How Does Climate Affect our Shelter Needs?



	How Does Climate Affect our Shelter Needs? Cindy Fry, Sandy Kelnhofer, Barbara Quintasket Paschal Sherman Indian School, Omak, Washington
	Summary Students investigate how weather influences shelter choices. Grade level Fourth Time required Three to four 60-minute class periods Materials Pictures of traditional Native American shelters (see Background) Warm water Paper cups Pieces of material for insulating the jars – canvas, foil, tulee, leaves, mud, animal skins Tape, rubber bands Thermometers Science journals Classroom materials and junk items to make shelters Internet access Goals By completing this lesson, students will understand that climate influences people’s choices for shelters, be introduced to the concept of insulation, learn about some traditional Native American shelters and gain experience in using the science process skills. Science standards addressed National Science Standards Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry Organisms and their environments Changes in Earth and sky Properties of objects and materials Science and technology in local challenges American Indian Science Standards Changes in Earth’s surface, weather fluctuations and movements of celestial objects and how they affected historical American Indian community locations, annual migrations, and agricultural and ceremonial cycles Earth, air, fire and water and how they served as a basis for traditional American Indian production of clothing, housing, tools and food Teacher tips Bookmark web sites prior to beginning the lesson for easy access during the lesson. Background information In times past, Okanogan People lived in several different dwellings during the year. During the spring, summer and fall, people lived in tipis. In summer they moved to the fishing sites, in the fall they moved to the berry-picking sites and hunting sites. The tipis were either made of tule mats or cured animal skins. In later years, after the arrival of the trappers, they used discarded canvas sails to cover the tipi poles. In the cold months, the people lived in subterranean pit houses near creeks and rivers. The bottom part of the home was dug into the ground to make a circle. The circle was topped by a roof. A tall ladder was used to enter and leave the dwelling. The following three web sites will provide pictures and information about traditional Native American shelters that will be useful in this lesson. The Library of Congress web site has 39 pictures of tule mat tipis, as well as a rich assortment of other traditional pictures. Search using the key words “tule mat”. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/wauhtml/aipnhome.html Native American Shelters - Click on the map to access information and pictures of traditional shelters for native cultural areas in the United States. www.anthro.mankato.msus.edu/prehistory/settlements/index.shtml. The Living Landscapes web site has picture resources of Native people of the Colville Reservation and the Okanogan Band, both on the Colville Reservation side and the Canadian side of the border. http://royal.okanagan.bc.ca/cgi-bin/keysearch?key=India Procedure Engagement Discuss the shelters used by the traditional Okanogan people and how the people moved with the seasons. Show pictures of traditional Okanogan shelters from the web sites. Relate subterranean homes of the Okanogan to contemporary earth banked buildings. Discuss how native people in different areas built different shelters depending on their weather conditions. Go to the Native American Shelters web page and ask students to predict the types of shelter and building materials used in different parts of the country. Exploration Have students work individually to quickly draw a picture of their own house. Make a class list of all the materials students think they would need to build their house. Introduce the word insulation. Show students the various types of insulating materials Challenge them to design an experiment to find out which material is the best insulator. Provide relevant equipment for the experiments. Students should draw and write about their experimental design, results and conclusions in their journals. Explanation Encourage students to share their experimental results with the class. Make a class chart of the results to determine what the best insulating material is. Relate the results to traditional and contemporary building materials. Discuss modern homes and how they are built to make us comfortable in all types of weather with insulation in the walls, heating systems, air conditioners, insulated windows etc. Compare this to times past when the Okanogan changed to subterranean houses during cold seasons. Elaboration Ask students to make predictions about the climate of outer space. Encourage students to access the “Staying Cool on the Station” web page on the NASA Kids web site to read about how astronauts stay comfortable in space. Discuss the types of insulation required in space to those used in modern and traditional homes. Evaluation Using classroom materials, have students or pairs of students design a shelter from the past, present or future. Each group should select a climate or location where they will use their shelter and explain why their shelter would be an appropriate design for their chosen climate. Review journal entries for evidence of process skill proficiency. Follow up activities Ask students to predict where most people live on Earth. Have an atlas, globe or map of earth available for all to see. Access a world population density map at http://www.ciesin.org/datasets/gpw/globldem.doc.html. Ask students to hypothesize why people cluster in these regions of the world. Have students select a tribal school in a different part of the country. Ask them to predict the type of weather the students experience at the other school. Write letters or e-mail messages to students at the other school, exchanging information about cultural traditions, weather, shelter, etc. Resources Web sites Library of Congress – Pictures of tule tipis http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/wauhtml/aipnhome.html Native American Shelters – Interactive map with information about native shelters http://www.anthro.mankato.msus.edu/prehistory/settlements/index.shtml Living Landscapes –Pictures of Okanogan people http://royal.okanagan.bc.ca/cgi-bin/keysearch?key=India Gridded World Population – Map of population density. http://www.ciesin.org/datasets/gpw/globldem.doc.html NASA Kids – Staying Cool on the Station - Describes climate control in space stations. http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/