Turtle and Eagle

How did ʔarsikʷ outsmart pəql̓qin - Understanding gravity and air resistance

This set of experiments helps young students understand gravity and wind resistance. This seems like a lofty concept for K-3 but it is surprisingly easy to demonstrate and understand. The first step is to show that no matter what the weight of something it will fall to the ground at the same speed. The second step is to show that things of different surface areas create resistance against the air as they fall so this changes the speed that they drop to the ground at. And this is how Turtle beat Eagle!

Step 1 -

The Set Up - The pull of gravity is the same on any object: When there is no air present or no difference in air resistance objects will fall at the same speed and each the ground at the same time.

The Experiment, part 1- Two Falling apples: Have kids drop two apples that are about the same size from as high up as they can (if you want to keep the apples to eat then drop them into something soft!). Do you expect them to land at the same time or at different times?

The Experiment, part 2- Falling Apples, one full one in half - slice one of the apples in half and then repeat part 1 of the experiment. What do you expect to happen? Will the whole apple or half the apple hit the ground first or will it be a tie?

Repeat the Experiment - each group should repeat the experiment to make sure the results repeat and then compare their results to other groups

Conclusion - What can they conclude about how fast two objects of the similar size but different weights fall? Watch the "Pisa Experiment" video from 0:00 to 1:21 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oR-IPhTHKo

Step 2 -

The set up - Each group will fold two matching pieces of 81/2 x 11 pieces of paper 5 times.

The Experiment part 3 - Now drop them from a height and record which piece hits the ground first, is it a tie? What did they expect to happen?

The Experiment part 4 - Now unfold one of the pieces of paper until it is no longer folded. Test the room for air! They can do this by quickly swinging their hand through the air, do they feel anything against their hand? *leave enough space between them and other students or objects! They can also breathe in quickly and blow out air quickly, did they feel anything across their lips? *don't do this too many times, hyperventilation is not part of this experiment! Which paper will hit the ground first? Which paper represents the turtle and which represents Eagle? Watch the BBC vacuum experiment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyeF-_QPSbk

Where else does this idea of wind resistance show up?...........think about the shape of cars and planes, how about parachutes! Try safely putting your hand out the window of the car, keep your hand flat like an airplane wing, then switch it to flat like the wall of a house. Did you feel a different force against your hand?

Introduction to habitat drawing - It is important for young people to connect nature and conservation to where they live. This is why the turtle and Eagle story is so important. There are a few short videos and websites for reference that talk in simple but scientific language about the life and habitat of turtles and eagles. The act of drawing deepens a connection to the learning. There should be no how to drawing lessons at this age, it is too early to push "realism" and the students don't care how perfect it looks. What they draw as a turtle is a turtle, what they draw as an eagle is an eagle.

It is helpful to have some source images of each, important to have more than one view of each animal so they can form their own impression of what the animal looks like rather than getting caught in drawing one image. I have included a PDF that you can print to hand out to the students with images of the animals.

Either at the top of the drawing or the bottom get the students to print the nsyilxcen words, məlqənúps (Eagle) and ʔarsikʷ (turtle).

Excellent videos on Turtles and Bald Eagles

Painted Turtle Conservation video from Vancouver Island (2:08)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZvSI5HrZl0

Turtle conservation project in the Fraser Valley (9:44) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAo-rJGBit8

Bald Eagle video (4:45)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEgEIEfSuvU

Extra resource websites

Stewardship in the Okanagan - https://www.osstewardship.ca/turtles

Extirpated Pacific Pond Turtle - https://wildlifepreservation.ca/pacific-pond-turtle/

Draw their habitat!

Turtles and Eagles live here in the Okanagan. You have watched some videos and looked at some websites that show their habitat. Think of where that habitat is around you. Have you visited a special place here in the valley that would be perfect for turtles and eagles? Have you seen Turtles and Eagles in the wild?

Using the photos as source images draw a turtle or an eagle and it's habitat on the top of the page, if you have time you can colour your own work. Make sure you include the objects that are in their habitat as well as what they like eat! Now at the bottom of the page design your own sign that you might put near a turtle habitat that helps people understand how to keep the turtles safe.

A huge part of Indigenous culture are games. The games are meant to be fun but they are often based on purposeful learning. Preparing children for future life skills. Many games originated with one nation but are now practiced by many nations. The Blackfoot nation call this game Run and Scream.

It teaches patience, builds lung capacity, is fun and focusses on self improvement rather than just competition. They will see how they do compared to others in their class but the real competition is to see how they improve themselves over time.

Students start with a deep breathe, start running and screaming at the same time. Once they run out of air and voice they stop and place a marker. Anything can be used as a marker but it will be more meaningful if they create their own decorated and labelled stick. The run can be done individually or it can be done as a mass start as a group. It should be done several times each outing and can be done several times over the year.

Variations: a sprint is the most common but the modes of movement are endless: skipping, hopping, jumping, grapevine etc.

Engaging the Science and Math through recording and questioning! - by keeping track of their distances this will honour their improvement. It will show them how important numbers are for recording and understanding. They can also bring in the concept of prediction, how much will they improve each time! At the end of the year they can look at why their distances improved.

