Lesson Five: Patterns in the Environment

Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3 Lesson 4 Lesson 5 Lesson 6 Lesson 7 Lesson 8

Teacher Information:

Before the fur trade, the Beaver, Chipewyan, and Cree were self-reliant on the rich resources of the Athabascan region. They fashioned tools, clothing and shelter and obtained all their food stuffs from the environment which surrounded them. First Nations People across Canada have always had a special relationship with the land and animals.

An excellent example is the way in which Aboriginal Peoples on the Plains utilized every part of the buffalo, letting little go to waste. First Nations cultures have a deep respect for the earth, often referring to it as Mother Earth. They also recognize that everything in nature is connected. This concept is often referred to as the “circle of life.” Plants, animals and the environment are interdependent, working with one another in creating the ecosystem and becoming a part of the food chain. The earth feeds the plants and animals that in turn feed the people. When someone died, their body would feed the plants and animals. First Nations had to be aware of everything happening to the land, in the air and in the water in order to live successfully off of what Mother Nature provided. Aboriginal People were excellent observers, demonstrated for instance by their recognition that certain animal behaviors signaled changes in the weather.

Aboriginal Peoples knew the habits of the animals they hunted, trapped, and fished. Detailed traditions about the animals, the land and human behavior were passed on from one generation to the next through stories. Aboriginal People had a keen understanding of the patterns that nature presented. For example they determined day and night by observing the sun through its passage from low in the horizon in the morning to up high in the sky at midday and lowering in the sky towards evening.

Main Lesson:

The purpose of this lesson is for students to begin to recognize patterns in the environment similar to what Aboriginal People did many decades ago before we had television and computers to alert us to weather changes, time of day etc.

Working in groups students will observe the rising and setting of the sun to determine the pattern of the sun throughout the day. Within the groups, students should assign themselves to the rising of the sun, midday point of the sun, and the setting of the sun. NOTE: This exercise may be best done in the winter months as the sun rising late and sets early.

Students will need to develop their own chart to record their information. They will want to record the exact time of rising, midday set, and evening setting over a minimum two week period. Students will discuss and label the patterns of the setting sun by creating a diagram that compares three different dates.

Part of the analyzing process should include calculating how much time elapsed between each rising or setting and how it varied over the two week plus period.

This lesson can be taken a step further by having students construct and demonstrate a basic understanding of a sundial by using their sun observations. Students would record their findings and explain the differences.