We're going on a treasure hunt!

In class this week we went on a treasure hunt to answer questions about the American Indian tribes we researched. Colleen and I worked together. Many of the answers we knew from the American Indian jigsaw we did the week before. The rest of the answers we had to search for to find the answers. This is what we came up with....

Rachel & Colleen's answers:

1. Archeology

2. They were nomadic.

3. Buffalo

4. Tlingit

5. Iroquois

6. Language

7. Women

8. Navajo

9. Proclamation on 1763, King George III

10. Geography impacted nearly every aspect of Native Americans' life. Based on their location, native animals and vegetation, Native Americans built their diet on what was available. As they hunted, they used all parts of the animal, which provided them with clothing and, in some cases, materials to build homes. Tribes that were nomadic would use portable homes, such as tipis, that were light weight and easy to carry. These tribes were nomadic because they followed their main animal resource. Settling tribes used lumber from indigenous trees.

The most interesting part of the activity for me was how searching for a fragment of the question could return incorrect results. For question 9, we used broad language that didn't narrow the search results enough and it yielded a wrong answer. This shows that in the classroom, when we are assigning an activity like this, we need to specific about to where to look for answers. A good way to do this would be to provide students with sites to use that hold the correct information, so they know to only use those sources when researching. All of the correct answers can be found here.

 In all, I think it was a really fun activity. If I enjoyed it this much, I could see how younger students would really enjoy it. Especially if it was adapted to allow them movement around the room while they are participating in it.