Educational Resources
Dog Mushing & Veterinary Medicine
Veterinary Science courses for Middle School & High School (also see Course Catalog, a month-by-month overview of AK Cultures & Dog Mushing lessons, and items from our A-CHILL Resource Lending Center, which can be checked out for free by AGSD and YKSD teachers for engaging hands-on student learning!):
In celebration of Alaska Native Heritage month, we offer this short piece about Alaskan youth and dog mushing.
In celebration of Alaska Native Heritage month, we offer this short piece about Alaskan youth and dog mushing.
Alaska Youth: Mushing with Pride (Open Captioned) please go click the learn more button.
If you aren't familiar with George Attla's incredible A-CHILL youth mushing program, please learn more about it here
Frank Attla Youth & Sled Dog Care-Mushing Program
Iditarod edu — THE place for education resources related to the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Special thanks to Iditarod Education Director Diane Johnson and teacher Kristi Therriault for presenting these great resources during A-CHILL Summer Camp 2018!
Sled Dog Central — A great place for anyone to learn more about dog mushing. Especially useful for Teachers and Dog Mushers for sharing and ideas may be their Discussion Forum.
American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Tools for K-12 Educators
AVMA Animal Hospital Video Game (Grades 4-8)
Introduction to Veterinary Medical Terminology - Building Blocks of Words (must create free account)
Iditarod - Veterinary Center page — Explains the Iditarod Trail Committee’s policies for dog care, and includes links to additional resources at the bottom of the page.
The Serum Run Game — This interactive game (Flash required) sends mushers on a mission that integrates the Iditarod Trail concept with geography, history, culture, and science. Mushers even get to pick their lead dog! Offers three levels of difficulty and three game lengths. A certain level of reading skill is required, however, as there is no speaking on the audio track.
Books for Students to Read — This spreadsheet lists a variety of A-CHILL-relevant books that are available to AGSD schools and their students from the district's Resource Center; for YKSD schools, check with your local resource administrators for availability.
Alaska Native/Culturally Responsive Resources
Alaska Cultures & Dog Mushing:
DOWNLOADS from A-CHILL Events
Cultural Calendar (.doc) — Collaboratively developed by A-CHILL Spring Institute 2017 participants
Math Problem Sets related to Dog Mushing, developed by Carol Lee Gho (a session presenter during A-CHILL Spring Institute 2017):
Other Downloads/Publications
Guide for Implementing the Alaska Cultural Standards for Educators (AK DEED) (PDF) This includes the rubric for educators, as well as examples of performance.
Alaska Cultural Standards Guidelines (ANKN)
Handbook for Culturally Responsive Science Curriculum, by Sidney Stephens — An excellent guide that helps teachers develop and implement culturally responsive lessons. Especially helpful are the Appendices, which include a Unit Building Assessment Rubric and two samples of culturally responsive lesson plans. Although this handbook speaks specifically to science, most of it can be easily extrapolated to other content areas.
Alaska's Digital Archives: Alaska Native History & Cultures — An extensive and searchable historical photo collection in various categories, including Traditional Ways of Learning, Make a Living, and more.
Stop Talking: Indigenous Ways of Teaching and Learning and Difficult Dalogues in Higher Education — This webpage provides links to the entire PDF and also links to the handbook's individual chapters.
Start Talking: A Handbook for Engaging Difficult Dalogues in Higher Education — This webpage provides links to the entire PDF and also links to the handbook's individual chapters.
Other Websites
The Store Outside Your Door — Part of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, (ANTHC) and featured during the A-CHILL Summer Camp 2018, this program offers a lot of great resources related to local plants as food and medicine sources. Especially check-out the ANTHCStoreOutside YouTube Channel for great videos for yourself and for your students!
Legacy of Our Elders — This project documents the lives of 18 Athabascan elders throughout the Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC) region. Listen to their stories of true strength and perseverance; what they went through, what they learned, and their advice for future generations.
Association of Interior Native Educators — Especially see the Publications section which lists available resource books
Alaska Native Knowledge Network — Especially see the Curriculum Resources section
PBS Learning Media — Search using keywords "Alaska native", and you will get quite a lot of interesting media and curriculum resources
Museums & Other Institutions
Alaska Native Heritage Center (Anchorage)
Museum of the North (UAF) — Educational Trunks available for checkout
Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center (Fairbanks) — Educational Trunks available for checkout
Science-Related Resources
Websites
Alaska Department of Fish & Game: Education & Outreach — Locally relevant Teacher/School-based Resources, Teacher Training, Citizen Science opportunities; also Subsistence information, including local and statewide Harvest Data & Reports that you can use with your students.
CoCoRAHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network) — Get your students contributing to this national citizen science initiative — It's easy to join and get started!
Science of Cooking (Exploratorium) — Interactive site for learning about the science behind pickling, meat, bread, seasonings, candy, and eggs.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's National Digital Library — A great, searchable source for images and other media in the public domain to use for student projects or classroom instruction.
Museums, Research Centers & Other Institutions
International Arctic Research Center (@UAF) — Understanding the Arctic as a System
Scenarios Network for Alaska + Arctic Planning (SNAP) — Exploring Our Future in a Changing Arctic
OneTree Alaska — A K-12 STEAM (STEM + Arts) program sponsored by the School of Natural Resources and Extension of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and featured during both our 2018 A-CHILL and RAVE Summer Camps.
GENERAL Reading & Writing
Other Websites
Storyline Online — An excellent online streaming video program featuring famous actors reading chlidren's books aloud. Includes Closed Captioning.
Into the Book — A highly interactive reading comprehension resource for Grades K-4 that focuses on eight research-based strategies: Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and Synthesizing.
Elements of a Story — An interactive resource for Grades 2-5 that explains the basic parts of a story.
My StoryMaker — An interactive storymaking site with choice of characters, settings, props, actions, interactions, and feelings. You can even print when you're done! (Flash required)
Read-Write-Think: Student Materials — Lots of lessons as well as printables and interactives for students, including Literary Elements Map, Story Map, Comparison and Contrast Guide and more.
The Writing Site — Guidance for teachers on how to assess student writing.
Creating a Classroom Newspaper — Guidance for teachers; Activity idea can be incorporated with dog mushing/kennel-relevant topics. See Newspaper Activity idea in right-hand sidebar below.