Module III Response

Essential Question: How are landscapes formed and how, in turn, are cultures shaped by their landscapes?

Google Earth - Explore, Explain, Extend

I was born in Anchorage, Alaska; however, the area that I decided to focus on because it was of special interest to me is Kagoshima Prefecture in Japan. A prefecture is similar to a state, and Kagoshima is the southern most prefecture on the tip of the southern island of Kyushu. It was a particularly interesting place to live, especially because the landscape and climate were so very different from that of my birthplace. The landscape of the islands of Japan and specifically the area where I was living are along the edge of major tectonic lines and the Ring of Fire, considered mountainous, sub-tropical, and are surrounded by ocean. The Japanese islands are known as a stratovolcanic archipelago, and were formed much like the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. Kirishima, the area in which I lived, is on the edge of Kinko Bay which is well known for it’s active volcano, Sakurajima. Fukuyama, the small town of 2,000 people that I lived in was situated at the top of a small mountain encompassed by small rice paddy fields on nearly all sides. The small mountain that I lived atop was small among the series of mountain ranges that occur longitudinally across the country. Often times we would drive from prefecture to prefecture exploring, which often took us up and down various mountain valleys. It was very humid and we experienced typhoons in the late spring and early summer months. I looked at the Wikipedia biome link from the Explore Alaska! class website but I was still confused about what exactly a biome is... So, with some further exploration on Wikipedia, I found a map with a key of terrestrial, aquatic, and other biomes. Still a bit confusing, but it helped me to better understand the biomes of the landscapes that I looked at on Google Earth. The biome for the southern part of Japan that I discussed earlier is a subtropical coniferous forest, yet in the north it is very similar to parts of Alaska with similar longitude. Using Google Earth for this part of the course was very interesting, but also a bit confusing. After exploring for a few hours I am sure that there is much more to be learned, but not enough time. It was interesting to try the 3D tours - I even found myself exploring parts of China and even the Eiffel Tower. Ultimately exploring Google Earth is one more way to help me (as well as my students) understand how amazing the geographical systems of the Earth are.

Landform Forces - Explain, Extend, Evaluate

The animations, images, and various graphics in the Teacher's Domain Rock Cycle Animation were fabulous! I was highly amused and clicked on certain animations multiple times, and found myself wondering - where were these kinds of resources when I was taking geology in Middle School?!?! I watched all of the short videos in this section, the Rock Cycle Animation explained very well the geological processes that act on rocks both physically and chemically to create different parts of the Earth in a continuous cycle. Some of the parts of the cycle I had not learned much about before, so it was interesting for me to see a process that takes place over thousands of years explained in such an easy to understand format. While geology is more of part of the fourth grade science curriculum in my district, I think that even my third graders would be able to benefit and learn from this animation.

Cultural Connections - Explain, Extend, Evaluate

Through Google Earth I "visited" many of the different landscapes where Alaska Native cultures have traditionally lived for thousands of years. Specifically of interest to me was Hoonah, where the Tlingit live. I grew up in Anchorage but have yet to have the opportunity to visit Southeast Alaska. Hoonah is surrounded by glaciers on practically all sides, lots of mountains covered with forests as well as ocean. The four Teacher Domain videos from this week discussed how the people are part of the land, as well as the stewards of the land and water - such as the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska. One of the main connections between the land and its indigenous people was the food, or more specifically the harvesting of food. Over the years the Tlingit people have worked hard to maintain the sustainability of their main food sources, such as salmon among other things. Food is an important cultural connection to physical landscape. There are many factors other than food that determine the patterns of Alaska Native life, such as seasons and other natural cycles, hunting, fishing, gathering plants and food for medicine, teaching and learning, respect and honor for the land, the sea, and the animals. Subsistence communities abide by certain principles in order to preserve the abundance of natural resources, such as never wasting any of the resources they use.

