Northwood Elementary School teachers
awarded National Geographic grant

Teachers Nora Davison and Alicia VanBorssum have gathered cultural artifacts and natural specimens to be used in third grade classrooms to help teach regions of the world: people, places, resources, climate/weather and what's important to different peoples. This year, the teachers received a $5,000 grant from the National Geographic Education Foundation to purchase objects from seven cultures: the Amara of South America; the Bedouin of the Middle East and Africa; the Inuit of the circumpolar region; the Masai of eastern Africa; the Sami of Lapland; and the Yanomami of the Amazon jungles.

Objects as diverse as fishing baskets, masks, necklaces, drums, mukluks, shawls and Yak wool will be assembled into kits. Teachers will hold workshops to devise specific lessons for students. Object-based learning helps students meet social studies standards: understanding the geography of the interdependent world, how people live, work and use natural resources.

"Students learn about objects that have personal significance to other cultures," VanBorssum said. "They learn to 'read' the object, and many of the objects may be very unfamiliar. Students will also engage in lots of reading and writing activities to go along with the objects."

This is the tenth year that the National Geographic Foundation has made such grants to teachers. From the 200 applications submitted, only 35 received grants this year according to VanBorssum. Northwood Elementary School's Volunteer Elementary Parent Teacher Organization (VEPTO) also contributed to the project's funding.