Native Math and Science

Programs Explore Ways of Knowing

To tribes in the Puget Sound, the canoe is as important as the buffalo is to the Plains Indians. Not just a form of transportation, the canoe is a vehicle for art, sustenance, and history. That’s one of the reasons the traditional boat was chosen as the focus of a new curriculum model that’s helping Washington’s Native students navigate everything from math and science to language arts.

Developing and using culturally relevant curricula can pay dividends. It can boost Native students’ learning, help earn community support for schools, and improve relations between Native and non-Native classmates.

Innovative, culture-based programs from Washington, Montana, and Idaho are detailed in the latest issue (winter 2003) of Northwest Teacher, the theme of which is "Ways of Knowing: Native Knowledge and Western Science." The free publication is produced twice a year by the Northwest Eisenhower Regional Consortium for Mathematics and Science at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. The journal offers educators a tool for professional development, along with ideas that can be adapted for their own classrooms.

The Canoes on Puget Sound curriculum, developed by educator Nan McNutt over a four-year period, centers on a cultural object but provides a way to explore the principles of math and science used in canoe carving and paddling. By measuring the dimensions of canoes, students can learn about ratios. Exercises in mass and distance help kids use algebraic thinking to formulate equations. At the same time, the classes examine the concepts of symmetry, buoyancy, leverages, counterbalance weights, and the power of pi.

Linking math and science lessons to cultural relevancy is also a goal of the Northern Rocky Mountain Pathways to Academic Excellence (PACE) pre-algebra camps organized by Salish Kootenai College and the Nez Perce Tribe for middle school students in Montana and Idaho. When students from Montana’s Flathead Reservation erect teepees for sleeping, they measure the spacing of the poles. Nez Perce campers use dyes made from indigenous plants to decorate T-shirts. In both programs, hands-on, cooperative problem-solving activities and lots of attention from Native college students who serve as counselors help youngsters understand basic math concepts and then move on to the higher concepts they’ll need to master high school algebra.

In addition to profiling innovative programs, this issue of Northwest Teacher provides a list of resources for teachers trying to integrate Native cultures and customs with Western science. By tying tribal knowledge and skills to classroom studies, teachers can create a richer learning environment and help their students flourish academically.

A single free copy of "Ways of Knowing: Native Knowledge and Western Science" is available to educators in the Northwest via e-mail request, math_and_science@nwrel.org; phone, 503-275-9500; or on the Web site, www.nwrel.org/msec/nwteacher/index.html. If you live outside the region or want multiple copies, you may purchase them using the Document Order Form or the NWREL Products Catalog Online, www.nwrel.org/comm/catalog/.