Students will use a game and a discussion to demonstrate the importance of artifacts in context for learning about past people.
In their study of artifact classification students will use pictures of artifacts or objects from a teaching kit to classify artifacts and answer questions about the lifeways of a group of historic Native Americans.
This lesson does three things: It helps students understand that archaeologists must develop clearly defined variables in order to classify artifacts, it reinforces the concept of chronology, and it shows how the style of a basic tool-the projectile point-changed over time.
To archaeologists, pottery is an important artifact because it can often indicate how old a site is. Students will learn how to create a coiled pot using the same techniques as North Carolina Native Americans.
In their study of artifact and lifeway pictures, students will observe and discuss past Native American lifeways and construct a timeline of four major culture periods in Native American Social Sciences. This unit is based on Lesson 4.1
In a spin-off to studying about angular momentum, students use basic methods of comparative mythology to consider why spinning and weaving are common motifs in creation myths and folktales. Note: The literacy activities for the Mechanics unit are based on physical themes that have broad application to our experience in the world concepts of rhythm, balance, spin, gravity, levity, inertia, momentum, friction, stress and tension.
Students learn how scientific terms are formed using Latin and Greek roots, prefixes and suffixes, and on that basis, learn to make an educated guess about the meaning of a word. Students are introduced to the role played by metaphor in language development.
