Students in grades five to seven learn ways of observing, measuring and navigating during the day and at night, including specific details of the location and orientation of the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia. They refine their understanding of angle measurements and how they differ from linear measures throughout the activities. The mathematical goal of this module is to give students a strong conceptual sense of angles. This module also presents previously unpublished cultural information regarding Yup'ik conceptions of the night sky.

Includes one teacher resource, one student reader (The Star Navigation Reader), two posters, and one CD-ROM.

About the Series Math in a Cultural Context

This series is a supplemental math curriculum based on the traditional wisdom and practices of the Yup'ik people of southwest Alaska. The result of more than a decade of collaboration between math educators and Yup'ik elders, these modules connect cultural knowledge to school mathematics. Students are challenged to communicate and think mathematically as they solve inquiry-oriented problems, which require creative, practical and analytical thinking. Classroom-based research strongly suggests that students engaged in this curriculum can develop deeper mathematical understandings than students who engage only with a procedure-oriented, paper-and-pencil curriculum.

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