If building snowshoes with students, we recommend inviting an Indigenous community member into the learning environment.
Instructions:
Local Indigenous group have many sophisticated tools and technologies that assist with transportation. One example is snowshoes.
Spotlight on Language
Kanyen’kéha: Kahwen:kare
Anishinaabemowin: Aagam
Students can add these words to their Outdoor Learning Journals (introduced in the QUILLS Teacher’s Guide. Students can also go onto the online QUILLS dictionary to hear the words.
- Students review the Snowshoe.pdf to learn more about local Indigenous snowshoe designs and how snowshoes help(ed) community travel and hunt in the winter in deep snow.
Extension:
- Teachers may also wish to adapt the following activity: https://cdn.we.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/WST-E26-Elementary_Science-and-Technology.pdf
- In this activity students examine how traditional snowshoe designs reduced pressure on snow by dispersing weight over a larger area. Students learn how to calculate pressure by converting metric units into international system of units (SI).
- If time and materials permit, with assistance from a local Indigenous community member, students can build and trial their snowshoes.
