Asâmak (Michif, Cree)

Snowshoes

 

David Gold

Rossignol School

Île-à-la-Crosse, SK, Canada

 

 

Rekindling Traditions
Cross-Cultural Science and Technology Units (CCSTU)

Series Editor

Glen Aikenhead
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, SK, Canada

 

CURRICULUM CONNECTION

Grades 7-9, structure & design, force, pressure

 

OVERVIEW

Aboriginal science and technology is validated through learning about snowshoes (asâmak). This provides the context for learning concepts from Western science about structure and design, and about pressure. Both knowledge systems, Aboriginal and Western, are explicitly acknowledged. Experiential learning is highlighted in both domains in this unit. Duration: about 20 classes.

 

PURPOSE

This unit is designed to enrich students' understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal science and technology, and to encourage students to continue their studies in school science in the future. The field "structure and design" is approached from two points of view, Aboriginal knowledge and Western knowledge, to augment students' own cultural identities, to motivate them toward success in all school subjects, and to demonstrate to them that they can achieve at Western science without setting aside their Aboriginal values and knowledge.

 

GOALS

  1. To find that snowshoeing is an enjoyable activity.
  2. To acquire background knowledge about snowshoes.
  3. To think about snowshoes from a scientific point of view.
  4. To identify Western science as having a particular point of view (abstract generalized, not concrete contextual).
  5. To construct an in-depth knowledge about one major aspect of snowshoes.
  6. To develop confidence in talking with older people.
  7. To role play in the culture of science.
  8. To apply scientific and technological concepts and skills in new contexts.
  9. To become aware of how one's ideas have changed over the course of the unit.
  10. To get students to interact with their environment and their community.
  11. To introduce students to career possibilities related to science and engineering.

 

OBJECTIVES
  1. Students will think about and discuss the uses of snowshoes.
  2. Students will recognize different types of snow and terrain, and the need to travel in each.
  3. Students will become familiar with the history of snowshoes.
  4. Students will become familiar with importance of snowshoes to Métis, Cree, and other Aboriginal peoples.
  5. Students will become familiar with the need for snowshoes, given such factors as climate, length of winter, snowfall, and tundra snow vs. forest snow.
  6. Students will become familiar with how snowshoes are made (materials, forming, lacing, bracing, surface area, and shape).
  7. Students will construct the concepts of force, surface area and pressure (force per unit area)
  8. Students will be able to calculate pressure in a number of different everyday situations, using scientific units appropriate to the abstract level of the students (g/cm2 or Pa).
  9. Students will treat scientific units as a protocol in the culture of science.
  10. Students will increase their measuring and estimating skills.
  11. Students will conduct research on a chosen topic.
  12. Students will work effectively with other group members.
  13. Students will develop interviewing skills.
  14. Students will develop their listening and remembering skills.
  15. Students will further understand three types of variables in a scientific experiment (manipulated, controlled, and responding).
  16. Students will design and conduct their own experiment, and solve the conceptual, informational, and technical problems that arise along the way.
  17. Students will determine the pressure exerted by two different types of snowshoes.
  18. Students will consider the ingenuity of the people who invented the snowshoe, and understand how their knowledge was passed along from generation to generation.

 

LESSONS
  1. An Afternoon on Asâmak
  2. Asâmak: A Culturally Important Tool
  3. Interview With an Adult
  4. Staying on Top of the Snow: A Scientific Point of View
  5. Producing Group Reports on Asâmak
  6. A Scientific Experiment: Comparing Different Asâmak
  7. Review
  8. Wrap Up

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