Through creating simple clay kayak models, students in grades six and seven are able to investigate the relationship between the kayak’s shape and its function. By exploring these relationships, students are guided into a series of purposeful mathematical investigations using the scientific method. They collect, organize and analyze data by developing tables, converting tables into graphs, interpreting graphs and using basic statistical techniques to determine whether there is a relationship between form and function.

Includes one teacher resource, one student reader (Kukugyarpak), two posters, and three CD-ROMs.

About the Series Math in a Cultural Context

This series is a supplemental math curriculum based on the traditional wisdom and practices of the Yup'ik people of southwest Alaska. The result of more than a decade of collaboration between math educators and Yup'ik elders, these modules connect cultural knowledge to school mathematics. Students are challenged to communicate and think mathematically as they solve inquiry-oriented problems, which require creative, practical and analytical thinking. Classroom-based research strongly suggests that students engaged in this curriculum can develop deeper mathematical understandings than students who engage only with a procedure-oriented, paper-and-pencil curriculum.

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