INVITATION

How can we help students understand the impact of climate, weather, and environment on indigenous cultures? How can we encourage them to analyze information, synthesize different strands of information, and make hypotheses?

TASKS

Students begin this activity by researching the important indigenous cultures of the Americas to gain an overview of their identifying characteristics, their most significant accomplishments, and so on. Students then work in small groups, each group focusing on two such cultures: one each from North and South America. Students investigate the interaction between the culture and its environment, focusing especially on how the climate of the region in which the culture located itself influenced its development. Each group then shares its findings with the class in the form of a multimedia presentation that compares peoples in the northern and southern sections of the Western Hemisphere and their connections to their respective climates. As a class, students discuss ways in which certain characteristics of the culture may have developed in response to specific environmental or climactic factors.

TOOLS

Computers; the Internet; Sherlock; iMovie (optional).

AppleWorks; Eyewitness History of the World; HyperStudio; Inspiration; TimeLiner; World Book Encyclopedia.

Projection device (optional).

INTERACTIONS

The teacher leads a whole class discussion, introducing the most widely accepted theory regarding the migration of indigenous peoples from Asia to the Americas. Students then work in small groups to conduct generalized research about these cultures. Students continue to work in small groups, focusing their research on two cultures: one from North America and one from South America. Within these groups, roles may be differentiated: one student might act as project manager (assigning research topics, setting milestones, and tracking progress); individual students or pairs of students might focus on specific characteristics of the target cultures; others may be in charge of organizing and compiling the results of the research. Once the research is complete, roles can be redefined as groups prepare electronic presentations illustrating the results of their research. The class comes together again to view and discuss the presentations, with the teacher acting as moderator.

SITUATIONS

In the classroom, the teacher introduces the project to the students over the course of a single class period. Working in small groups, students then spend two or three periods in the classroom, library, and/or media center conducting initial research. Each group continues its research, focusing on two specific cultures for a period of about one week. Groups then spend two or three class periods in the classroom or the computer lab organizing the results of their research into presentations. Depending on the size of the class and the number of groups, one or more class periods are devoted to group presentations and discussions in the classroom.

ASSESSMENT

For the latter half of Phase 1, the class (along with the teacher) can develop a checklist to aid groups in their research. The checklist might include items such as information source/research path, reliability of source, and so on. A similar checklist can be used in Phase 2, with additional items such as: entered into database, relevance to central question, and so on.

The "Multimedia Planning Checklist" and the "Multimedia Development Checklist" can aid students in the creation of their presentations.

Teachers can create a rubric to assess students' presentations in Phase 4. Factors to consider include the variety and effectiveness of media used in the presentation; the coherence of the point of view espoused in the presentation; the degree to which the point of view is supported by specific facts, figures, and details, and so on. The "Multimedia Project Rubric" can also be used to assess the presentations. Presentations can also be included in students' electronic portfolios. Finally, teachers can assess students' participation in the discussions surrounding each presentation according to the degree of participation and appropriateness of comments.

In the far north of Canada, the most ancient tribal peoples floated in isolation on icebergs for most of the year, then convened in the summer for trade and festivity. The many Iroquois tribes of the northeastern United States developed an elaborate and effective system of intertribal government. In Latin America, great, architecturally advanced peoples such as the Incas, the Mayas, the Aztecs, and others built empires that extended across tropical jungle basins and high mountain ranges.

How did the climate contribute to the many variations of indigenous culture in the Americas? How did weather affect the homes that people built, the food they ate, and their beliefs? How did indigenous cultures develop in harmony with the environment? And how do we interact with our environment today?

In this project, students research indigenous peoples in two different geographic areas, comparing and contrasting specific facets of their lifestyles, customs, and culture and analyzing how these elements may have been shaped by the people’s response to the climate and environment. Student groups create a multimedia presentation that compares peoples in northern and southern sections of the western Hemisphere and their connections to the respective climates.

