Science Resources

Within Dropping the “T” from CAN'T, Dr. Michelle Hogue presents and analyses interviews with eight highly successful Indigenous women and men in order to discern what enables Indigenous people to become successful in the sciences and mathematics such that they are able to pursue related professions. Importantly, Dr. Hogue presents interviews with two Indigenous individuals who started yet did not complete advanced degrees in order to find out what impediments brought their academic journeys to a premature end.

Dr. Hogue’s interview findings, paired with current and relevant literature, serves to enlighten and support the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Calls to Action to provide culturally relevant education for Aboriginal learners. Education must be culturally and holistically relevant in order to invite, engage, and enable learners; this is true of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal learners. While this book specifically examines science and mathematics education, the lessons and findings will apply across disciplines.

Foreword by Dr. Laara Fitznor. Reviews by: Dr.'s Cheryl Bartlett, Fidgi Gendron, Yvonne Poitress Pratt, and Leroy Little Bear.

Reviews
"Indigenous students CAN succeed in post-secondary science and mathematics! This is the clear message in Dr. Hogue’s book. Recognizing, reshaping, and retelling insights about success within personal stories requires a skillful story worker and Dr. Hogue is superb. Using the Medicine Wheel, she conveys understandings ‘wholistically’ to provide the much-needed complement to institutional STEM pathways and programs. Hers is a book for everyone: students, educators, academics, administrators, leaders, funders, parents, youth ..." — Cheryl Bartlett

"What a refreshing book! Michelle Hogue celebrates Aboriginal women and men who journeyed through post-secondary education in science and mathematics and achieved their dreams. She examines their successes and challenges and highlights how Aboriginal science and Western science can come together to reach inclusive learning and knowing. These stories will inspire not only Aboriginal people but everybody to not give up and work hard to reach their goals." — Fidji Gendron

"As educators continue to ask how all subject areas can be Indigenized, Hogue steps into contested teaching and learning territory with the same fearless attitude she takes in teaching math and science from an Indigenous perspective. This fascinating book contains insights and stories from Indigenous scientists providing irrefutable evidence there is no anomaly between being Indigenous and being a scientist." — Yvonne Poitras Pratt 

"Michelle is an extremely good writer. I can tell she put a tremendous amount of research into the book. I very much like her layout of the Medicine Wheel into: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Doing so clearly brings out the barriers to science education for Indigenous students. Overall, the book makes the point that the ’T’ can be dropped from CAN’T providing we know the culture of Indigenous students and the struggles they have to go through to fulfill their personal goals of becoming scientists." — Leroy Little Bear

Educator Information
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements and Dedication
A Note on Terms
Table of Contents
Foreword, By: Laara Fitznor, EdD
Preface: Tan’si, Hello

SPRING
Prologue
Introduction: The Environment
Puzzlements and Questions

SUMMER
Women’s Journey
Men’s Journey
Re-framing the Journey
The Talking Circle

FALL
Understanding the Space Between
Navigating the Space Between

WINTER
Coming to Understand
Philosophically Navigating
Reframing: Coming Full Circle

A NEW CYCLE
Bridging Cultures, Two-Eyed Seeing & the 21st Century
Final Reflections
The Equation for Success

Appendix
References
Index
About the Author

Additional Information
199 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

Like the night sky above, Tipiskawi Kisik holds a myriad of tales rooted in an Ininew (Cree) perspective. An exploration of stars and constellations—and their associated mythologies—will greet you with age-old knowledge held by Indigenous people prior to European contact. Through Wilfred Buck’s creative, spiritual, and intelligent understanding of the stars, it will be easy to imagine yourself flying inside the Milky Way with Niska (the Goose) or chasing Mista Muskwa (the Great Bear), just like Tepakoop Pinesisuk (the Seven Birds). Above all, these stories can be passed on to the next generation, so they will know of the rich history, science practices, and culture of the Ininew people.

