At the Quileute Tribal School, the EASB team taught three classes: first and second grade, third and fourth grade, and fifth and sixth grade. We started each class by introducing ourselves to the students and asking them what came to mind when they think of the environment. We then wrote their responses in a bubble chart on a large sheet of paper. We planned on revisiting this chart at the end of the week so that they would be able to reflect on what they learned over the past week and add to it.
I then began my lesson about food webs and interactions between species in an ecosystem. For the first and second graders, I went over the concept of a food chain and what different animals eat. The students then role-played different species in a food chain. For the older students, I discussed how energy is transferred through animals consuming plants and other animals. I also emphasized the interconnectivity between different components of an ecosystem. If one part of an ecosystem faces a disturbance, the other parts will be affected. The students applied this knowledge by arranging plants and animals on cards into a food web based on what the plants and animals eat or are eaten by. The 1-2 and 3-4 graders completed a food chain craft. Their goal was to make a food chain. They each received strips of paper. On each paper they had to write and draw a plant or animal. Each strip of paper contained a plant and animal in a food chain. They then tapped the strips of paper into circles and connected them to create a food chain. The 3-4 and 5-6 graders played the food web string game. Each student received a card that contained a plant, animal, or the sun. Every food chain started with the sun. The student who was the sun held onto the end of a string and passed the ball of string to a student that was an organism that uses sunlight to grow, such as a plant. That student would grab hold of the string and then pass it to another student whose card contained an animal that ate it, and so on, until they reached the end of the food chain. The string created a food web, consisting of multiple food chains, which provided students with a visual representation of interactions in an ecosystem. For the 5-6 graders, the string also represented the transfer of energy through an ecosystem. I then simulated different disturbances. For example, if there were a disturbance that eliminated an entire species, the student who was that species would tug on the string, and many other students would feel it. This allowed students to see how different components of an ecosystem are connected. I really enjoyed seeing many of the students that I worked with last year again. My favorite part of my lesson was playing the food web string game with the students because they were able to see how complex food webs are. They were also able to feel how different components of an ecosystem are interconnected when the string was tugged. Their surprised reactions to this part of the activity stimulated thinking and conversation about what would happen to an environment if a stressor affected even one species. My hope is that they will be able to continue drawing these types of connections in the future. Teaching the students also allowed me to learn about my strengths in teaching and areas that can be improved, such as explaining definitions in multiple ways, which I will continue to build on in the future. Both the school and the community in La Push welcomed us warmly and were very open to sharing their culture and traditions with us, which provided us with many opportunities to learn. We visited the cultural center, where we learned about the history of the Quileute tribe and saw paintings and artifacts that belong to the tribe. There were beautiful carvings of whales and thunderbirds on the walls on the tribal council room. We also went to the drum circle Wednesday evening, where members of the community shared news with the group, danced, and made music together. We participated in several dances. For the elk dance, the females were the elk and the males were the hunters. When a hunter “caught” an elk, they carried the elk out of the circle. Just like last year, I was “hunted” and carried out of the circle. My perception of what a community is was expanded after learning about and observing the tribe’s close-knit community at the drum circle. Participating in the drum circle was a fun and enriching experience that I will cherish. -Emily Chan For all the grades, we had a general overview about the history of life and importance of fossils in learning about our past. We then moved on to how having special characteristics(traits) help to be better adapted to an environment, Next, the topic of Natural Selection was introduced and very briefly, we touched evolution. For the activities, we did many find and match questions for 1st through 4rth grades and we had an arts and crafts activity for all the grades by the end of each class. This activity was based on the theory of Natural Selection and Adaptations of organisms but in the form of making monsters. Each student was provided a background picture of an environment, and had to use the arts supplies to make a monster with features that allow it to be best suited in that environment.
