The Flora Analysis lesson will focus on plant biology. The lesson plan is designed to explore how precontact people acquired food resources and other plant materials to make non-food items. Some of these were acquired using stone tools. This module will focus on plant biology. After-school learners will study what resources were locally available during different times in the precontact period. We will discuss the ecology of different plant and animal communities and how these may have impacted past decisions on where to place camps and villages. Key to this is understanding how precontact people changed their subsistence and settlement patterns with the changing environment.
Grade Level: 6-8
Objective: The goal of this lesson is to explore wild and domesticated plant resources used by precontact people and how these different plant communities influenced how and where people lived in the past. As an example of how plants were used, youth will learn to make cordage.
Learning Outcomes: Learners will be able to discuss why archaeologists study plants and the plant remains found on archaeological sites. What do they tell us about the past (subsistence, settlement, domestication, hunting, seasonality, etc.)?
STEM: Biology, botany, ecology, technology
Materials: raffia, tape, luggage scale (optional)
Time: 60 minutes
Overview: Organic materials, like plants, do not survive everywhere in the archaeological record. Only under special conditions do organics survive: constantly cold, constantly wet, constantly dry, anaerobic (no oxygen), or anti-biotic (kills biological organisms). On precontact sites, archaeologists find carbonized plant remains in soil, mainly feature soil (remind learners that a feature is a non-portable artifact, like a storage pit or a hearth). Plant remains could be dried and stored in deep storage pits that were sometimes lined with mold-resistant grass. Scientists who study plants from archaeological sites are called paleoethnobotanists, or archaeobotanists. On historic sites, plant remains, like seeds, are found in privies (outhouses).
Throughout the precontact period, Indigenous people used plants for medicine, raw materials to make other items (e.g., baskets, mats, cordage, canoes), dyes, drinks, food, and ceremonies. People gathered wild plants in North America from its first occupation (more than 10,000 years ago). They cultivated some native wild plants and several types of non-native plants were brought here/traded that were domesticated in other regions of the world. Maize, beans, and squash (The Three Sisters) were the three most widely eaten domesticated plants in North America. Each of these plants spread to different regions at different times. In Northeastern North America, squash entered around 1000 BC, maize 300 BC, and beans AD 1300.
Cordage refers to strands of fiber twisted together to make rope or string. Cordage can also be made from sinew (a tough fibrous connecting tissue found in animals). Cordage from plant material needs to be thicker to be as strong as that made from sinew. Each has different uses (sinew lasts longer, but is not as good in water). Cordage was used for pottery making (wrapped paddles were used during vessel shaping; cordage was impressed into clay to leave decorative impressions), nets, hafting, fish line, bow string, bola, traps, snares, and lashing. Cordage can be made from tree roots or the inner bark of dogbane, juniper, elm, cottonwood, aspen, basswood, moosewood, maple, willow, and others. The limbs or trunk are stripped of bark. The bark is placed in water for a few weeks. The inner bark comes loose in layers and the layers are dried; to use them, they are soaked in water first. Bark is generally gathered in the summer since the bark is more flexible and easier to work. Grass stems, leaves, vines, branches, and reeds can also be used to make cordage.
To make the cordage more durable and water proof, it can be coated with beeswax.
Vocabulary: flora, paleoethnobotanist, archaeobotanist, organic material, domesticated vs. wild, anaerobic, antibiotic, carbonized, privy, cordage
Procedure: Ask youth how we know what plants people ate and used to make non-food items in the past. Ask them what plants were used in the past and for what purposes. Discuss uses of plants and what types of wild and domesticated plants were used by Indigenous people in North America. Ask learners if they know what a domesticated plant (or animal) is vs. a wild plant (or animal). Maize can be used as an example (see image below).
Give learners several strands of raffia and ask them to describe how they would make cordage from it. To make cordage, twist two strands of raffia together. Tape the strands to the edge of a table (or have another learner hold one end) and twist. Then add a third piece to this, twisting in the opposite direction. See what objects can be suspended by the learners’ cordage (e.g., classroom chair, bucket with weight inside, etc.). Have learners hypothesize how much weight their cordage can support (use a scale for weighing luggage to test hypothesis). Learners can experiment with different methods (e.g., twist vs. braid) and thicknesses and test if each supports varying amounts of weight. Learners can test how much weight can be added (and for how long) before the cordage breaks. Ask learners how this information would have been used by past people. Ask learners where they might use cordage in their own lives.
Assessment Activities: Each learner will make a piece of cordage and test its strength by using it to pick up objects around the room.
Wrap up: Learners will discuss why archaeologists study plant remains – what do they tell us about the past (subsistence, settlement, domestication, hunting, seasonality, technology, etc.).
Crosscutting Concepts: Relationships can be classified as causal or correlational, and correlation does not necessarily imply causation. Cause and effect relationships may be used to predict phenomena in natural or designed systems.
NYS Standards: MS-ETS1-1. Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
MS-ETS1-4. Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.
Disciplinary Core Ideas:
ETS1.A: Defining and Delimiting Engineering Problems ▪ The more precisely a design task’s criteria and constraints can be defined, the more likely it is that the designed solution will be successful. Specification of constraints includes consideration of scientific principles and other relevant knowledge that are likely to limit possible solutions. (MSETS11) ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions ▪ A solution needs to be tested, and then modified on the basis of the test results, in order to improve it. (MS-ETS1-4)
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