Welcome!

Inua II VanZyle by permission

Picture a modern Iñupiaq hunter, dressed in white, scanning the horizon out on the Arctic sea-ice. Got the image?

Now picture a white lab-coat-clad modern climate scientist, clipboard in hand, monitoring a device that measures tiny traces of carbon dioxide.

Though these two images seem disparate, they are also harmonious. Bringing these two images into clearer resolution is the focus of this course.

Whether it's the weather, the ocean, the atmosphere, the land or the life on Earth, this course explores many of the myriad connections shared between different cultures and the planet's big systems. And it's easy to do because Everything is Connected!
 

Course Description 
Consider the Essential Question that guides the entire course:
How can teachers use digital resources, community resources and effective teaching methods, integrating Alaska Native ways of knowing with Western scientific methods to create greater student interest in, and understanding of, the geosciences?

This 10-module course fuses elements of physical and natural sciences with aspects of social sciences by integrating traditional Alaska Native knowledge with Western scientific perspectives on a variety of geoscience topics from earthquakes to climate change.

The course is designed to be useful to teachers from across a wide spectrum of grade levels and specialties. All are welcome and most should feel comfortable with the content and media presented in this course.

As an online course, new information technologies and media are embedded throughout. Central to the design of this online course is the exclusive use of free software popularly used on the web by students of all ages. 

This first module is designed to familiarize you with the basic content, timeline, methods and protocols, as well as introduce you to our primary resource for this course--Teachers' Domain, a library of digital resources designed by WGBH for teachers. We will also learn how to create our own blogs and explore the planet using Google Earth.

Throughout the course, videos and interactive media provided by Teachers Domain are featured alongside Google Earth and other cultural and geo-information-rich sources. All course information is presented as a blog and participants respond each week by creating their own blog for their assignments.

Course Overview 
Western science provides useful information for measuring trends to better understand natural phenomena. But for thousands of years, traditional Alaska Native knowledge has provided the information and technologies necessary for humans to survive and thrive in some of the harshest, most unforgiving environments on Earth. This collective wealth of knowledge has existed for centuries and has been transmitted traditionally by oration and stories, passed down from generation to generation.

Just as modern Alaska Native peoples wisely incorporated modern scientific knowledge and technologies into their cultures, modern scientists are wisely taking into account the wealth of knowledge and on-the-ground experience that Alaska Native peoples have regarding the natural history and phenomena of places under study. This is particularly important as the Arctic is in the forefront of climate change, for reasons we will explore in the course.

If you live in Alaska, chances are you're living in an area that was settled thousands of years ago, and may still be used today, by Alaska's indigenous peoples. This course seeks to explore the natural sciences of these places in the context of those who've lived there since time immemorial. 

Participants in this course will explore the realms of scientists and indigenous people at the intersection of their shared interests in the Earth and its processes.

Click on the image below for an insightful view of this intersection.

Traditional Native Knowledge 
and Western Science

Click on image to enlarge.

Diagram adapted from Handbook for Culturally Responsive Science Curriculum