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Camp Internet Outpost
Channel Islands Expedition Teachers Briefing
For the Week of October 11 - 15
Upcoming Dates to Make Reservations for
The rest of the month of October has two exciting live chat opportunities - use the calendar for your track to see the opportunities ahead. For Islands track classes, please select from the following online learning opportunities and send your reservations to camp@rain.org. Gabrielino / San Clemente Island trade network, Oct. 13, 9-11am, and Volcano Geology LIVE from Hawaii, Oct 19th 10-noon. Again, preparing your class with 4-6 specific questions helps keep the Trail Guide chats focused. We ask teachers to instruct the students not to post casual off-the-cuff comments to one another as it clutters the chat and distracts from the educational exchanges that are also taking place. If you are in a large lab and can not supervise every student, then we suggest having them work in groups of 3-4 around one computer per group to make it more manageable. The Trail Guides are experts taking time out of their busy work schedule to meet with us online, and if the students understand this, then respectful postings will be made and the learning value will be very high.
Listserv Assignment
Please have the students use the outposts-l listerv to post a question to another class. You, as the teacher, can refer to the printed list we provided that notes which classes are Islands and which are Backcountry to find a class in your track. Then select a class in your track to write to by looking at the return address on the listserv from one of the other classes previously posted messages. Have the students send them one question taken from their Camp passport and see if they send you back the right answer. This activity should focus on the Native American section of the passport, or the paleontology questions. Check back later in the week and see if they answered you. This is a chance to get the students talking to one another online, sharing information, and challenging each other to learn ! If the class doesn't write back in a few days, use that same printed list to give the other teacher a call to alert them the question is on the listserv waiting for their students to answer. We will do this each week for the rest of the month to build bridges between the classrooms in different locations.
For the Week of October 11th
Social studies continues on this week with the Chumash in the Channel Islands and their trade network with the Gabrielino in the southern islands. You can teach them about the tomol plank canoe, Chumash language, trade items - and also help them make paper model canoes and undertake a challenging trade bead game.
Our guest Trail Guide this week is Professor Mark Raab from CSU Northridge who has been studying the Southern Island trade network, and will be able to share insights with us about prehistoric island life.
In the Science track we will begin our study of the Geology of California and the Channel Islands, which will last through the end of the month with experts from National Parks sharing their geology resources with us. Please do join us in preparing for an exciting LIVE chat from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park where we will learn from geologists how it is volcanoes form islands, next week on the 19th
For reading, you are still on track for Island of the Blue Dolphins and the historic sources materials.
The hands-on activities for the week are to make the paper canoe, small basket, and the Chumash house, and then combine them all into a large diorama outdoor on some sandy soil. This is also a fine week to use the trade beads the Camp has provided and follow the Trade Challenge posted online. You will need to find some sturdy twine for each student to string their beads on to get started.
Questions ? Please write to camp@rain.org any time.