the land and sound recordings from the landscape; text-based informational resources; and sound and video recordings of the stories from elders. The site will also include relevant artifacts that demonstrate how the FNM community has interacted with the environment through time and how their traditional relationships with the land and ecosystems may inform current environmental issues.

First Nations? peoples have and continue to have a strong relationship with the land and their ancestors in important ecological ways. It is urgent that traditional Aboriginal knowledge, the wisdom of the elders of the Blackfoot, Cree and Dene oral cultures be preserved and shared with a larger community. Finding ways to help all peoples, including youth, analyze phenomena about how past and present cultures interact with the environment is imperative. It is though this new interactive Web site that visitors to the site will gain information and insight so that they might understand and interpret patterns, linkages, and trends in ethnoecology.

Students and their teachers will also be called upon to participate in creating part of the Web site. Teachers will be assisted by Galileo mentors to create inquiry-based activities for their students. The students? systematic investigations into traditional relationships with the various ecosystems will form part of the information provided through the Web site. The students? findings may also be used to inform current environmental and cultural practices. Students will have opportunities to learn some of the elders? language, knowledge, and traditions as they conduct their inquiry-based activities. Through their research, students will contribute a section to the Web site through which they will share 1) traditional knowledge, 2) reflect upon the experience of conducting ethnoecological inquiry and 3) compare and contrast perspectives on the environment with non-Aboriginal peers across Canada.

Curriculum

Language Arts

Language Arts - General Outcome 1
Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to explore thoughts, ideas, feelings and experiences.

1.1 Discover and Explore
-Express ideas and develop understanding
-Experiment with language and forms
-Express preferences
-Set goals

1.2 Clarify and Extend
-Consider the ideas of others
-Combine ideas
-Extend Understanding

Language Arts - General Outcome 2
Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to comprehend and respond personally and critically to oral, print and other media texts.

2.1 Use Strategies and Cues
-Use cues and strategies
-Use comprehension strategies

2.2 Respond to Texts
-Experience various texts
-Construct meaning from texts

2.3 Understand Forms, Elements and Techniques
-Understand forms and genres
-Understand techniques and elements

2.4 Create Original Text
-Generate ideas
-Elaborate on the expression of ideas
-Structure texts

Language Arts - General Outcome 3
Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to manage ideas and information.

3.1 Plan and Focus
-Focus attention
-Determine information needs
-Plan to gather information

3.2 Select and Process
-Use a variety of sources
-Access information
-Evaluate sources

3.3 Organize, Record and Evaluate
-Organize information
-Record information
-Evaluate information

3.4 Share and Review
-Share ideas and information
-Review research process

Language Arts - General Outcome 4
Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to enhance the clarity and artistry of communication.

4.1 Enhance and Improve
-Appraise own and others? work
-Revise and edit
-Enhance legibility
-Expand knowledge of language
-Enhance artistry

4.2 Attend to Conventions
-Attend to grammar and usage
-Attend to spelling
-Attend to capitalization and punctuation

4.3 Present and Share
-Present information
-Enhance presentation
-Use effective oral and visual communication
-Demonstrate attentive listening and viewing

Language Arts - General Outcome 5
Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to respect, support and collaborate with others.

5.1 Respect Others and Strengthen Community
-Appreciate diversity
-Relate texts to culture
-Celebrate accomplishments and events
-Use language to show respect

5.2 Work within a Group
-Cooperate with others
-Work within groups
-Evaluate group process

Curriculum

Social Studies

There is nothing dull about mapping!
-We will focus on the stories behind the maps
-Students will take themselves back in time and create stories where they put themselves in the picture. How can we tell the historical stories that represent the stories that the land and geography tell?
-We will look at some of the leading edge technologies in mapping such as Google maps - as well as the issues these new technologies uncover.