Phase 1: Origins of diversity in the Americas

Review with the class one of the central theories concerning the origins of indigenous cultures in the Americas: At the end of the last ice age, 12,000 years ago, immigrants from Siberia trekked across the (frozen) Bering Strait into what is now Alaska. Over time, these people dispersed across Canada, down into the United States, and south to Tierra del Fuego, the southern tip of South America. As they traveled south, the terrain grew increasingly unfamiliar; immigrants had to discover new sources of food and medicine, new materials for clothing and construction, and new ways of fitting into the world around them. In many instances, they developed new cultures, both large and small, that flourished for thousands of years.

Invite small groups of students to research these indigenous cultures to gain an overview of their histories. In Eyewitness History of the World's "Americas" section, for example, they can find information ranging from the first mammoth-hunting nomads through the great civilizations of the Toltecs and the Mayas to the empires of the Incas and the Aztecs. In World Book Encyclopedia, groups can find introductions to many of the great tribes and peoples of both North and South America, including the native populations of Canada, Bolivia, and Peru among others. They’ll also find introductions to concepts such as the potlatch and the role of the shaman, and regions such as the Andes and the Amazon Basin. Entering phrases such as "migration and indigenous peoples" and "climate and migration" into Sherlock to search the Internet produces a wealth of useful online resources. You may want to distribute the Step-by-Step Cards "Searching World Book Encyclopedia" and "Searching With Sherlock 2" to help students with their research.

When they have completed their resource review, ask groups to choose two cultures, one from each continent, to investigate further.

Phase 2: Investigating cultures

With the whole class, ask the question "What about these unfamiliar cultures can we investigate?" List the responses, which might include the following:

Invite each group to choose two different indigenous cultures, one in North America and one in South America, to investigate and compare. Suggest that groups focus on the ways these peoples interacted with their environments, and the ways the environments influenced their developing cultures.

Within each group, roles may be differentiated: one student might act as project manager (assigning research topics, setting milestones, and tracking progress); individual students or pairs of students might focus on specific characteristics of the target cultures; others may be in charge of organizing and compiling the results of the research. Groups can use Inspiration to plan their research, assign roles and topics to individuals in the group, identify resources, create project milestones, and track their progress. Students can use the Wizards included with the Inspiration software, or the Step-by-Step Cards "Getting Started With Inspiration" and "Creating an Outline Using Inspiration" to help them with these tasks. Groups may also find the "Everyday Life" and the "Innovations" sections of Eyewitness History of the World to be useful sources of information.

Research should proceed on a dual track, encompassing elements of the culture as well as characteristics of the climate and environment. What are normal temperature ranges at various times during the year? (It's unlikely that weather statistics exist for the time period during which the culture being studied flourished. We can assume, therefore, that climate conditions then were essentially the same as they are now.) What is the average precipitation? How is it distributed? (In other words, is there a defined rainy season and dry season, or does precipitation occur regularly throughout the year?) How abundant is vegetation and wildlife?

Students can create a database in AppleWorks to record and organize the results of their research. You may want to use the Step-by-Step Card "Creating a Database With AppleWorks" to help students accomplish this task. They can create fields in the database corresponding to the characteristics of both the cultures they're investigating and the environments in which they flourished. Certain data, such as precipitation, temperature range, and population over time, can be captured in an AppleWorks spreadsheet and converted to charts and graphs.

Phase 3: Comparing and preparing

In this phase of the activity, students collect, collate, organize, and analyze their research in an attempt to postulate a relationship between aspects of the culture they've studied and the environment in which it flourished.

People's religious beliefs, for example, may be influenced by factors (such as rainfall or the availability of specific game) tied to their survival. Students may be able to identify a correlation between the environment and such characteristics of the culture as styles of clothing, shelter, tools, and weapons. (The Native American tribes of the Pacific Northwest, for example, used cedar bark to make everything from clothing to baskets in which to store their food to ocean-going canoes.) Advances in technology may also be tied to environmental factors. (Cultures that flourished in areas where the environment offered abundant supplies of food, for example, had little incentive to advance beyond the level of hunter-gatherers.)

