Robin's+Unit


 * Unit Overview || This unit consists of the following overarching themes-
 * 1) the relationship of the Oceti Sakowin to the land (OSEU 1) and their interconnections to the living and non-living components of their environment
 * 2) as members of the living earth, organisms change in response to their environment
 * 3) the Cheyenne River system is an integral part of the Lakota culture and was impacted dramatically by contaminated sediments released over a 110 year period by the Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota. Homestake developed a bacteria that was key in the remediation of the cyanide tailings through the evolutionary process of artificial selection. Students model this process using the Avida-Ed software developed by Michigan State University.
 * 4) there are additional concerns regarding potential contamination of the Cheyenne River system in the future for the Lakota people ||
 * Unit Introduction || Jace DeCory says that “she wakes up every day, and acknowledges the air that she breathes as her relative” and is thankful she is alive. The ATP producing furnace that is cellular respiration, upon which we rely, requires both carbohydrate and O2. She says, “we made that emergence from Mother Earth to breathe this air outside”, her narrative of OSEU 1 is biochemically correct!
 * Unit Introduction || Jace DeCory says that “she wakes up every day, and acknowledges the air that she breathes as her relative” and is thankful she is alive. The ATP producing furnace that is cellular respiration, upon which we rely, requires both carbohydrate and O2. She says, “we made that emergence from Mother Earth to breathe this air outside”, her narrative of OSEU 1 is biochemically correct!

DeCory mentions that the Lakota framework allows for the acceptance of evolution, which unifies the concept of One Family further- the phrase “her relatives, including her human relatives” perfectly matches the way a scientist would speak about phylogeny. Phylogenetically, we all exist on a continuum of genetic relatedness. And as more organisms undergo whole genome sequencing, that relatedness is being defined each night as sequences are uploaded to the NCBI, and other databanks, at the various sequencing centers around the world.

Students are shocked to discover that some of our genes are so well conserved, and have changed so little over time, that when they are swapped-out from one species of organism to another, their expression is unhampered. The Lakota understanding of life on Earth dovetails with scientific evidence; cultural and religious viewpoints don’t often agree with scientific viewpoints. And, although the point of this unit is not to support a particular spiritual belief with science, or conversely, support scientific evidence with belief, it is intended to engender an appreciation of the innate wisdom of the Native American world-view regarding the interdependence of life on earth. In this instance it reconciles and affirms both a belief system, and an evidence-based system. || Understandings (OSEU): || **OSEU 1:** The original land base and natural resources of the Oceti Sakowin were under communal stewardship prior to immigrant settlement. The Oceti Sakowin tribes have a distinct and unique interrelationship with the environment that contributes to South Dakota.  **Indicator 2:** Analyze the interrelationships of the Oceti Sakowin people, places, and the environment as they relate to all reservations in South Dakota. <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">**OSEU 4:** The Oceti Sakowin kinship systems provide a framework for both individual and group behavior. Its unwritten rules promote harmony, compromise, a sense of order, and group cohesion. || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Core State Standards: || **<span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">9-12 Life Science Standards ** <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">L.1.2- Students are able to classify organisms using characteristics and evolutionary relationships of major taxa. <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">L.2.2- Students are able to describe how genetic recombinations, mutations, and natural selection lead to adaptations, evolution, extinction, or the emergence of new species. <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">L.3.1- Students are able to identify factors that cause changes in stablitiy of populations, communities, and ecosystems. || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">to know, do, and understand <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">as a result of the unit?) || **<span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Students will *** <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">articulate OSEU 1 and 4, and provide examples of values that exemplify the standard, especially as it relates to Indicator 2. <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">questions that will guide <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">the learning?
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Author: || **<span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Robin Cochran Dirksen ** ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Title (English) || **<span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The Relatives ** ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Title (Lakota/Dakota/Nakota) || //**<span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">mitakuye oyasin **// ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Topic Area/s: || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Advanced Life Science, Environmental Science ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Time Frame: || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">1 Week ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Description of the Unit: || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">This Unit will concurrently teach OSEU’s and Core State Life Science Standards to introduce students to the impact of pollutants on watersheds important to the Lakota. ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grade Range: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Oceti Sakowin Essential
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Content Area/Common
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Student Learning Objectives: || **<span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Students will *** <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">generate a list of values that represent OSEU 1
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">draw a food web that expresses their own relationship to the living and non-living world
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">create a concept map to communicate understanding of a reading assignment
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">determine the parameters required to evolve a hypothetical organisms capable of digesting a toxic compound
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">examine and communicate current environmental concerns of the Cheyenne River and its watersheds ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(What are students expected
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">gain an understanding of the composition of a food web that includes themselves as an integral component of an ecosystem.
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">deepen reading comprehension and study skills through the use of concept mapping
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">understand the historical environmental events that occurred as a result of mining, and the remediation technologies that were developed to remove cyanide from the tailings discharge.
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">discuss current environmental concerns in areas that are important to the Lakota people. ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">What are the essential

