
Math in A Cultural Context
This series is a supplemental math curriculum based on the traditional wisdom and practices of the Yup’ik people of southwest Alaska. The result of more than a decade of collaboration between math educators and Yup’ik elders, these modules connect cultural knowledge to school mathematics. Students are challenged to communicate and think mathematically as they solve inquiry-oriented problems, which require creative, practical and analytical thinking. Classroom-based research strongly suggests that students engaged in this curriculum can develop deeper mathematical understandings than students who engage only with a procedure-oriented, paper-and-pencil curriculum.
Going to Egg Island - Kit
Adventures in Grouping and Place Values
Jerry Lipka
In a series of problems built around the story of a second-grade girl gathering sea bird eggs in the spring, students in grades one and two learn and apply the mathematical concepts and skills of counting and grouping two-digit numbers, estimating, measuring, sorting and place values. Kit includes teacher resource, student reader, and more.
Building a Smokehouse - Kit
The Geometry of Prisms
Melissa Kagle, Valerie Barber, Jerry Lipka, Ferdinand Sharp, Anthony Rickard
In this module for grades six and seven, students learn how to build a smokehouse modeled after ones currently used by the Yup’ik people.
Salmon Fishing - Kit
Investigations into Probability
Aishath Shehenaz Adam, Jerry Lipka, Barbara L. Adams, Anthony Rickard, Kay Gilliland, Joan Parker Webster
Students in grades six and seven use activities based on subsistence and commercial fishing in southwest Alaska to investigate various topics related to probability. Kit includes a teacher resource, two posters, and two CD-ROMs.
Star Navigation - Kit
Explorations into Angles and Measurement
Barbara L. Adams, Melissa Kagle, Frederick George
Students in grades five to seven learn ways of observing, measuring and navigating during the day and at night, including specific details of the location and orientation of the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia. Kit includes a teacher resource, a student reader, two posters, and a CD-ROM.