Ohénton Karihwatéhkwen and Science

Plant Profile for the Living World

Introduction to Project

For this grade level, I am focusing specifically on the Living World portion of the Science curriculum. In the Ohénton Karihwatéhkwen as a standard form, there is emphasis placed on the plants/roots, the trees and the medicines ( all plants). An opportunity here is  for each student to profile a plant that is in their environment. Is it something that is in their yard? 

Questions to Consider for each Profile:

1) How do you identify the plant? What are it's physical features, and what are it's defining characteristics?

2) What conditions does this plant thrive? Where does it live? What does it need to live?

3) What does this plant offer to humans? Does it have food, is it medicinal? How do we benefit from the plant?

4) What ways are humans impacting this plant? Do human behaviours need to change or be sustatained in order for this plant to survive?

5) What are ways in which Indigenous people used these plants in the past and still today?

Activities for Learning

-Students can  do any of the activities listed in the Secondary section of this capsule to begin thinking about their relationship to the natural world and to learn about the Ohénton Karihwatéhkwen. CLICK FOR RESOURCES 

- Students can also participate in the Walking Curriculum to begin exploring nature in their school neighbourhood. The Walking Curriculum 30 day challenge offers guiding questions for each walk that your class takes, asking students to connect their experience with the natural world and to Indigenous ways of understanding. 

- i-Tree Activities are an interactive and immersive program designed for Canadian students to explore trees and all of their properties. Check out the possibilities of this digital tool and program.

- Plant Life  Here are a list of another 27 activities that you can do to explore plant life

- Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults There are a number of chapters in this book that have good prompts for discussion around the relationships with plants to each other and from Indigenous perspectives ( try the Council of Pecans). Create discussion circles for students to be able to engage in some Indigneous perspectives so that they can include these in their plant profile projects.

Presentation

Students can present this in a number of different ways. Technology allows us the opportunity to create digital posters, brochures and presentations that can allow us to distribute this information quickly. Consider how you would like to disseminate the information that your students are generating. If students are profiling plants from different areas, one way that we might be able to present it is through:

- a YouTube video sharing what they're learned

- An interactive Map- https://siftr.org/ (this tool allows to create a themed map where you can place pins on a map anywhere in the world, upload pictures and write text to match the pin. This could be a cool way to profile the plants your students are researching)

-Poster Campaign

Medicinal Plants

Other Uses of Plants: Ash Baskets and Corn Husk Dolls