Education - Hudson Museum, The University of Maine

Visit Cedar and Sea and Help Students Accomplish State of Maine Learning Results
by John Pickering, College of Education, The University of Maine

Raven-Beaver Totem Every teacher strives to have classroom instruction specifically connected to one or more of the State of Maine Learning Results. The Hudson Museum has exhibits that can help your students meet some Learning Results. The Museum's exhibits are a rich resource for helping students learn the information, skills, and attitudes described in the Learning Results. Cedar and Sea: Peoples of the Northwest Coast contains artifacts, interpretive pictures and written descriptions of the Native groups that lived along the Northwest Coast of the United States and the West Coast of what is now the Canadian province of British Columbia. In this exhibit, students at varying age levels can learn in three Learning Results Content Areas--English Language Arts, Modern and Classical Languages and Social Studies. Specific recommendations will be made about how to use the artifacts, games, folktales, and written commentaries to fulfill performance indicators in these content areas.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

A. Process of Reading
Information about a particular artifact of interest to the student (like a seal potlatch bowl) can be gained by reading the written description accompanying that artifact. The docent leading the tour can read the information to lower grade students. Upper elementary and middle level students can be assigned a particular artifact and asked to take notes which can be shared immediately or during a classroom discussion period following the tour. Secondary students can use the written materials as a starting point for a short paper comparing the use of an artifact in the Native culture to an object of similar use within their own culture. (The Museum can send you pre-visit materials that prepare students for viewing the exhibit. All of these materials can be read by the students.)

B. Literature and Culture
There are a large number of folktales that students can read prior to their visit. During the visit the docent can also tell folktales that have a direct connection to objects in the exhibit. For example, for younger children, the folktale, “Whale in the Sky,” which is about Whale and Thunderbird, vividly illustrates a gallery photomural of a longhouse. For grades 3-8, several folktales feature animals that appear in the exhibit's masks or artwork. These objects can be examined by the students. Secondary students can listen to the folktale and speculate about the origins of folktales and their purpose in the culture.

MODERN AND CLASSICAL LANGUAGES

E. Cultural Practices, Products, and Perspectives
Cedar and Sea includes more than half a dozen culture groups of the Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States. Each group spoke a different language or dialect. There are numerous artifacts from each group.
• Comparisons of dress, housing, food and crafts can be made as prescribed in the performance indicators for Grades 3-4. Relevant artifacts include a large bear housepost, potlatch bowls, button blanket, cedar baskets and masks.
• For Grades 5-8 an appropriate performance indicator is the one that asks students to search for, identify and investigate the function of utilitarian products of another culture as found within their own homes and communities. Students can sketch or take notes about the many contemporary and traditional spoons and serving bowls on exhibit. They can then return to their own homes and sketch or describe the variety of spoons or serving bowls they have and compare them to those they saw in the exhibit
• Secondary grades can view the contemporary masks, argillite totems, silver spoons and art prints utilizing stylized totemic designs. They can then examine the comparable artifacts made by the ancestors of the contemporary artists. Similarities and differences can be listed for classroom discussion. This fulfills the performance indicator that students experience the arts of another culture and discuss the meaning of that art to that cultural community.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Each of the Social Studies content areas described in the Maine Learning Results (Civics and Government, History, Geography, and Economics) can be related to Cedar and Sea . Suggested museum activities for each of the four grade levels will focus on a different content area.
• History Grades PreK-2 can focus on Standard C--Historical Inquiry, Analysis and Interpretation and selecting the performance indicator that encourages students to use artifacts to gather information about the past. A large picture of a communal longhouse and a 14-foot replica of a house post used to hold up the roof of a longhouse can help young students understand how houses were built over 100 years ago. Many other artifacts in the exhibit were created 100 or more years ago, so comparisons of then and now can be made.
• Geography Grades 3-4 can focus on Standard B in Geography and work on the performance indicator asking students to demonstrate an understanding of why certain areas of the world are more densely populated than others. The exhibit's map of the Northwest Coast and several large pictures give students a view of the rugged coast, dense forests and harsh climate. Artifacts such as fishing implements, food storage boxes and heavy Chilkat ceremonial blankets can be used to talk with students about the land's ability to sustain a certain level of population.
• Economics Grades 5-8 can learn about Standard A--Personal and Consumer Economics. The economic concept of scarcity can be understood by utilizing the graph of the Annual Cycle of Production that is prominently displayed within the exhibit. This describes how much time each month is spent in hunting, fishing and gathering. It also indicates during which months each activity is more prominent. Students can study the various artifacts connected with these activities and draw conclusions about how various culture groups dealt with abundance and scarcity.
• Civics and Government Secondary grades can focus on Standard B--Purpose and Types of Government. They can examine artifacts used by house chiefs in order to understand the role of chiefs in each village. The ceremonial potlatch feast and artifacts connected to that feast can also help in understanding the class structure and how that contributed to community government. With this information, they can then conduct outside research leading to a paper comparing and contrasting the purpose and structure of the United States Government with other governments--one of the performance indicators for Purpose and Types of Government.