Youtube videos of the Yelling game aka: Run and Scream game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iglWnspmTs 0:00 - 1:54

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm7bvSfPuCo

Indigenous games website https://www.speaonline.ca/uploads/3/8/2/9/38299825/indiginous_games_handout_by_cole_wilson.pdf

The Indigenous Art Lesson Project that is connected to this website has an excellent and very thorough syilx art lesson on traditional pictographs. Great for culture and great for learning art skills. It is under the grade 1 lesson.

Here is a list of some amazing syilx/Okanagan artists!

Coralee Miller - https://www.ubcovacu.org/coralee-miller

David Wilson Sookinakin - https://www.headbonesgallery.com/David_Wilson/David_Wilson_Headbones_ecatalogue.pdf

Janine Lott - http://www.authenticindigenous.com/artists/janine-lott

Smoker Marchand - https://www.firstpeoplesfund.org/virgil-smoker-marchand

Noll Dericksan - https://www.gallerieswest.ca/events/noll-derriksan-toussowasket-red-morning-sky-resilience-597/

Barb Marchand - https://sqilxw.com/recovery-arts-blog/

Mariel Belanger - https://sqilxw.com/mariel-belanger/

Sheldon Louis -

Clint George - https://www.saobserver.net/community/new-lake-country-sculptures-tell-the-stories-of-syilx-okanagan-peoples/

Les Louis - https://www.saobserver.net/community/new-lake-country-sculptures-tell-the-stories-of-syilx-okanagan-peoples/

News article on 6 syilx artists https://www.lakecountryartgallery.ca/uploads/1/5/1/9/15194804/atklokem_catalogue_web.pdf

How Turtle Set The Animals Free

Eagle was very fast. He raced all the Animal People and beat them. Even Fox and Wolf lost. All the Animal People who lost these races became Eagle's slaves.

Eagle was chief of all the animals, except for turtle who lived with his partner Muskrat. They were free because they were the only ones who did not race Eagle.

They knew they could not run very fast, but one night Turtle had a dream. He was told, "You must race Eagle tomorrow to free the Animal People. They must be free when the People-To-Be Come."

In the morning, Turtle told Muskrat, "Get up! Go for a swim! Get ready! We must race Eagle."

"You cannot beat him, Turtle!" Muskrat said unhappily, "You cannot beat him! He flies too fast."

"I know. All of our people lost before, but my dream told me to race and win," Turtle replied.

Together the two friends went to Eagle's camp. Turtle told Eagle, "I want to race with you tomorrow."

"All right, Turtle," Eagle answered, "tomorrow we race, when the sun comes up. If you win, the Animal People are yours."

"Yes," Turtle agreed.

"If I win, Turtle, I will keep you here. You are betting your life on this race."

As Turtle crawled away, all the Animal People laughed, because they did not think they would ever be free.

Next day, Turtle me Eagle for the race. Eagle told him, "Choose your place, Turtle. I will race you any distance you decide."

"Any place?" Turtle asked.

Eagle replied, "Our people hear me, any place, Turtle."

Quickly, Turtle said, "Then carry me up in the air, Eagle. I will tell you when to drop me. From there we will race. Whoever reaches the ground first wins the race."

Eagle began to get worried. He took Turtle high up. When Turtle yelled, "Let me go!" Eagle dropped him.

He fell like a rock. Eagle tried to catch up to him. Turtle stuck out his head. "E-e-eee! Hurry, Eagle!" I will beat you!"

Then Turtle pulled his head in and fell faster.

The Animal People watched. They all shouted for Turtle.

Muskrat jumped around and his tail whipped the air.

His partner was winning. Eagle was close! He thought, "Turtle will hit the ground like a rock!"

Turtle did, but he stood up and told the Animal People, "Now I will be Chief in making this decision. You are free. Go where you like, Animal People. Anywhere!"

The Animal People scattered. They would tell the People-To-Be about the first races.

Counting in nsyilxcən

When kids are counting in a new language it can help if they display what number they are saying using their fingers or touch the numeric version of the number. Another way to learn language better is to have movement and sound attached to the learning. Clapping and or hopping to the numbers works very well and is a lot of fun, this gets kids moving but more importantly deepens the learning. A note on using the English or French words - It is felt that it is better and more respectful to learn the Indigenous language without displaying the English or French words.

syilx counting videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ihs2eRVY1E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVnJC-IDCbg

One through ten in nsyilxcən

1 - naqs

2 - ʔasíl̓

3 - kaʔłís

4 - mus

5 - čilkst ̓

6 - ta̓ q̓m̓kst

7 - sisp̓lk̓ ̓

8 - tim̓ł

9 - x̌əx̌n̓ut

10 - ʔupn̓kst

Some fun counting activities-

Big steps - either in a gym or outside simply call out a number in nsyilxcən and the students either take a giant steps according to the number or you can get them to hop, turn in a circle. In a classroom they could clap hands, hold up fingers, tap the top of their head. Basically anything that makes recognizing the number fun!

For pronunciation help head to the First Voices website - https://www.firstvoices.com/explore/FV/sections/Data/nsyilxc%C9%99n/nsyilxc%C9%99n/Syilx/search/?query=one

Interesting news articles:

Syilx youth who dreams of being an actor and a professional powwow dancer - https://sites.google.com/learn.sd23.bc.ca/indigenous-art-lessons/home

Video stories

The story of Lazy Boy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzK3eM1Ylog

The name Kelowna or Kilawna - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZF6JWkfifM