Module II

Essential Question: How is everything connected from the perspectives of indigenous peoples and Western scientists? What are the advantages to knowing both ways?


Let me begin answering the question: “What are some differences between traditional Native knowledge and Western science?” with a work story.  This is a particular heated issue in my life right now, so bear with me.  I submitted a request to my district to pre-approve this “Explore Alaska” class for continuing ed. credits.  In the last few years my district is narrowing the focus of the credits they’ll acknowledge for continuing education credits when it comes to moving over on the pay scale to being within the teaching position.  I understand the purpose:  who should be financially rewarded for taking “underwater basket weaving” when one teaches science?  I get that.  However, we also know that fabulous teachers are knowledgeable across content areas and have a wide breadth of learning experiences.  I, for one, love learning & just because I am highly qualified (I won’t go there today, I promise!) only in Math, Biological science, Earth science, and Life science this is all I can learn about and be compensated for????  I find this absurd and very contradictory to the Native way of learning: cohesive and inter-connected.  So, back to my story:  my district turned down my request as it was not within my teaching description.  What?  Are you kidding me????  I spoke with my principal and we agreed to have me teach an “environmental science” class this spring in order to have this class accepted by central office.  Ugh!  What a “Western Science” approach to further educating our teachers.  This scenario matched a multitude of descriptors from the right hand side of the Venn Diagram: skepticism, part to whole, limited to evidence and explanation within the physical world, to name a few.  This course was rejected because the course description stated “geosciences” and I am not currently teaching earth or environmental science.  Is that reductionistic, or what?  So far, I can see myself applying several things I’ve learned just in our first week together, like blogging.  I love it and can envision utilizing this in my computer science class.  And learning about Alaska Native perspectives on Earth’s systems relates to ALL science subjects, particularly Biology!  Okay, I’ll put my soapbox away and get back to responding to our standard questions. . .

Explain:  What new learning have you taken from this module?

Extend:  How can/will you use this week’s resources and/or others in your community in your lessons?

Evaluate:  How useful, insightful, or relevant are this module’s information and resources for you?

Reading & viewing this week’s Module II has helped me reflect on my current teaching practice quite a bit.  Teaching science at an alternative high school has helped me become more holistic in my approach for several reasons.  I have virtually no science supplies in the traditional or “western” sense: no lab setting whatsoever (my classroom is carpeted!), no ventilation hood, no beakers or hot plates, etc.  So, we often go outside!  Exploring what the outdoors has to offer is quite significant and relevant for my students.  You see most of the students who attend our school struggle with reading comprehension, their writing is poor, and they give up quickly when the lessons are too advanced.  Not attending school regularly in the past has taken its toll.  Many are not likely to attend college, but earning a high school diploma is their goal.  So to accommodate my students’ needs as well as my lack of laboratory resources, I have taken a much more naturalistic approach.  I teach relevant, thematic units such as Bear Safety or Alaska Winter & Water Survival, where we build snow shelters and learn about avalanches, including building mock avalanches in the classroom (out of flour and sugar) and analyze the angles, for example.  And we rely heavily on the Internet to provide us with visuals and interactives, much like this class.  I have used GoogleEarth in the past as part of a navigation unit, so I’m thrilled to use it here again, as it’s been a couple of years.  This week’s module has been quite insightful and validating—perhaps I ought not to feel so guilty for not always providing the “Western” resources for my students!  

The western scientific ways portion of the Module was a wonderful revisit to science I haven’t experienced for far too long—not since high school and college, which has been awhile now. . . I appreciate the refresher.  I absolutely LOVE “Earth as a System” video!  I am so visual and this just had my brain firing at all synapses.  Some things just hit a nerve and this, along with the YouTube Symphony of Science “We Are All Connected” video were two that I really look forward to using in my classroom.  The barely-visible light of Anchorage showing up in pitch dark Alaska when Earth spun around on its axis was a stark contrast to brightly-lit Eastern Asia, eh?  It gave me the same goose bump feeling I get when I’m out in remote Alaska at nighttime looking up at the midnight blue sky with bright, twinkling stars.

I was born in Spokane, Washington.  My parents flew there from Alaska to deliver me under the supervision of surgical doctors, nurses and equipment not available in Juneau, where they still live and I grew up. My parents promptly traveled back to Juneau after my birth.  While I occasionally visit Spokane, I’m not really that familiar with the landscape, so thank goodness for Google Earth!  I had fun playing around, but was pretty bored with the topography.  Spokane sits in a river valley & I couldn’t find much of interest, unlike Alaska’s landscape.  Obviously, it’s been shaped by the Spokane River.  It’s an an interior continental climate and therefore quite dry and warm in the summer, despite surrounding the river, and nearby to the West are a lot of farms, but otherwise, there’s not much to tell.  Perhaps I’m offending the geological society of Eastern Washington, and I apologize, if so.  I thoroughly enjoyed finding my grandma’s house and the park we visited this summer that my daughter loved, however!  I’m afraid I’m probably disappointing everyone in my lack of descriptive detail here. 

The elevation of Spokane is about 2000 feet.  In the included picture you can see the farms off to the West of Spokane and the valley the city sits in.  There are no volcanos or earthquake points of interest, nor is there anything I could find linked with NASA.

I really appreciated hearing Martha’s perspective on the significance of Native spirituality being interconnected with science.   She very eloquently described what my heart has always felt!

Thanks Cheryl for your comparison of electrons between Western science and traditional Native knowledge. 

Hi Marilyn!  I'm writing to you here because when I try to post a comment on your blog, I get an error message that comments are restricted to team members--do I have to join a team, now, too??!!  Ha!  I don't know if you remember me, but I was in ARCTIC with you in Juneau--gosh, it's been a long while since then.  I was there with Terri--we were from Kenai.  Don't you wish we could attend that conference again?  What an amazing experience.  I wish we could all have a reunion and see what everyone is up to.  I had to chuckle over your "Plan B's, C's, and D's"  isn't that the truth!  Technology never fails us in that regard.  I really enjoyed your Arcattack Farraday Fun video. That just looks like one of my students!  Ha!  Hope all is well and I'm sorry you're not still in Gustavus.  

Lila shared some fabulous photos of her students experiencing Native ways of learning including hands-on field trips, exposure to Alaska Native art work and she also explained how traditional techniques like using the body and its parts can offer great measurement and symmetry tools.  Thank you for sharing--it brought back a sense of nastalgia remembering my own elementary experiences which were similar.