Additional Information
This is a collection of short stories (approximately 25 pages long) with supporting artwork/illustrations. While not aimed at young readers in terms of reading level, this book would support educators in their teaching of Indigenous astronomy to younger audiences, especially since each short story would work well as a read aloud and includes useful illustrations/diagrams of the night sky.

downstream: reimagining water brings together artists, writers, scientists, scholars, environmentalists, and activists who understand that our shared human need for clean water is crucial to building peace and good relationships with one another and the planet. This book explores the key roles that culture, arts, and the humanities play in supporting healthy water-based ecology and provides local, global, and Indigenous perspectives on water that help to guide our societies in a time of global warming. The contributions range from practical to visionary, and each of the four sections closes with a poem to encourage personal freedom along with collective care.

This book contributes to the formation of an intergenerational, culturally inclusive, participatory water ethic. Such an ethic arises from intellectual courage, spiritual responsibilities, practical knowledge, and deep appreciation for human dependence on water for a meaningful quality of life. downstream illuminates how water teaches us interdependence with other humans and living creatures, both near and far.

Reviews
"Downstream stakes out a bold and creative claim to collaborative and cross-cultural eco-spiritual-neo-traditional knowing and, with it, new approaches to policy and action. A timely read that lends depth and resonance to some of the material and voices [in other books on the subject]." — Heather Menzies, Literary Review of Canada, June 2017

"This rich collection brings together the work of artists, writers, scientists, scholars, environmentalists, and activists, all focusing on the looming global water crisis. ... Writing styles vary from piece to piece throughout the book—poetic, personal, journalistic, and academic—but the shifts between each are well worth navigating for any reader interested in human futures on Earth."— Publishers Weekly, August 2017

"This collection of works successfully expands our knowledge of and experience with water by merging natural science, social science, arts, and humanities approaches to water. It offers new, innovative, and engaging ways to think about and experience water, especially as it relates to life and vitality."— Sara Beth Keough, American Review of Canadian Studies, November -0001

Educator Information
This collection of essays is useful for these course/subject areas or topics: Language Arts & Disciplines; Creative Writing; Indigenous Studies; Poetry; Environmental Studies; Environmental Humanities.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Re-storying Waters, Re-storying Relations / Rita Wong and Dorothy Christian

Part I: Contexts for Knowing and Unknowing Water
1. Planetary Distress Signals / Alanna Mitchell
2. Water / Lee Maracle
3. Interweaving Water: The Incremental Transformation of Sovereign Knowledge into Collaborative Knowledge / Michael D. Blackstock
4. Water and Knowledge / Astrida Neimanis
5. Excerpts from “a child’s fable” / Baco Ohama

Part II: Water Testimonies: Witness, Worry, and Work
6. Water: The First Foundation of Life / Mona Polacca
7. From Our Homelands to the Tar Sands / Melina Laboucan Massimo
8. Keepers of the Water: Nishnaabe-kwewag Speaking for the Water / Renee Elizabeth Mzinegiizhigo-kwe Bedard
9. Water Walk Pedagogy / Violet Caibaiosai
10. A Response to Pascua Lama / Cecilia Vicuna

Part III: Shared Ethical and Embodied Practices
11. Moving with Water: Relationship and Responsibilities / Alannah Young Leon and Denise Marie Nadeau
12. Bodies of Water: Meaning in Movement / Seonagh Odhiambo Horne
13. Upstream: A Conversation with Water / Cathy Stubington
14. Ice Receding, Books Reseeding / Basia Irland
15. Tsunami Chant / Wang Ping

Part IV: A Respectful Co-existence in Common: Water Perspectives
16. Listening to the Elders at the Keepers of the Water Gathering /Radha D’Souza
17. Coastal Waters in Distress from Excessive Nutrients / Paul J. Harrison
18. Bodies of Water: Asian Canadians In/Action with Water /Janey Lew
19. Permeable Toronto: A Hydro-Eutopia / Janine MacLeod
20. Saturate/Dissolve: Water for Itself, Un-Settler Responsibilities, and Radical Humility / Larissa Lai
21. Bring Me Back / Janet Rogers

Additional Information
300 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" 

Hands-On Science and Technology: An Inquiry Approach is filled with a year’s worth of classroom-tested activity-based lesson plans. The grade 2 book is divided into four units based on the current Ontario curriculum for science and technology:

- Growth and Changes in Animals
- Movement
- Properties of Liquids and Solids
- Air and Water in the Environment

This new edition includes many familiar great features for both teachers and students: curriculum correlation charts; background information on the science and technology topics; complete, easy-to-follow lesson plans; reproducible student materials; materials lists; and hands-on, student-centred activities.