<span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(Questions that provoke <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">sustained inquiry and get to the ‘heart’ of the <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">discipline or learning.) ||  || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Family Involvement: ||  || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Essential Understandings: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Notes/Reflections: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Parent/Guardian/
 * **<span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lesson #1 ** || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">[[file:Tchr Bckrnd Lesson 1.pdf]][[file:Lesson 1 Student WS.pdf]] ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Oceti Sakowin
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">CCSS Standards: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Teacher Preparations: || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Make copies of the student worksheet and use the Teacher Background for Lesson 1 to familiarize yourself with the lesson. ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Materials: || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">A SmartBoard or other device to project and play audio of the interview. ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Resources: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Notes/Reflections: || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Lakota see the essential connection of water and the sun to all life on earth. The phrase maka wiconi translates to “life on earth” (Marshall, 2001). In his book, the lakota way Marshall says-

<span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">"The greatest principle the circle symbolizes for me is the equality that applies to all forms of life. In other words, no one form of life is greater or lesser than any other form. We are different from one another certainly, but different is not defined as “greater than” or “less than”. And we all share a common journey, the maka wiconi, or “life on earth” –in English, the Circle of Life. The concept that all life is equal doesn’t necessarily circumvent the food-chain viewpoint wherein living things are either prey or predator, those who are eaten and those who do the eating. The smaller, weaker, and slower are killed by the bigger, stronger and faster. Undeniably that is the way the natural world functions-the survival of the fittest and the strongest, some call it. But whether we are prey or predator, weak or strong, we are all part of a larger community, the largest of all: the Circle of Life." || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Essential Understandings: ||  || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Essential Understandings ||  || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Essential Understandings: ||  || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">completed lessons: ||  || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">for this Unit: ||  ||
 * **<span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lesson #2 ** || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">[[file:Tchr Background Lesson 2.pdf]][[file:Avida Concept Map (Student Work example).pdf]] ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Oceti Sakowin
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">CCSS Standards: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Teacher Preparations: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Materials: || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Make copies of the article for students to read, and provide the link included in the teacher background file for students to familiarize themselves with concept mapping. ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Resources: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Assessment: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Notes/Reflections: ||  ||
 * **<span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lesson #3 ** || [[file:Tchr Bckrnd Lesson 3.pdf]][[file:ArtificialSelection_Instructor.pdf]] ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Oceti Sakowin
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">CCSS Standards: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Teacher Preparations: || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Read the teacher background lesson and practice the simulation on your own so that you may help students troubleshoot. ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Materials: || <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Go to http://avida-ed.msu.edu/ and download the Avida-Ed program onto the computers that the students will use for the lesson. ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Resources: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Assessment: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Notes/Reflections: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lesson #4 ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Oceti Sakowin
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">CCSS Standards: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Teacher Preparations: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Materials: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Resources: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Assessment: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Notes/Reflections: ||  ||
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Overview of
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Final Assessment
 * <span style="color: #b70606; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Unit Notes/Reflections: ||  ||