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The Land is Changing: Stories from
Across the North |
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In a Nutshell:
Students interview elders, older relatives and/or parents about
the issues, impacts and potential ways of adapting to climate
change in the north. Interview questions are designed to shed
light on the issues of climate change. Stories, photographs and
art can be posted on the Student
Web-Exchange portion of the
website. |
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Goal:
To increase student awareness of climate change and their changing
environment by recording the knowledge and experience of elders
and the community. |
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Background Learning:
Teachers and high school students should be familiar with the
basic science of climate change and its anticipated impacts as
reviewed in:
Intermediate Students should be familiar with the basics of
science and impacts as reviewed in:
Other resources for teachers
Teachers may also want to check out the website
of Arctic
Borderlands Ecological Knowledge Co-op.
This community-based monitoring project records, synthesizes and
communicates local knowledge about the environment. Community researchers
conduct interviews with local experts each year. Teachers may want
to look at the sample questionnaire that researchers use and seek
permission to use parts of the questionnaire for this lesson. |
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Learning Outcomes:
Click on the icon for your territory to review the learning outcomes that are addressed by this lesson:
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Introduction to Lesson Plan:
This activity offers students a perspective on climate change
that is based on the experience and observations of local individuals.
The knowledge gained by people living close to the land is recognized
as a key component of research conducted in the north.
Protocols now guide the collection of information and stories
from elders and Aboriginal community members. While these are
usually geared to researchers who are not from the community,
if your class plans to collect and use local information and
stories, students should be familiar with the issues involved.
If you are a non-Aboriginal teacher or are not familiar with
protocols for the collection and use of local knowledge, please
take the time to learn about them. Some guidelines are given
below, but teachers are also encouraged to review the sources
listed in the More Information section.
The Aboriginal government in your community will usually appreciate
notice that a local knowledge project is underway, particularly
if its members have been interviewed repeatedly for other research
projects. It may also suggest knowledgeable interviewees.
Depending on the protocols of the Aboriginal government or territory,
you may want to create permission slips for students to have
signed by the people they interview.
The following questions usually need to be addressed before
conducting formal community research:
- Is permission required?
- Who will store the information, where, and in what format?
- Who will have access to it?
A report by Simon Brascoupe and Howard Mann called A
Community Guide to Protecting Indigenous Knowledge, (DIAND, Research and
Analysis Directorate, June 2001) was published by the federal
Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND)
in 2001. It addresses these and other issues in detail. Other
resources are identified in the More Information section.
At the conclusion of the project students can give their communities
a voice by posting the stories and reports they have gathered
– along with photographs and art – on the Student
Web-Exchange portion of this website. We encourage
teachers to involve their students in this activity. It is empowering
for students to become aware of their communities and to share
their concerns with the rest of Canada. Students will be able
access the website to view not only their own work, but also
the work of other students across the north. The stories will
be available to anyone going into the site. |
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Activity:
- Introduce the concept of climate change and its essential
aspects by having students read a “basics” backgrounder
or by doing one of the lesson plans categorized as a “Basics” lesson.
Students can be introduced to the impacts of climate change
by reviewing the concepts in the “Impacts” backgrounders.
- Introduce the activity by explaining what the students will
do in this lesson. That is:
- Each student will interview a member of his or her community
- Each student will write up the interview in a format that engages a reader, and
- Each student will post the finished product on a climate change website along with the work of other students from across the north.
 Ask students to select an elder or older person in their
lives who would be interesting to interview on the topic
of climate change. Ask students to share the name of this
person and describe their relationship to him or her. Some
students may need guidance; it is crucial that they select
someone who is much older and who has life experience that
is relevant to the project.- Before students do the interview,
review the following interview strategies with students:
- Arranging the interview: Discuss with students suitable
strategies for arranging an interview, such as:
Students need to contact the person they wish to interview
and arrange an appropriate time and place. At this
time they need to inform the person being interviewed
of the following:
- purpose and topic of the interview
- equipment that will be used during the interview,
e.g. tape recorder, camera
- duration of the interview
- what will happen to the information, (e.g. a report
will be posted on the web). At this point, the student
needs to request permission to publish the results
of the interview. Until there is mutual agreement,
students cannot proceed
with the interview.
- Interviewing pairs: Discuss with the students whether
it is more effective to interview two hunting partners, or
a husband and wife. People who are shy or modest will often
be more forthcoming in a small group. It has also been well
documented that people being interviewed in this way trigger
each other’s memories.
- Types of interview questions: Students may select questions
from the Student Handout – Interview Questions for
The Land is Changing: Stories from Across the North. The
list of interview questions is separated into sets developed
for high school, intermediate and primary grades. It is linked
to the Handouts section of this lesson.
However, students may want to create their own questions
or to be spontaneous during the interview. In that case you
may want to discuss “leading” “open” and
“closed” questions and which types of questions are appropriate
for what sections of the interview.
Closed and Open Questions – A closed question may help
to focus the answer, or limit the length of the answer.
An open
question may elicit unexpected and very interesting information.
An example of a closed question is: “Research shows
there are more marten in this area than there were 25 years
ago. Do you agree?”
