Ignite K-5
Ignite
Ignite is a STEM curriculum relevant to the land and people of the Oceti Sakowin. Developed with and for the teachers of the Rosebud Reservation by the South Dakota Discovery Center, the purpose of the curriculum is to braid culture, society, ways of knowing, and the Lakota language with STEM instruction to make learning culturally relevant, academically enriching, and personally meaningful. The curriculum is informed by the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings, the input of Lakota teachers and community members, and Lakota institutions.
In Lakota, the word igni means to search for something while in English ignite means to light a flame. The intention of the Ignite curriculum is to braid these two concepts by engaging learners in deep observation in order to spark wonder and curiosity, investigation and exploration and experiences in the community.
The Todd County School District paid for the development of these lessons. Access to the lessons will always be free. Indigenous content developers may retain the copyrights to their content. This work is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence.
Cultural Representation
The term Oceti Sakowin means Seven Council Fires and refers to the nations and bands of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people or oyate. Historically each council fire had its own autonomous leadership yet they maintained an allegiance to each other for social, cultural, economic and security reasons. The people then, as now, are not monolithic in terms of language, beliefs, or practices and much variability exists. This lack of standardization is an artifact of the way of life of the Oceti Sakowin and must be acknowledged and accommodated in instruction. We have endeavored to use common words, beliefs and practices though we acknowledge these are far from universally accepted.The cultural instruction in these lessons always defers to the expertise of the local elders and community.
We at the South Dakota Discovery Center gratefully receive input from the people of the Oceti Sakowin on how to most accurately portray the culture. Please email ignite@sd-discovery.org to contact us.
Ignite Learning Framework
The Ignite Learning Framework is a culturally relevant 5E model that uses phenomena to guide students through ečhin to ipasi and wičhičhaga.
Kit List
Ignite lessons were developed as self contained kits that include lessons and non-consumable supplies. The kit concept follows the Delta, FOSS and GEMS models of providing the teacher all the required materials to do hands-on science lessons except for a few consumables. The rationale is the teacher can devote their energy to the content and pedagogy rather than scrounging for supplies.
Recognizing that we cannot provide a kit for every teacher who might want to use these lessons, we have included a supplies list in kit lesson plan.