Lastly, Google Earth has been helpful in understanding some connections between places and people, but I also found it a bit limiting. It lacked the background information that very clearly sets up and supports the Teacher's Domain videos. One can easily find other resources to help support Google Earth, but this can often be a time consuming process and teachers often do not have this kind of time. In response to some of the questions regarding rural or urban Alaska students, they both face unique challenges. Students in rural Alaska may feel isolated from the rest of the world and not as connected to what happens in the world around them, while urban students may feel isolated due to the lack of cultural influences around them. They way I see it both groups of students face are disconnected from the world they live in - just in different ways.

Awhile back I heard about a the Rose Urban Rural Exchange, a program through the Alaska Humanities Forum in which rural and urban students are given the opportunity to do a sort of cultural exchange. It seems like a wonderful almost life-changing opportunity from the testimonials of students who have participated in it. For Alaska Native students, I think it is important for them to be aware of adults who have successfully merged cultures and who are contributing members to their culture and community, such as Inupiaq geologist Steve Glenn and Dolly Garza, an Tlingit/Haida scientist. A sense of place is such an important part of growing up and entering adulthood, and in order for students to succeed they need to be firmly rooted in their culture as well as the on goings of what they will need to survive in modern society.

Module II Response

I would like to start this post by reiterating what I consider to be a very important point made by one of my blogging peers in this class, Collauna of Alaska Melting Pot, which is that both indigenous and Western ways of knowing must be viewed as equally valid before we can begin to make connections between them. This is something that I believe to be very important, thus I have chosen to begin my post with this point in mind.

Essential Question: How is everything connected from the perspectives of indigenous peoples and Western scientists?

Science is a system of knowledge gained through study. Indigenous people have a holistic view of nature and the environment, perhaps because they have been “studying” their environments for thousands and thousands of years. Thus from the perspective of indigenous peoples, everything in nature and science are connected. From the food they eat to the land they live on, all parts of life are connected. Indigenous peoples must have a strong understanding of their local environment in order to survive and co-exist with it, and through this process practical knowledge about the natural world has been learned and passed down orally for generations.

Western scientists approach the connectedness of the world in a manner much different than that of indigenous peoples. A scientist is generally referred to as somebody who uses the scientific method, which generally consists of data collection through observation and experimentation, as well as the creation and testing of hypotheses. These steps must be repeatable, and scientists are usually expected to document and share their results so they are available to other scientists. The clearly visible difference between how the two groups view how everything is connected is that for indigenous peoples, traditional knowledge is intertwined with a trust for inherited wisdom, respect for all things, and is connected to life values and proper behavior; whereas in Western science, there is an important place for skepticism, global verification, and hypothesis falsification. Early scientific theories were not generally accepted until technology advanced and theories were more visibly able to be proved and understood on a deeper level.

Everything is Connected, link to NPR (Poet Lucille Clifton)

Message to Graduates - Everything is Connected (Blue Planet Green Living)

Essential Question: What are the advantages to knowing both ways?

There are bound to be significant advantages to knowing both ways, especially the implications for the new knowledge that both groups could potentially gain from each other. I have been fortunate enough to have had the experience of living in Japan for a portion of time, and was amazed at how seamlessly Japanese culture seems to import ideas as well as other things, blending and reinventing the best ideas from other lands, and turning them into something all their own. Katakana, just one of the three Japanese alphabets, is used mainly for transcribing words from foreign languages into Japanese, is one example.

In terms of teaching (especially in Alaska or other areas where there are large indigenous populations), there is a great deal that knowind and understanding both ways can bring to the classroom to benefit students and their learning in the classroom. This type of inclusion of the knowledge of local environments has a name, and is often referred to as place-based education. Place-based education “differs from conventional text and classroom-based education in that it understands students' local community as one of the primary resources for learning. Thus, place-based education promotes learning that is rooted in what is local—the unique history, environment, culture, economy, literature, and art of a particular place.” This kind of learning that includes and supports what is local is exactly the kind of advantage to knowing both ways that I envision for the students in the near future.

First Post!

Testing, testing...