 |
| A "Bake a Cake" Visual for Alaska Natural and Cultural History Everything is Interrelated! B Campen 2004 |
Final Project for Explore Alaska! A Natural and Cultural History
Week of April 15-23, 2012
The final project for this course consists of two interrelated pieces. It represents an application of both the knowledge you have acquired about Alaska’s natural and cultural history and the skills you have gained in creating a blog.
In nearly every module you have been asked to look for linkages – events, places, processes, ideologies/perspectives – anything for which a cause-effect connection can be made. As has been stated frequently, nothing occurs in isolation; there is always a cause and an effect. It is the awareness and understanding of these linkages that allow for deeper knowledge and an appreciation of what has gone before. It also generates an optimism that what is to come is not inevitable; future events can be influenced precisely because one understands the causes and potential outcomes.
This is your chance to recall the analogies offered in the course introduction – it’s time to “pull up the threads”, “fill in the puzzle”, or, in the parlance of seine boat fishers “purse up the seine”. You will now be able to bring together information about a geographic area of your choice and integrate significant and relevant linkages about that area. This exercise asks you to draw upon the skills of analysis and application.
Step 1 – Select a geographic area of Alaska of particular interest to you. It may be a town or village, or as large as a region (Interior or NW Arctic, for ex.)
Step 2 – Stroll back through the modules to consider all the topics that have been covered. Reflect on how these affected the location you have chosen. What topics are connected? Interrelated? Linked? For example, are fishing and logging connected in your area? How about gold mining and population/settlement? Or, aviation and fishing? How about religion and health care?
If I chose Sitka as my location, I could connect education (Mt. Edgecumbe High School), World War II, and health care!! Wow, 3 things linked. How? MEHS was established on the site of a WW II naval station. After WW II it was decommissioned and signed over to the Bureau of Indian Affairs which operated a school there until 1983. (The state of AK took over in 1985.) Directly behind the school is the Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital, which after the war served, in part, as a TB sanitarium. The children with the orthopedic variant of TB were taught by Mt. Edgecumbe teachers and as their health improved, they lived in the dorms and went to classes at the school.
What links, what causes and effects, can you discover for your location?
Part I – For this part of the project you will build a timeline for the geographic area you have selected. This will be presented in the blog format, and is to be supported by images that strongly enhance the timeline. The timeline may start at any point – from an early geologic time to the present. The timeline must include 6 events, with a corresponding image for each. Be sure to include an appropriate caption for each image (descriptive title and citation). How should you choose which items to include on the timeline? Select events for which there is a cause-effect relationship; there should be “threads” linking each item on the timeline to another item on the timeline, or to events/patterns somewhere in Alaska.
Notes:
a. definition of “event” for the timeline – it may be a one-time single event
(ex. 1968 oil discovery on the North Slope), or something that covers a period of
years (ex. WW II 1939-45, late 1800’s/early 1900’s gold rushes, 1950’s push for statehood….. ). Events may also be chosen from Module IX topics and from current events.
b. Each event should fall under at least one of the topics covered for this course.
(ex. 1950’s or 1968 oil discovery = economy, Juneau gold rush = economy, Yutana Barge Lines = river transportation, St. Mary’s Mission = education and religion, World War II = WW II ! )
Option:
If you would like to add personal experience to the timeline, you may add up to 3
events. These do not replace, but are in addition to the 6 required “academic” events. These will be considered as an “extension”, and they should enhance understanding of the events/topics on the time line.
Part II – Using the “academic” timeline events you have posted, you are to write three cause-effect statements that demonstrate the linkages between events, and/or between timeline events and events in the rest of Alaska. Each statement should link two items; however, if you are up for an even greater challenge, you could link three items. Only do this if the statement will fit the criteria. So, three statements – each to link two events and/or patterns/trends/movements. These statements should be in a second section of the blog, numbered, and labeled by naming what topics are being covered.
Tips
How do you write the cause effect statement? In the Teacher’s Guide for the AK History and Culture Studies site that we have been using, there is a lesson that includes directions and criteria for writing authentic cause-effect statements. The URL is http://www.akhistorycourse.org/articles/article.php?artID=396 . Go to this site and review the Cause-Effect Statement Guide and the Cause-Effect Statement Planning Chart. They are both in a pdf format, so just open them up. It might also be helpful to review the list of topics on that page as they are very close to what has been covered in this course. Feel free to include current events and Module IX topics.
Disregard the actual lesson part on this page. Use the directions provided here. Use the planning chart to practice laying out the information to include in each statement. Use the guide to make sure that your cause-effect statements fit the criteria. Read the statements aloud to determine how they sound. The statements may end up being a bit long, but that’s ok. Just try to be as succinct as you can.
This is actually tougher than it first appears. The goal is the production of three beautiful statements that reflect a strong understanding of the Alaska history/cultures/geography.
Here is an example using Nome as the geographic location:
EXAMPLE – NOME (Remember, each event needs images and a short description)
TImeline:
early 1900's Gold Rush
1915-30 Lomen brothers’ reindeer empire
1925 Diphtheria epidemic and serum run to Nome
early 1940's World War II - refueling stop for ALSIB planes
1970's Iditarod commemorative serum run -est. of Iditarod Sled Dog Race
late 1970's-present Iditarod Sled Dog Race boosts tourism
2000-present gold prices high, gold mining resumes
EXAMPLES - Cause-Effect Statements
1. The discovery of gold on the Seward Peninsula in the early 1900's prompted an influx of gold seekers that contributed to the establishment of the community of Nome, Alaska.
criteria met - two items linked? yes -----gold and population/settlement
time/place? yes
appropriate link? yes
historically accurate? yes
grammar/structure/clarity? yes
2. In 1925, concern about the spread of diphtheria in Nome led officials to request a shipment of serum; the serum was shipped from Seattle to Seward, then transported by the Alaska Railroad from Seward to Nenana where dog sled mail carriers relayed it overland to Nome.
two items linked? Yes 2+.........health/medical care, ocean transportation, railroad transportation, communication
all other criteria? yes
There are other links to pull out of this Nome timeline. For example, the 1925 serum run and the current Iditarod Sled Dog Race (health/medical care and recreation) or the Iditarod Sled Dog Race and all the visitors who go to Nome for the end of the race (recreation and tourism).
Contact Brenda or Clay with any questions as you work on this.
Contact Brenda or Clay with any questions as you work on this.
