This past week we worked hard to complete a project about Native Americans, this project was called the NAT project. Dr. Smirnova split us into groups and each group got assigned a different tribe. JIGSAW came back into play! The different tribes were Dine', Mowhawk, Muscogee, Tlingit, and Lakota. The tribe I had to research along with my group was the Dine'. My group members were Alexis, Ganny, and Marie. The question we had to answer was: How did geography influence the Native American Tribes? Our task was to design a presentation that answered this question. The presentation had to include history, geography, culture, food, clothes, habitat, famous people, and generalizations of our tribe. We had to work Cooperatively and follow the rules of cooperative learning by following PIGS. PIGS stands for, Positive Interdependence, Individual Accountability, Group Processing, and Social Skills & Face to face interaction. Each part of PIGS was present while working with my group on this project. Positive interdependence was shown by taking a specific topic and working on it equally. Individual Accountability was present because we each chose a part of the Dine' tribe to research, and were accountable for completing our own work. Group Processing was present at the end of our presentation. After reading the 3 pluses and a wish from my classmates I was able to see what we could improve on. Most of my classmates wrote that they wished the presentation was shorter. I agree with them. I always try my best to add the most information this way I can teach an abundance of information. I believe my group did a wonderful job by making the presentation filled with pictures, and great information about the Dine' tribe. Lastly, Social Skills & Face To face interaction was present when working with my group. During class time we worked together and decided upon what we were going to be working on independently. During the class period, my group and I realized we were the only group talking to each other. We didn't know why no other group was talking considering this was a GROUP PROJECT. My group and I were connected after class as well by texting and facetiming about what we should include in the presentation. I believe working socially and having face to face interaction is key when working on a group project.
While presenting our project we tried our best to engage the class. I included videos of tribal dances, the Dine' healing song, and we all did our best to make the slides VISUAL. To begin our presentation Alexis asked the class "How does geography influence the Native Americans?" and presented a word cloud to the class. We then proceeded by showing the class a word cloud and asked them if the recognized any words in the cloud. We asked the class to tell us the 5 themes of geography. The class responded and remembered the 5 themes. This was a great introduction to our presentation. We taught the class about the Dine' tribe. The Dine' tribe is also known as the Navajo's. The Dine' tribe is the second largest tribe in the nation and the largest tribe in the United States. The tribe extends from Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. They believed in many gods such as the sun god, and Earth Mother. Earth mother was the most sacred God and was the most powerful. The worshiped the sun, wind, and watercourses, and did not like to talk about death. When Columbus came to the United States the Navajo's were forced to relocate. This movement was called the Long Walk of the Navajo from Arizona to New Mexico. They relied on their environment for shelter, food, clothing, and water. I taught the class about the Navajo culture. The Navajo's were very family geared. They speak a language called Athabaskan. They have many celebrations such as 8 months pregnant, baby's first laugh, coming to age, marriage, first footprint. The grew their own crops which resulted in eating their own food. We ended our presentation with a post-assessment. We had the class participate in a KAHOOT to test their knowledge.
Overall, I think that this project was great! It was very helpful for teaching the 5 themes of geography and learning about different tribes.
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