Áak’w to Xutsnoowú cruise
Geopdf for Middle School teachers’ adventure On Friday, March 31st, 2023, we are scheduled to depart Áak’w Tá, little…
2023 | Richard Carstensen | 5MB geopdf
JuneauNature resources for SHI’s MS STEAM CoP
Sample page from my journal. On our homeward ride with Allen Marine, we were greeted by orcas, close enough to snap a few ID pics. Custom geopdfs helped us orient to geology, stream mouths, cultural sites, place names, and submarine topography, making sense of Xutsnoowú Aaní in real time, and afteward as I built the trip journal. With strong telephoto lens I captured heads of parent eagles over a mile away. Here’s the journal.
Prepared in advance of the trip. Our route passed from Áak’w into Xutsnoowú Aaní just south of Táax’aa Héeni, mosquito stream (Greens Creek). We pulled into Ḵák’w, for an introduction from Ḵak’w.eidí elders, before arrival at Angoon at last light. Blue, yellow and red dots on this map are named places, towns/camps and fort sites. Zoomed in, my maps populate with 3 lines: Lingít over translation over colonial name
Okay, if you recognize all those acronyms, congratulations; you’re definitely a Southeast educator. Which also means you’re one of Discovery Southeast’s heroines/heroes. Our core mission is supporting you in bringing place-based, hands-on education to the youth of Lingít Aaní.
And if you’re a non-teacher, and glazed over at that intimidating 4-piece shorthand, here’s why I abbreviated it: Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Middle School Science-Technology-Engineering-Arts-&-Math Community of Practice. (whew!). MS STEAM CoP consists of Middle School teachers from schools throughout the archipelago who meet regularly over ZOOM and sometimes in the rowdy real world. For example . . .
From March 31 to April 2nd, 2023, the CoP boated from Áak’w Tá, little lake bay (Auke Bay) to Aangóon, isthmus town (Angoon). En route, we visited Ḵák’w, little basket (Basket Bay). I’ve chosen an aerial of Kóoḵ, pit (Kook Lake) as thumbnail, above right, to represent MS STEAM CoP 2023. This storied karst lake flows through underground grottoes and seal-hunting caves, emptying into Ḵák’w. One CoP reading this year was Basket Bay History, by Shaadaax’ (Robert Zuboff, Ḵak’w.eidí.)
Whenever I add new resources to the list below, I’ll send a heads up to Eldri and Johan at SHI, who can alert you to the links. Suggestions are welcome! What else can Discovery create that’d be most useful to your school and community?
Resources for MS STEAM CoP:
● Angoon journal for 2023: Unforgettable sequel to Angoon 2012, below.
● Avenza and geopdfs I’m hoping that at least several of the group will install the cross-platform app Avenza on your phones, so we can all stay oriented during the upcoming cruise, and learn place names of important cultural sites. Instructions for download and use are on the Field navigation page. I’ll create one long geopdf for the cruise, plus a close-up for Angoon. . . . Okay, March 30 and kinda down-to-the-wire, but here it is. cruise.pdf – a lean&mean basemap for the marine portion of our weekend. From this page there’s also a finer-scale. orthophoto-based geopdf for walking tours around the village.
Let me know if you want a custom geopdf for surroundings of your school. That way, you can test out the app at home before our adventure. Download the geopdf, open in Avenza (free version holds max of 3 at a time). Walk around the block, laying an orange trackline. Take a few pictures with your phone. When finished, attach some to the track, and zip em up into a Google Earth kmz. Great way to share your adventure with colleagues and students.
Hey! Breaking news! I just fired up Avenza on my aging iPhone and it appears to have done an upgrade. There’s now an option to open something called OSM Basemap (beta). Works great! This will be the way for those of you to test Avenza in areas where I don’t yet provide custom maps from JuneauNature.
● 1992-93 Teacher workshop materials On the 30-year anniversary of the Streveler-Carstensen Naturemobile tour, guess it’s high time I uploaded the scoping resources and reports from that memorable seminar series. On this page you can check out what we created for your school, and even download a powerpoint version of the 35mm slideshow we created for Angoon teachers.
● Albatross retraced Our proposal to revisit major salmon waters, especially g̱aat, sockeye. 10MB pdf explains history and possible future of actual (not deckside wine&dine) ground truthing.
● Provinces Introductory section from Heart and edge: Biogeographic provinces of Língít-&-K’áyk’aanii, my gigantic Southeast-atlas-in-progress.
● Angoon journal for 2012 Pre-scoping/journaling/summarizing from an amazing 8 days in 2012. (as of 20230329, still being updated)
● Xunaa Why do we live here Recommended for teachers of Hoonah.
● Student publications For many years I conducted small teams of middleschool students in creation of natural history guides to school surroundings. This was one of my favorites.
● Kupreanof slideshow Recommended to teachers of Wrangell-Petersburg areas
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