Useful new features include:
- the components of an inquiry-based scientific and technological approach
- Indigenous knowledge and perspective embedded in lesson plans
- a four-part instructional process—activate, action, consolidate and debrief, and enhance
- an emphasis on technology, sustainability, and differentiated instruction
- a fully developed assessment plan that includes opportunities for assessment for, as, and of learning
- a focus on real-life technological problem solving
- learning centres that focus on multiple intelligences and universal design for learning (UDL)
- land-based learning activities
- a bank of science-related images

Educator& Series Information
This book is from the Hands-On Science: An Inquiry Approach (for Ontario) series.

Recommended for grade 2.

Includes some Indigenous content/perspectives from Indigenous Consultant Kevin Reed.

Additional Information

The second edition of Natural Curiosity supports a stronger basic awareness of Indigenous perspectives and their importance to environmental education. The driving motivation for a second edition was the burning need, in the wake of strong and unequivocal recommendations by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to situate Indigenous perspectives into the heart of Canadian educational settings and curricula, most notably in connection with environmental issues.

The Indigenous lens in this edition represents a cross-cultural encounter supporting what can become an ongoing dialogue and evolution of practice in environmental inquiry. Some important questions are raised that challenge us to think in very different ways about things as fundamental as the meaning of knowledge.

New in the Second Edition: Revision of the four branches of environmental inquiry (Lorraine Chiarotto), by Julie Comay; Indigenous lenses on each of the branches by Doug Anderson; 16 new educator stories.

Reviews
"Natural Curiosity 2nd Edition is an excellent resource for educators seeking to act as co-inquirers with their students and share the learning spirit while fostering relationship with our natural kin and relations. With a newly expanded lens on Indigenous perspectives and worldviews, this resource encourages teachers with philosophies, rationales, tools and activities to help them grow ecological and social justice citizens. A timely resource and highly recommended." -- Jean-Paul Restoule

"In Natural Curiosity 2nd Edition, Western ways of relating to nature intermingle with Indigenous ways. The book respects the integrity of both coexisting cultural perspectives. By understanding both, readers and their students will gain greater curiosity and deeper insights to make sense of the world around them or to solve problems." -Dr Glen S Aikenhead

Additional Information
284 pages | 8.40" x 10.90" | 2nd Edition

Nature based classrooms are powerful programs that seamlessly merge early childhood and environmental education to develop a lifelong connection with the natural world. This book is for preschool and primary educators who are thinking about adding a nature component to their current program and for those who have started to take their students outside and are looking for more information to run a successful and safe outdoor program. This user-friendly book provides guidance on how to organize, manage and resource a nature early learning program.

In Achieving Indigenous Student Success, author Pamela Toulouse provides strategies, lessons, and hands-on activities that support both Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners in the secondary classroom. Read chapters on topics such as:

• Indigenous Pedagogy and Classrooms Considerations
• Indigenous Self-Esteem and Mental Health Activities
• Differentiated Instruction and Bloom's Taxonomy
• Attrition, Retention, Transition, and Graduation Continuum
• Indigenous Themes and Material Resources
• Culturally Appropriate Secondary Lesson Plans by Subject (including English, Math, Science, History, Geography, Health, Physical Education, Drama, Music, Visual Arts, Technological Studies, Business Studies, Indigenous Worldviews, Guidance and Career Studies, and Social Studies and the Humanities)

This book is for all teachers of grades 9–12 who are looking for ways to infuse Indigenous perspectives into their courses. Ideas include best practices for retention/transition/graduation planning, differentiated instruction, assessment, and equity instruction. Using appropriate themes for curricular connections, the author presents a culturally relevant and holistic approach that helps to build bridges between cultures and fosters self-esteem in all students.