At first, I was quite worried about not being able to explain my topic efficiently since this topic is quite difficult to explain even at college. However I was very happy to see that everything went very well. Being in Microbiology major,we deal with this topic every day thus I know how important this topic is in order to make sense of a lot of the biological topics. Accordingly, I decided to teach this topic but in an easy way so that they wouldn’t be totally alien to this topic when entering higher education (like what happened to myself). In general I was very happy to see that the students were very interested in this topic and that it made sense to them. I was also very excited to see how excited they were when they were doing the arts activity. La Push has a very warm and welcoming community. I did not feel like a foreigner during my stay there because they made me feel like being a part of them. I am very happy to have had the honour of attending their Wednesday gathering and I will never forget our dance with them. We learned many things about their tribe during our short stay. We saw students performing for their whale ceremony. I was very interested in their theory of how humans have evolved from wolves since this was very similar to my teaching topic in the sense that they agreed with the general idea of evolution but at the same time it is very different from Darwinian theory of evolution. Accordingly, I did not go into a detailed lecture about evolution and focused more on Natural Selection. They showed this wolf to human theory of evolution also during their whale ceremony dance and that was very interesting to watch. In conclusion I had a great time with them and would love to see them again! -Nika Hajari For 1st through 2nd grade, we focused on plants and animals being the source of all food. After we discussed the difference between an animal and plant food source, we had students color various agricultural products grown in Washington. We had a poster with the titles “plants” and “animals” heading each half. Students, one-by-one, presented what they colored and whether they thought it was a product from plants or animals. They were able to observe the large amount of resources we receive from plants. We then discussed how each part of a plant is important through a lesson on plant structure and by learning a song called “Roots, Stems, Leaves, Flowers, Fruits, and Seeds.” They were able to practice identifying which parts of plants we eat by tasting different fruits and vegetables and working with EASB teachers to match various fruits and vegetables with the plant structure we eat.
For 3rd and 4th graders, we taught them about the challenges of bringing food to grocery stores through a “Food Distribution Relay” game. This game highlighted the food processing route by assigning students with roles such as farmers, food storage operators, food processors, and store owners. Each team had to “process” potatoes into potato chips as fast as possible by transferring the product to each designated student. Through this game and identifying what Washington imports and exports, students gained a hopeful appreciation for and better understanding of complex, environmentally taxing food processing practices. For 5th and 6th graders, we focused on teaching how the food market in the US relies on one vegetable, corn, to supply most ingredients in processed foods. Corn is used as a sugar substitute and preservative in most unhealthy, low-quality food. Students learned how to find corn-derived ingredients and question the food they put into their bodies. We taught them how to read a nutrition panel, research ingredients, and understand the processes behind creating ingredients. We also helped them comprehend the demand of corn and how the environment is stressed in result. Altogether, all lessons portrayed the complexity of the food industry-how it deserves our respect and attention, as our health and environment are directly affected by it. I was very excited about teaching the subject of food sourcing, as it is something that 7 billion people rely on for life. Learning about where food came from was one of the most interesting and complex lessons of my academic career, thus I was enthused with the opportunity to share. I believe the intricate process of how we get our food needs attention at a young age to develop a culture of caring about what we eat and understanding the effects we have on the environment by retrieving our food. I was initially nervous about teaching this subject as it is complex and difficult to communicate, but I was very pleased with the feedback I received from the students. Specifically, when teaching 5th and 6th graders, I was overwhelmed with joy to see students taken aback by the fact that corn is in our food without our knowledge. They became deeply dedicated to analyze other ingredients on nutrition panels and know about what other ingredients hide in our food. Witnessing this strong desire to learn in all classes this week inspired me greatly as a teacher. Teaching at Quileute Tribal School this Spring Break was incredibly rewarding and I hope to return next year indefinitely. Despite only being in La Push a week, I felt apart of the community. We stayed right next to the school and attended their weekly Drum Circle event, which highlighted cultural traditions through dance and ceremonial rituals. I enjoyed participating in the traditional dances with fellow EASB teachers and with Quileute Tribe members as each dance represented an important historical component of their culture. It was heart-warming to witness the connectedness of the community at this event! In addition, we were able to learn about Quileute history by talking to Quileute Tribal Council Chairperson, Naomi Jacobson. This further opened my eyes to the tribe’s endurance and strength throughout history. This is truly an inspiring community that I feel honored to have been welcomed into for the short time during Spring Break. -Sierra Kross For all the grades we began the lesson by asking them to name at least two ways they use water besides for drinking. After sharing with the class, the students were asked if they knew where their water came from. They were shown a map of the La Push area, and we traced their water backwards from the Pacific Ocean to the Olympic Mountains. The students learned that we all live in a watershed! For the younger kids (grades 1st through 4th) we played a game in the gym that demonstrated how trees planted along river banks help to stop pollution from entering the river. For the older kids (grades 5th through 6th), they performed a water filtration experiment to see how soil, sand, and gravel play a role in filtering out pollutants from the water. After testing the filters with two different kinds of “pollution,” we discussed how human actions can impact water quality, such as paving over the soil or planting trees.