An example of an open question is: “How many more marten
do you think there are in this area than there were 25 years
ago?”
An even more open question might be: “What has happened
to marten numbers over the last 25 years?”
Another example of a closed question is: “Is the weather
warmer now than when you were a child?”
Another example of an open question is: “How has the
weather changed since you were a child?”
Restating Questions – During the interview, students may
have to restate questions, or provide examples. You may
want to illustrate this point to your students with examples:
Initial question: “Are animals behaving differently
due to climate change?”
Restated question: “How are they behaving now? What is different?”
Providing examples may generate a further response: “Are
they eating different foods?” “Do they migrate
earlier?”
- What to take to the interview:
Students need to take necessary materials to the interview,
including:
- pens (bring an extra one) and paper
- tape recorder (optional), cassettes and extra batteries
- camera (optional), film or disc, extra batteries
- clip board or hard book to write on since theymay not be
sitting at a table for the interview (optional).
- map on which the interviewee can mark locations (optional)
- While some interviewees (or students) may not be familiar
or comfortable with maps, for others a map may be a helpful
focus point and a very effective tool for eliciting information.
It may also help the student understand what the person is
referring to. A 1:50 000 topographic map is preferable. Have
blank paper on hand as well, and encourage interviewees to
draw maps, or sketch animals, tracks, trails, trap sets,
etc.
- What to do at the interview:
Discuss interview strategies with the students:
- Establish a friendly environment, but do not be patronizing
- Listen carefully
- Give the speaker plenty of time to answer—avoid answering
for the speaker
- If the interviewee seems to be veering off topic for more
than a few moments, respectfully try to steer it back on
topic. Be aware, however, that the point the person is making
may not be immediately obvious. Also be aware that your questions
might trigger memories that the person needs to talk about
for a few minutes.
- At the end, ask the interviewee if there is anything that
they would like to add.
- Be respectful and polite - don’t argue with the person
you are interviewing.
- If you have a camera, don’t forget to take pictures – of
the person interviewed, of the student interviewing or
of other things that may illustrate what was learned during
the interview
- Once their interviews are complete, have
students write
a 200–600 story, essay or report that provides
a summary of the interview. Ask students to be creative
and
engaging, yet factual with their stories – since they
will be posted to the net and people around the world
will be
able to read them. They should be interesting to others
and written well. The “student exchange” portion
of this website is designed to accept approximately
400–600
words from each student - between a half and whole
page of printed text. Longer texts are too much to
post.
- Do an art class that illustrates and reinforces
what
the students learned in their report. Students
can depict what they have learned from their interviews
– the
effects
of climate change on animals or the environment,
or design a climate change solutions poster.
- Once the
art is complete take pictures of each student’s
work using your school or personal digital camera,
or use a scanner to digitize the images.
- Post student
stories and images such as artwork and photographs
on the Student Web-Exchange. Depending on the age
and computer skill level of the students, the uploading
to the web can
be done by you or by the student. Posting images
to the Internet provides an opportunity for students to
learn how to use
the school scanner and how to upload images to
the Internet. The posting process is all described in an
easy and user-friendly
way in the student exchange portion of the website.
Photographs posted could depict:
- students with the person(s) they interviewed (review photo release forms on student web exchange portion of
the site)
- student who wrote the report
- landscape
- animals
- community that they live in
- hunting and fishing
- something referred to in the report
- Students may wish to share their
experience or story with the class. (optional)
- Once submitted, wait a week
or two and go into the student exchange to see class work as well as
other students’ work.
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Handouts:
Click on the icon for the handout that supports this lesson – Student
Handout: Interview
Questions for The Land is Changing: Stories from Across the North. |
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Student Web-Exchange:
Post each student’s 200–600 story, report or summary
of the interview on climate change along with a picture from
each student to the student
exchange on this website. If you
can’t post all students’ work, be selective. Text
needs to be typed into the computer while images need to be scanned.
Click on the icon for information on how to post material. |
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Evaluation:
Review students’ reports, stories and summaries for grammar,
and demonstrated ability to translate interview results into
a summary or story.
Evaluate the students work based on their artistic presentation.
Students may want to self-evaluate this lesson according to
the following criteria:
- Did they enjoy this activity?
- What did they learn?
- How would they do it differently next time?
- What ranking out
of 10 would student give themselves for this activity?
- How much
effort did they put into this project (again on a scale
of 1-10)
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Enrichment Ideas:
English Language Arts
Sharing stories: Visit other classes and share experiences (or
share your stories). Some of these have periods after the idea
and some don’t.
Website review: Go into the student exchange portion of the
climatechangenorth.ca website and to read the stories collected
by other students across the north and learn what other students
have done.
Write a letter: Write a thank-you letter to your interviewee
and give them a copy of any transcript, photos etc. that came
out of their interview.
Art
Class Booklet: Compile stories from your class and create a
booklet.
Class Mural: Create a class mural based on the main themes in
the collected stories.
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About the Author:
Yukon Conservation Society Curriculum Team – The team
consists of teachers, writers, environmental educators and curriculum
specialists. It worked with teachers across the north, helping
them to create lesson plans for the website and gathering input
about website features, backgrounders and lesson plans that would
be useful in northern classrooms. |
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