Working Rocks Unit Plan

Tena Ko....

......and welcome to the "Working Rocks" stone tools unit plan All of the resources on these pages are designed to promote awareness and understanding of Te Imi Moriori and are based on the new curriculum document. The Moriori are the Tchakat Henu (tangata whenua, or people of the land) of Rekohu (the Chatham Islands). They have lived there for many hundreds of years and are the original inhabitants.

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Working Rocks: Stone Tools

 
Years 5-8 Levels 3 & 4 Time: 4+3-4 weeks
 
o Technological Practice    

o Brief Development: Describe the nature of an intended outcome, explaining how it addresses the need/opportunity. Describe the key attributes that enable development and evaluation of an outcome.·    
o Nature of Technology

o Characteristics of Technology: Understand how society impacts on and is influenced by technology in historical and contemporary contexts and that technological knowledge is validated by successful function.
o Technological Knowledge  

o Technological Products: Understand the relationship between the material and performance properties of technological products. 
o ICT

o Research:  Understands that one topic site on the internet can create open ended investigations to a range of other topics

Specific Learning Outcomes                               Stone tools for technology

By the end of this unit, students will be able to:

  • Describe some of the techniques that Moriori would have used to create their various stone tools and weapons  
  • Describe why Moriori needed stone tools or weapons and why there were so much variety in shapes and sizes of adzes
  • Discuss and describe the impact that stone weapons may have had on Moriori society
  • Present findings on why specific stone types were used and not others.
  • Compare Moriori stone work to North American Indian stonework
  • Can discuss different stone types and their potential uses
  • Create a powerpoint presentation about a sub topic of Moriori stonework. (ie: adzes, stone types, landforms, tools)

 

Setting:

oNew Zealand   oRekohu (The Chatham Islands)   oAmericas

Perspective:

o The past (History)           o Multicultural               o Indigenous people 

Key Competencies Focus:

o participating and contributing

o thinking
Teaching and Learning Activities (the "guts" of the unit)

*Note*    *Note*   *Note*   *Note*

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Stone tools for technology

Introduce the topic: Working Rocks.

Conduct a class discussion about stone types.

http://www.nativetech.org/stone/stonetypes/index.html

http://www.nativetech.org/stone/stonetypes/volcanic.html

Take students to a beach, river or creek and invite them to retrieve a variety of different (small) stone types.

Have a class discussion about these. See if the class can classify these in to any particular categories. (Prior Knowledge/pretest)

  • Suggest that could be by: colour, hardness, feel, weight, or particles

Introduce the different types of rocks: Igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary

Task: Students to research above terms and then write a passage that accurately describes what each term means, in their own words.

Ensure that each student has at least 4 different rock types.

Show class pictures of adzes

Initiate group discussions about how these would have been made and what the purpose of each would have been. (Pretest)

Discussion could be kicked off by:

  • How would they have shaped them?

  • How would they have made them smooth?

  • Why would they have made them different shapes?

  • What would they need different shape adzes for?

Identify from the class (without physically trying to make tools) which is the stone type that they perceive to be the best type of stone to use to make a particular instrument. Students must justify this in writing using a comparison with several other types.

It is the characteristics of the stone that determine the suitability for its intended form and use.

Students to list the uses of adzes and opposite these list any peculiarities of shape that these would need.

Making Adzes:

Being aware of safety considerations, students select one stone (type) to use as a 'blank' and two (max) others to use to create the tool. Care must be taken in the selection of a work area as stones being struck against each other will throw off shards. This is probably better suited to an outside area, and if you are seeking authenticity, then the beach is probably best. 

You will still need gloves, safety glasses and possibly aprons.

Class members to state their intended type or shape of adze, before work commences.                                                                     Students spend at least an hour trying to change the shape of their 'blank', in a controlled manner.

This activity is designed to emphasise the difficulty of the task, rather than to afford success in making stone adzes.

Students to describe some of the difficulties faced with that task.

Brainstorm some of the ways that these difficulties could be overcome.

Would these answers be the same answers that Moriori came up with to solve their problems. Would they have had these problems.

 

What would live have been like with / without all of these stone implements?

 

Discuss the effects of not having access to a stone utensil such as an adze used to skin seals

 

Create a Technology consequences chart that lists the different types/shapes/sizes of adzes and chart the "effects with" and "effects without"

 

What similarities can you find between Moriori stonework and North American Indian stonework?

 

Research, using the internet, any other cultural examples of stonework and compare them to Moriori work. Clue: check out the Pacific islands, particularly Easter Island and Samoa

 

Using encyclopedia and reference books, and then the internet, find out what you can about Moriori and their tools and weapons.

Construct a Powerpoint presentation about something to do with Moriori stone tools or weapons.

Resources:

Native Technology

http://www.education-resources.co.nz 

Assessment:

Assessment matrix
 

All of the resources that you need are attached in the following drop-down box. Simply select the list item that matches the one that you are supposed to be doing (in the unit plan) and you will be taken to a web page containing that unit resource. You will also find a link on each page which will provide you with an option of downloading a MSWord version.

 

Working Rocks Stone Tools unit plan

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