Drying Salmon - Kit: Journeys into Proportional and Pre-Algebraic Thinking (Math in a Cultural Context)

This sixth and seventh grade module explores pre-algebraic and proportional thinking using the unique system of body measures that a Yup’ik elder used when hanging her salmon to dry. Students transform their own measurements into mathematical symbols as a way to investigate variables, relationships, proportions and algebraic thinking.

Includes one teacher resource, three posters, and one CD-ROM.

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.