Additional Information

The average child can identify over 1000 corporate logos, but only 10 native plants or animals—a telling indictment of our modern disconnection from nature. Soaring levels of obesity, high rates of ADHD, feelings of stress and social awkwardness and "Nature Deficit Disorder" are further unintended consequences of a childhood spent primarily indoors.The Big Book of Nature Activities is a comprehensive guide for parents and educators to help youth of all ages explore, appreciate and connect with the natural world. This rich, fully illustrated compendium features:Nature-based skills and activities such as species identification, photography, journaling and the judicious use of digital technologyIdeas, games and activities grounded in what's happening in nature each seasonCore concepts that promote environmental literacy, such as climate change and the mechanisms and wonder of evolution, explained using a child-friendly, engaging approachLists of key species and happenings to observe throughout the year across most of North America.Perfect for families, educators, and youth leaders, The Big Book of Nature Activities is packed with crafts, stories, information and inspiration to make outdoor learning fun!

Creative ways to use the garden to inspire learning, for kids ages 4-8

Packed with garden-based activities that promote science, math, reading, writing, imaginative play, and arts and crafts, The Garden Classroom offers a whole year of outdoor play and learning ideas—however big or small your garden.

Every garden offers children a rich, sensory playground, full of interesting things to discover and learn about. There's a whole lot of science happening right before their eyes. The garden can also be a place to develop math and literacy skills, as the outdoors offers up plenty of invitations to weave learning into everyday gardening. The garden classroom is a place where plants grow, and where children grow too.

Additional Information
232 pages | 7.02" x 8.50" | Paperback

Inquiry-based teaching in diverse classrooms, grades 3-5

Good science starts with a question. This book offers a look into real classrooms where teachers use inquiry science to engage students in seeking answers the same ways real scientists do — they design experiments, make predictions, observe and describe, offer and test explanations, and share their conjectures with others. This practical book shows teachers how to:

build on students' experiences, background knowledge, and readiness
manage a diverse classroom during inquiry science exploration
faciliatate science discussions
deepen their own science content knowledge

Drawing upon a variety of academic sources as well as personal and professional experiences, Dr. Michell, a member of the Barren Lands First Nation, offers a book designed to assist educators in coming to understand the larger frameworks of Cree ontology (ways of seeing the world and one’s place in it), epistemology (ways of understanding knowledge), and methodologies (ways of teaching).

While Dr. Michell’s book is a specific example of Cree culture, from northern Saskatchewan, the message is most certainly transferable beyond the Barren Lands First Nation example, and as such, offers readers entry into thinking about how to make bridges between diverse ways of knowing that is applicable cross-culturally.

Reviews
"The book Cree Ways of Knowing and School Science provides a good personal description of Cree culture and how it can improve science teaching in the classroom for First Nations students. Drawing from his experience in Northern Saskatchewan, Dr. Michell illustrates the importance of hands-on experience for students and the need to relate what they are learning in the classroom to their culture. Most importantly, Dr. Michell promotes taking the students to the knowledge holders (the Elders) and to the natural teaching lab (the land), thus incorporating traditional knowledge in the teaching of science. Elders are an essential component in this endeavour. This book will be of interest to current and prospective teachers as well as to anyone interested in cross-cultural experiences and learning. This book provides a timely contribution to the question of how to improve educational outcomes for First Nations students, a critical issue for federal, provincial and First Nations governments." - Fidji Gendron, PhD

Educator Information

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Introduction

2. Nîhîthawâk Ithînîwak

3. Nîhîthawâk Ithînîwak and School
 Science: A Storied Reflection

4. Nîhîthâwatîsîwîn

5. The Concept of Indigenous Science

6. The Concept of Western Science

7. Assumptions in Western and Cree
 Ways of Knowing

8. Promising Practices: School Science in Cree Contexts

References
About the Author

Additional Information
88 pages | 7.00" x 10.50" | Paperback 

The bold futurist and bestselling author explores the limitless potential of reverse-engineering the human brain

Ray Kurzweil is arguably today’s most influential—and often controversial—futurist. In How to Create a Mind, Kurzweil presents a provocative exploration of the most important project in human-machine civilization—reverse engineering the brain to understand precisely how it works and using that knowledge to create even more intelligent machines.

Kurzweil discusses how the brain functions, how the mind emerges from the brain, and the implications of vastly increasing the powers of our intelligence in addressing the world’s problems. He thoughtfully examines emotional and moral intelligence and the origins of consciousness and envisions the radical possibilities of our merging with the intelligent technology we are creating.