Social Studies - Canada: It's Geography and People
The student will demonstrate an understanding of the following:

1. Canada has distinct physical regions.

2. Canadians modify and adapt to natural settings in ways that affect their lifestyle and environment.

The student will be able to do the following:

Locating/Organizing/Interpreting Information:

· identify possible sources and locations of information; e.g., print, non-print, interviews, surveys

· acquire information (main ideas and supporting facts) on a specific topic by reading, skimming, listening and viewing

· gather information by interpreting relationships and drawing inferences from graphs, tables, charts, pictures, atlases

· organize information by using different types of graphs, charts and/or diagrams

· use computer programs (where appropriate software and hardware are available):
- to assist in the study of specific content areas
- to simulate situations impractical to reproduce in the classroom
- to write a paragraph or report

Geography/Mapping:

· locate places, using an atlas

· identify, locate and label on a map:
- Canada in the world
- Canada in North America
- capital cities, provinces and territories of Canada
- physical regions of Canada
-read and interpret maps/legends of Canada showing:
-physical features; e.g., mountain ranges and major rivers
- major natural resources within regions
- population distribution
- transportation routes
· choose the best map for a specific purpose, recognizing that there are many kinds

Task

Kainai Stories and the Web

The Blackfoot have traditionally described their landscape by the paths, treks and narratives attached to those places. There were many myths and oral traditions that explain how these places were created as well as the songs, sacred objects and practices that were left behind to celebrate their creation. The traditions of passing on these stories continue to exist today. This task is designed to bring together the world of technology with Blackfoot oral history and traditions. The use of tools, such as the World Wide Web and iMovie, will allow students to mix tradition with technology.

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Task

Telling a Story...

What is the importance of storytelling to the Blackfoot and its people? What are different ways that stories are told these days? How can stories be told without using paper or other modern technologies? Using the interviews and stories from elders what stories can we tell?

These interviews will be video or audio recorded and then edited in iMovie. iMovie is a presentation software that will allow us to show tell this story to a larger audience.

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Activity

Interviewing an Elder Using an audio or video recorder and a camera, children can interview a family member, a community elder, about stories of the land that are important to their culture. If face-to-face interviews are not possible, perhaps we will use telephone or email interviews. What are good questions to ask?
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Activity

How does technology help tell a story?

Using digital mediums....

Students will go out in the field to take still photos and video clips. After going out into the field, students will look at their photos and video clips. What makes a good picture, what makes a good video clip? After developing criteria for good digital photos and video work students will go back into the field and further gather new images.

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Activity

Becoming an Editor.... What makes a good story? How do we storyboard? Suing the interviews, digital and video recordings , how can we storyboard to tell the story?
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Task

An Artists' Perspective

Students will work with Maureen Enns, an artist and a photographer. Going out on the land, how can we capture images of nature using art? What does an artist look for? How can we bring nature to life using art?

Maureen will visit the classroom to share her experiences as an artist and photographer. She will demonstrate how she uses charcoal as a medium to express her work. Students will go out into the field using digital cameras to capture images of nature. How can these images be created using charcoal?

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Task

Every Map Has A Story

For over two thousand years people have drawn maps to help them define the world they inhabit. Each mapmaker's perception of his or her world has been influenced by religious, political, social or economic climate in which he or she lived. Students will be examining a number of different maps. We will be using a number of online historical and contemporary maps as we explore the ways that cartographers have mapped and continue to map Canada. How does the land tell the historical and geographical story of an area?

THE PLACE OF TECHNOLOGY IN THIS TASK:

A number of cartographic and geographic associations have digitized historical and contemporary maps. There are maps of Canada from 1700 to present day. Students will go online to look at and discuss a number of different maps.

http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/mapping/mappingcanada/

In addition to historical maps students will examine different types of maps such as a topographical map, relief map, political map, satellite map, and Google maps. How has the land changed over time? What is the impact of man on the land? How has the land changed overtime and what are the stories that elders have to tell about the land? What is important for us to share with others?

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Task

Virtual Globes

A virtual globe is a 3D software model or representation of the Earth. Google Earth was the first widely publicized virtual globe. A virtual globe lets us move around in the virtual environment by changing the viewing angle and position. You can actually see things you can't see while on the ground. Using this technology what can we learn about the earth? How can "Virtual Globes" help us to think geographically?

"Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips.

-Fly to your house. Just type in an address, press Search, and you?ll zoom right in.
-Search for schools, parks, restaurants, and hotels. Get driving directions.
-Tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings, or look up to explore the sky"

Google Earth is a free download.

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Activity

Looking at Latitude and Longitude... Choose one of the locations we have chosen. Using google earth what is the latitude and longitude of your location?
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Activity

Aerial Overlays... Aerial overlays have been collected over time to show changes in the land. They range from 1924-1950. Using one of these overlays what historical changes have occurred? What can these overlays and maps tell us about the landscape then and now?
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Activity

3D Maps... Using the 3D maps available from google earth (earth.google.com), choose a location, tilt the map and look at the landscapes from different perspectives. How does the landscape change?
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