Beyond the shores of Tasmania

In our study of the Inuit people and the polar husky journey around Alaska, we have found out some interesting facts about the life of the Inuit. How is the life of the indigenous culture here in Tasmania similar or different to the life of the Inuit in Alaska?

Compare the following:

• How did the aborigines get to Tasmania and the Inuit to Alaska?
• How did Tasmania become isolated from the mainland and the aboriginal tribes there; how did Alaska become separated from Russia and the other Inuit tribes there?
• How has meeting white men in general changed the lifestyle of the aborigines and the Inuit?

Also think about:

• The earth’s climate is dramatically changing the life of the Inuit. How?
• Is the change in the earth’s climate having an effect on local aborigines? How?

Read some myths and legends from the Inuit, aborigines and other indigenous people about the creation of the earth. How are these stories similar?

What is meant by a subsistence way of life? How is that different to your life?

Check out this link about Point Hope. Make sure you also look at the gallery and the Inupiaq people link on the sidebar. Why is both the land and water environment important for these people?

What has happened to the village of Shishmaref? Research the effect of climate change on this town in Alaska.

Naturally our food can be affected by the environment.

Prior to meeting the white men, the Inuit had a traditional diet. Find out about this diet. How has it changed since being influenced by white men? How might climate change reduce the consumption of traditional Inuit foods? What were some of the rules regarding catching, eating and sharing food?

What is an ice cellar? How would climate change affect storage of food by the Inuit?

Even our clothing is affected by our environment.

Research traditional Inuit clothing. How is it dependent upon the local environment?

What does it mean ‘to have respect for nature’?

How does the Inuit lifestyle show respect for nature? Compare it to your lifestyle. What are some things you would do without thought, that an Inuit would NEVER do? Check out this link. What does it say about the Inuit people and nature?

Original image: ‘Scrimshaw depicting a whale hunt ivory and ink from the collection of the San Francisco Maritime National Park‘

by: Mary Harrsch

Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

ANZAC Day is coming up very soon and our principal is wondering if there are any students who have relatives who served in any wars in which Australia participated as a nation.

A good way to answer this question is to ask your grandparents if they know anything about their parents and grandparents serving in a war situation for Australia.

Maybe your relative is mentioned on a memorial near the RSL building or the Rose Garden at the Information Centre in town?

Perhaps on the gravestone of your relative is a symbol representing the battalion or group he or she served in.

Once you know their first name and roughly year they were born, then you can start searching more accurately.

How do you find out if  your relatives  served in a war?

If you know that your family have been in Australia  for many generations then check out the records at the National Archives of Australia.  We are very lucky to have scanned copies of original documents for many Army, Navy and Air Force personnel especially those who served in World War I. These are called primary sources.

Visit the website called ‘Mapping our ANZACs‘ and see if there are any people with your surname within our community. Click on the Google map to get to your area of Tasmania.

Find out if more than one person has the same surname. Were they brothers/sisters? What happened to them in the war? Did they all survive or are some buried in the fields in Europe or Asia?

Check out more data in the Vrroom on War and Peace. Some of these documents are actually found in the National Archives office here in Hobart opposite the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

Visit the Australian War Memorial website and find out about ANZAC Day celebrations. Perhaps look at the Rats of Tobruk exhibition and the Roll of Honour from various wars. Perhaps you want to know more about the different Military units and where they were fighting.

Were your relatives mentioned in the local newspapers when they returned home or perhaps they were on the lists of missing or wounded men? Check out the records at Trove – scanned copies of original newspapers around Australia.

Now that you have done a lot of research, how are you going to present the information you have found out about your relative?

• Perhaps create a timeline of their life in war.
• Write a diary as if you were there with them. Might be in cartoon form. Perhaps create a toonbook.
• Create a photostory video about their life in war.
• Use a glogster (check with Miss W about one of these) to create a poster on their life during war.

Remember if you use any images, they must be creative commons if you are going to create a document for other people to look at. Remember to include attribution, like I have at the end of this post.

What else could you do to commemorate the life of your relative who served in war so you could live in a free country?

Attribution:

Original image: ‘lest we forget….‘

by: John Harvey

Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

There are many ways to record observations. The Inuit do this by memorizing the scenery such as shapes of snow or sastrugi in winter and shapes of rocks in summer.

But Westerners have used and are still using a variety of recording devices.

• maps or cartography
• using latitude and longitude
• compass
• sextant
• atlases

Tracker is a stuffed polar husky who is travelling the world to classrooms taking part in GoNorth! Check out Tracker’s Travels in the Explore section at http://Polarhusky.com

How is Tracker’s movements being recorded?

Find out about modern recording methods such as GPS , satellites and Google Earth. Write a post in your blog about what you have found out.

What is phenology and what does it have to do with observation and  the GoNorth! project?

To find out, visit the polarhusky website, log in then check under logistics> investigate> phenology

Add a comment here about some observations we could record throughout the year in our local environment.

Original image: ‘Sastrugi‘

by: Martin Naroznik

Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

Inuit hunters are very good observers. They need to notice the changes in nature as this will affect where the animals might be going and where they can then go to hunt the animals. How good an observer are you?

Scientists make two types of observations:

• qualitative relating to how something looks, feels, tastes, smells
• quantitative relating to the size and measurements so must include numbers somewhere

Your experiment is to put half an apple or other piece of fruit on a saucer at home and observe how it changes. You might want to take photos every day at the same time if possible. Keep a daily log of how the fruit has changed.

My experiment is using a pear rather than an apple.

Day 1

This pear has been cut in half. It is juicy inside and has a slight brown in the core area. The pear is six and a half centimetres in length and five and a half centimetres in width.

The skin on the outside of the pear is smooth with some brown splotches. The skin is slightly indented like most pears are.