Certain to be one of the most widely discussed and debated science books of the year, How to Create a Mind is sure to take its place alongside Kurzweil’s previous classics which include Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever and The Age of Spiritual Machines.

Collaborating to Support All Learners in Mathematics and Science

Grade: for grades 5-12

In this second volume of It’s All About Thinking, the authors focus their expertise on the disciplines of mathematics and science, translating principles into practices that help other educators with their students.

How can we help students develop the thinking skills they need to become successful learners?
How does this relate to deep learning of important concepts in mathematics and science?
How can we engage and support diverse learners in inclusive classrooms where they develop understanding and thinking skills?
In this book, Faye, Leyton and Carole explore these questions and offer classroom examples to help busy teachers develop communities where all students learn. This book is written by three experienced educators who offer a welcoming and “can-do” approach to the big ideas in math and science education today. In this book you will find:

insightful ways to teach diverse learners (Information circles, open-ended strategies, inquiry, manipulatives and models)
lessons crafted using curriculum design frameworks (udl and backwards design)
assessment for, as, and of learning
fully fleshed-out lessons and lesson sequences; inductive teaching to help students develop deep learning and thinking skills in Math and Science
assessment tools (and student samples) for concepts drawn from learning outcomes in Math and Science curricula
excellent examples of theory and practice made accessible
real school examples of collaboration — teachers working together to create better learning opportunities for their students

The Gibson Park Grassland Detectives Teacher's Guide provides excellent support materials to meet the national Life Science learning outcomes for the development of skills and the acquisition of knowledge. The guide facilitates the integrative teaching of Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies.

This guide includes:

• activities integrating themes across the curriculum (Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, and Art)
• hands-on activities
• reproducible blackline masters
• suggested assessment strategies and tools
• references and annotated resource list of related titles
• links to appropriate WWW sites

From Time Immemorial provides an honest and up-to-date survey of the history of the coastal First Nations from pre-contact to the present. The culture of the coastal people was highly complex. Although there were many similarities, there were also many differences among the groups who shared the wealth of their life-sustaining environment. This book provides a broad overview of traditional ways common to a large number of diverse groups. It encourages readers to learn more about particular groups who, long ago, walked the shorelines and forest trails of the Pacific Northwest.

The Teacher’s Guide provides support materials to address 100% of the Learning Standards for the Grade Three Social Studies curriculum and the First Nations content for grades 4-8. It contains detailed lesson plans, reproducible blackline masters, assessment strategies and tools and activities integrating theme across the curriculum (Science, Math, Art and Language Arts).

Educator Information
Table of Contents
Part One
Using the Student Text
Using the Teacher's Guide
Your Social Studies Unit
Prescribed Learning Outcomes Charts
Setting the Stage

Part Two
From Time Immemorial
Chapter 1: Living Together: Villages and Families
Chapter 2: Living in Balance With the Sea: Fishing
Chapter 3: Living in Balance with the Land: Hunting and Gathering
Chapter 4: At Home by the Forest: Shelter and Clothing
Chapter 5: Travel in the Pacific Northwest: By Land, By Sea
Chapter 6: Living with the Spirits: Ceremonies and Beliefs
Chapter 7: Expressing a Culture: Art, Drama, Music and Games
Chapter 8: Living with Other Nations: Trade and Warfare
Chapter 9: Contact with Strangers: Explorers and Traders
Chapter 10: Living with the Newcomers: A Way of Life Ends
Chapter 11: Losing Rights and Freedoms: Legislation and Discrimination

Part Three
Appendix A: Blackline Masters
Appendix B: Assessment/Evaluation Tools
Appendix C: Annotated Related Resource List
Appendix D: Universal Declaration of Human Rights and First Nations RightsInfractions
Appendix E: The National Aboriginal Achievement Awards

Find the student resource that pairs with this teaching guide here: From Time Immemorial: The First Peoples of the Northwest Coast

This Teacher's Guide is also available in French, as is from Time Immemorial:

• Guide de la'enseignant(e) De Temps Immemorial
• De Temps Immemorial: Les Premiers Habitants de la Côte Nord-Ouest du Pacifique

Additional Information
218 pages | blackline masters included | For grades 3-8