Going into the week, I was nervous because this was my first time designing my own curriculum, and I wasn’t sure how much prior knowledge the students had, or if the material would be relatable to them. However, my nerves were eased once I saw how excited and enthusiastic the students were to see us there. I was especially happy that the older kids had so much fun doing the water filtration experiment. One of the students who hardly talked at all during the week, excitedly asked us, “Is this what scientists do?!” I was so happy to hear this, and am glad my lesson gave them a taste of what it means to be a scientist. Through teaching I learned how to be flexible, and not get caught up in the curriculum. For example, I had many discussion questions for the older kids that I wanted to go over more in-depth, but I realized that giving them time to experiment and record their observations was equally valuable. Although initially I felt like an outsider, the La Push community quickly made me feel welcome. We were fortunate enough to watch the students prepare for their Whale Ceremony (taking place on April 3rd), and it was a joy to see them perform traditional songs and dances. Additionally, we had the privilege of attending their weekly drum circle. We witnessed the blessing of two new wolf masks, and were even invited to participate in their dances. They opened with their traditional paddle songs, which were important because to approach another tribe quietly by canoe was considered sneaky, so the paddle songs were a way for the tribe to announce their arrival and that they come bearing no ill-will. We also saw a whale dance, friendship dance, and elk dance where Sierra and Emily were picked up off the ground by two of the tribal members! It was truly a memorable experience and an honor to be a part of. -Sara Mar For each class, we revisited the idea web they made on Monday, when we asked them what the environment was. We asked the students to share what they learned each day, and added their ideas to the same web in a different color. Afterwards, we helped the students make newspaper pots to take home with them. We filled the pots with soil, and gave the students vegetable seeds to plant. We then handed out certificates and goodie bags to each of the students for successful completion of our week of environmental science!
Additionally, we gave college talks to the 5th through 12th graders. In the middle school classroom we addressed skills they would need in college, such as time management and research skills. We showed them a typical college schedule and then had them write up their current schedule, thinking about where they would fit in time for homework and extracurriculars. For research skills we taught them how to use the references list on Wikipedia to find more credible sources, and how to use Google Scholar. By going through each day of the week and asking the students what they learned, it was a really good way for all of us to assess their learning. The students seemed to remember the main points and objectives we had going into the classroom, which was really great feedback for us. Talking to the 5th and 6th graders at college was a lot of fun because they were all so curious to hear about what college life was like. They were asking us where we lived on campus, what engineering was, and what kinds of labs we do. It was heart-warming to see how excited they were to hear about our experiences, and I can only hope they retain that desire as they continue through the rest of their schooling. One of the challenging things about talking to the high schoolers about college, is that many of them had heard the “college talk” before. Only a couple of students seemed like they had a desire to go to college. For the rest, we tried to inquire about their current interests, and how college might fit into that. I came across several students who were interested in sports, and so I talked about going to college to play sports and what intramural sports were if they just wanted to play for fun. Although La Push does not currently have a museum that talks about their culture, a staff member at their visitor center graciously gave us a personal tour. I loved seeing the tribal council meeting room, which had beautiful wood carvings and panelling. Our tour guide, Naomi, gave us some history of the Quileute tribe, which was fascinating to learn about. |