Students may even be able to postulate a correlation between the environment and population levels. For example, the environment places strict limits on the populations of cultures that don't advance beyond the level of hunter-gatherers. Agrarian cultures, on the other hand, may enjoy population levels beyond what the environment's naturally occurring resources would be able to support.

In the final phase of their analysis, students connect differences in a particular aspect of the two cultures they've studied (clothing, for example, or religious practices) to differences in the environment in which the two cultures flourished. Why, for example, do the religious practices of one culture involve the carving of totem poles (Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest), while another builds pyramids (Mayans)? Why is one culture peaceful while another seeks to conquer its neighbors? Why is one culture nomadic while another builds permanent cities?

Invite students to use AppleWorks or HyperStudio to create multimedia presentations illustrating their research findings. Suggest that they include text, charts, graphic illustrations, and perhaps even audio clips that they've either recorded themselves or downloaded from the online resources they've investigated. The goal is to bring together in one forum all the relevant information from the disparate resources they've investigated, and juxtapose it in interesting and informative ways with their analysis of the research. A description of the materials a culture used to build shelters might be juxtaposed against a chart showing temperature ranges and levels of precipitation, for example. Students can use the Step-by-Step Cards "Making a Presentation With AppleWorks 6" or "Getting Started With HyperStudio" to help with creating their presentations. In addition, students can use the AppleWorks "Storyboard Card" template to organize the content of their presentations.

Other materials can also be used. A student studying Mayan architecture and Iroquois longhouses might bring in a clay brick and two pieces of bark stitched together to make a panel. A student comparing the sun worship of the Incas to the killer whale worship of the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest might draw on photographs, written descriptions of rituals, and other sources. To present the history of the Toltec or Mayan nation, a student might use TimeLiner to create a timeline and import it into their presentation. (The sudden decline and disappearance of the Mayans remains one of the great mysteries of modern anthropology.) Students can use the "Creating a Timeline Using TimeLiner" and "Customizing a Timeline With TimeLiner" Step-by-Step Cards to help with this activity.

In all cases, the students should be working to provide a concrete image of their research results.

Phase 4: The interaction of climate and culture

In this phase, groups present their findings to the class. Groups should structure their presentation to begin with general information about the peoples they have chosen, emphasizing the climate and the environment in which the cultures developed. Then, individual members can compare and contrast the ways in which specific aspects of the two cultures evolved. After each presentation, help the presenter and the class construct theories as to the ways in which these specific cultural developments occurred in response to the weather and the environment.

Phase 1: In Eyewitness History of the World, students should click the time period spanning AD 500 to 1100, then click The Americas section of the globe. There they'll find information about the Toltecs, the Mayas, and the Chimu. Clicking the time period 1100 to 1492 and then clicking The Americas provides links to information about the Pueblo People, the Aztecs, and the Incas.

Phase 3: You might want to ask each student in the group to create at least one slide (AppleWorks) or one card (HyperStudio), to be copied and pasted into a single presentation. Individuals who are working on similar aspects of different cultures might also want to link their materials. In HyperStudio, create a button in one stack that links to another stack (or several other stacks) residing on the same computer; a button on the AppleWorks Button Bar also allows links to other documents.

Phase 4: If possible, arrange to use a presentation system that relays the presentations to a TV or a screen. If you are unfamiliar with presentation systems, check with the media center specialist. Allow several class periods for presentations and ask the groups to check their work prior to that day. A word of caution: sounds, movies, images, and all other resources used in a presentation must be kept with the HyperStudio and AppleWorks files whenever the presentations are transferred to a different computer.

PREPARATION

You may want to introduce the concept of region. Point out that when doing research on the climate and topography of the Southwest, for example, related search terms such as "Arizona" will be very useful.