Day 2

After 24 hours, there is a definite change in the look of the pear. The edge of the skin that is open to the air is now completely brown. Those areas of the core and stalk have also started turning brown. The pear flesh is looking less juicy.

The outside skin has started wrinkling but only where the pear had been cut.

Day 3

By the end of day 3,

Students in Miss W’s 67D are going to take part in a global online project called “Go North”. This is an annual project and in 2011, we journey with scientists, students, teachers and husky dogs to Alaska, the land of the Inupiat and Yup’ik people.

In the first module, we will look at exploring the Arctic. There are three sections involved here: general knowledge, native knowledge and a case study.

• General knowledge involves observing and exploring.
• Native knowledge involves observing and exploring like an Inuit hunter, woman or child.
• The case study looks at snow and climate change.

All students have a username and password to get into the website set up for this expedition. Check out the links on the front page, then log in to the other areas where only registered classrooms can get to.

In class last Thursday, we looked at maps of the Beringia area and you found some answers relating to questions about Alaska and the Inuit people. Some students found out some interesting information.

In the comments, add either an interesting fact you found out or a great website I could add to the sidebar of this blog.

Original image: ‘four year-old Inupiaq Eskimo boy‘

by: Len “Doc” Radin

Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

Grade 6/7 students

I have added some links to the blogroll which might help you with your presentation on the period of earth’s history you are researching.  Remember to use at least three different sources.  The last slide on your power point is a bibliography – check with Jessica if unsure how to write one or else use this website. Encyclopedias and science magazines in the library might also be helpful.  Use keywords from your time period  to find images and other useful websites.

Mr Hand would be a great resource as he studied this topic while at University.

Queen Sue has been called away from her secondary castle (school) because of problems at her home.  The moat has overflowed and is causing many health problems to her villagers. The road is impassable to both carts and horses because the local road builders have been derelict in their duty while the Queen was away collecting taxes.

There are still many things you could be doing while the queen is absent.

Lords and ladies 

• get your noticeboard up to date
• add your villagers as users – on dashboard users >add users
• add each villager’s role as a post category eg blacksmith, cook, knight – there should be at least two per member of your village

Priest - organize your tax sheet – print out to keep in Lord’s accounts folder

Villagers - write a blurb about your role in the village ready to add to noticeboard. Remember to use first person eg I am Esmerelda and very pleased to be your Lord’s cook.  I know a lot about herbs and spices to make your food more tasty.

Some villagers might want to visit the biblioteque to collect some manuscripts to help with researching this period of history. Remember these are valuable and must be kept in the Lord’s safe.

Also make sure you are researching the history of your village during the Dark Ages – in the time of the Barbarian tribes.

Attribution:

Original image: ‘Adare/County Limerick/Republic of Ireland/Milk Cart‘

by: Bill Barber    Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial License

Three major barbarian groups , Goths, Huns and Vandals, arrived in Europe during the last few hundred years of the Roman Empire.  They were powerful and had spread across Europe and Asia, fighting each other, invading countries and generally helping in the decline of the other empires from the previous post.

Activities

Compulsory: Take notes on the three barbarian tribes, ready to add information to a timeline about this period of history.

Choice:

1.  Research the way in which the words barbarian, hun, goth and vandal are used or have been used in our society since the twentieth century.  What do people mean when they use these words?  Are the meanings based on the historical version of the word? Write a post about the words and their use.

2.  Imagine you are one of the leaders of a barbarian tribe.  Write a speech you might give to your tribe to convince them to fight against the Romans and other tribes.  Present your speech by using a voki or vocaroo. Remember to embed your speech in your blog.

Atli (Attila the Hun) in an illustration to the Poetic Edda.

Public Domain. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

The Dark Ages are the lead up to the Middle Ages, but what was the world like before the Dark Ages began in 400 AD?

There were four powerful empires spread across Europe and Asia – Roman Empire (Western and Eastern), Persian Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire), Gupta Empire and Chinese Empire.

Research the decline of these empires – why did the Gupta and Persian empires decline but the Chinese didn’t – not in the same way at least.

The Gupta society was based on art, literature, charity for others and a well organized economy.  The Persian Empire is remembered for its mosaics and smithwork – gold and silver. The Chinese were great inventors in this time – wheelbarrow, paper, bells, carpet, paper money, the saddle and gunpowder.

The Roman Empire was ruled by many emperors in the time before or just into the Dark Ages.  Many of these emperors died by being assassinated.

Activities

Compulsory:  Choose a Roman Emperor of this period of history.  Research his life, particularly what he did as an emperor.  Present your findings on an A4 poster ready for display. Check with teacher name of emperor you are researching.

Choices:

1.   Byzantine mosaics often told a story.  Think of an event in your life that would make an interesting mosaic. Visit this website to create your own mosaic, take a print screen of the final product and then write a post including the image explaining why you chose that event. 

2. Which of the Chinese inventions mentioned above might have influenced the world the most?  Write a post about this giving your reasons.

This term, grade 8 students in my history group will be studying the mediaeval period or the Middle Ages.  Students will be divided into three villages and will be imagining themselves in a variety of roles within the village. Each village will have their own noticeboard (blog) and will have a certain amount of work to accomplish to pay their taxes to Queen Sue (that’s me, the teacher). They will have to work as a team and their notice board will have to include:

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    •  
      •  
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        • roles within the village
        • hierarchy in the village
        • development of the castle or manors in the village
        • punishment in the village
        • entertainment
        • religion and its influences
        • life in the castle
        • castle defence and attack

They will also have to set up a bibliotheque where the Queen can see where they are getting their information.  Each student will have at least two roles in the village and they will have to write posts relating to their role. The posts will be written in first person as if writing to the Lord of the manor.

Attribution:

Original image: ‘Stand firm!‘

by:

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