Invite an expert from a local museum or college to tell the class about the Native Americans who inhabited your community or region, addressing the ways in which these peoples adapted well to the climate and the environment.

Make copies of any of the Step-by-Step Cards that students might need to help them accomplish the project tasks. You may want to provide copies of the "Storyboard Card" and "Storyboard Example" templates as well.

If students create a timeline on Phase 3, you can have them complete the TimeLiner Walkthrough (located on the product's CD) to prepare them for this task.

If students successfully dig beneath the surface of their focus areas, guide them in speculating as to environmental causes for specific developments. For example, indigenous tribes in what is now Ecuador, such as the Salasaca, wear black; their myths tell of being pursued by rainbows. What are the weather conditions in the Andes that would lead them to incorporate rainbows into their mythology?

You may want to devote some time to a discussion of terminology. Why is the name "Indians" inaccurate and unacceptable? What are names currently in use to describe the first people in the Americas? (These may include "indigenous people," "Native Americans," "Tribal Nations," and "First Peoples." In Ecuador, they are simply known as "the indigenous.") What are the roots of the word "aboriginal"? Why do many indigenous tribes all over the world call themselves "The People"?

Students can use iMovie to create a desktop movie of the group presentations in Phase 4, and include this on the school's Web site to share with others.

Ask students to discuss with their families the effects that climate, weather, and the environment have on their lifestyles. What concessions do they make to the weather at different times of the year, and why (staying indoors, wearing extra clothing, wearing less clothing, and so on)? Meet with the whole class to share the results of their inquiries.

VIDEOS/MOVIES

Architecture, Vol. 2, "Home," 3-2-1 Contact, Children's Television Workshop

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (Dee Brown)

Dances With Wolves

Last of the Mohicans

Lewis and Clark (Ken Burns)

A Man Called Horse

BOOKS

Dance on a Sealskin by Barbara Winslow

Echoes of the Elders: The Stories and Paintings of Chief Lelooska, edited by Christine Normandin

Endangered Peoples by Art Davidson

Environmental Activities for Children by Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac

In a Scared Manner I Live: Native American Wisdom by Neil Philip

Ishi, Last of His Tribe by Theodore Kroeber

The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and The Incas by Pamela Odijk

The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter

Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path by David Friedel, Linda Schele, and Joy Parker

Native American Architecture by Peter Nabakov and Robert Easton

Sing Down the Moon by Scott O'Dell

The Tainos: The People Who Welcomed Columbus by Francine Jacobs

Timelines of American History by Carl Waldman

Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

MUSIC

"Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi

"Gardens in the Rain" by Claude Debussy

"A Hazy Shade of Winter" by Simon and Garfunkel

"A Night on Bald Mountain" by Modest Mussorgsky

"Raindrop" by Frederic Chopin

"Stormy Weather" by Lena Horne

"Tempest, 3rd movement" by Ludwig Van Beethoven

Tornado/cyclone music from The Wizard of Oz

"Winter" by George Winston

ART

Architecture in Education by Marcy Abhau

Architecture Without Architects by Bernard Rudofsky

Homemade Houses: Traditional Homes From Many Lands by John Nicholson

Native American Architecture by Peter Nabokov and Robert Easton

Shelter by Shelter Publications, Bolinas, CA, 1973

The World Atlas of Architecture by Mitchell Beazley

INTERNET RESOURCES

The Floodplain Management Web Site
http://www.floodplain.org/p-basics.htm#Basics of Flooding

Hurricane Storm Science
http://www.miamisci.org/hurricane/hurricane0.html

National Weather Service
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

Satellite Images of the Weather on Earth:

Using Satellite Images to Learn About Weather
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wtsatlrn.htm

USA Today Weather: Weather Forecasting
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wforcst0.htm

Yahooligans Directory
http://www.yahooligans.com/Science_and_Nature/The_Earth/Weather/