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Explaining Our World

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Learning objectives:

1. To identify and use text features to decide what's important in text.
2. To evaluate the usefulness of the information in a particular text for answering questions.
3. Make connections between what I already know and what I am reading.
4. To notice relationships between different texts and talk about them.

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Explaining Our World

Getting Hooked!

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This story from Hawaii, will seem familiar, you can watch it at home.

Have you ever Watched Mythbusters on TV?

We are going to work out whether all myths are stories or if there is some science behind them.

The Sandman Illustrates

The Ika of Maui.

Explaining Our World

Introduction:

All over the world, for thousands of years different peoples have made up narratives to explain what was happening in the world around them.

These stories helped people understand events like the creation of the world, volcanic eruptions and why animals look the way they do (How did the Cheetah get his Spots, for example).

Can you think of some stories like this?

Scientists are beginning to find these ‘stories’ are more useful than was first thought.

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A myth from Kamchatka, a large peninsula off Russia with

29 active volcanoes!

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Read this carefully, then do the activities on the next slide.

The Koryak native people, call the northern part of Kamchatka home. It is in the north that large volcanoes shadow beautiful valleys of green pasture and forest. The Koryaks are reindeer herders, harvesting deer to provide all of their necessities.

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The central figure of Koryak belief is Kutkh, the great raven god. Koryak beliefs describe Kutkh, the Great Raven, as the first man, father and protector of the Koryak. The Koryak believe that creation began when the great raven swooped over the sea and dropped a feather, thus creating Kamchatka. Once he established land he created men to inhabit his creation. After some time Kutkh created a woman and placed her within the land so that creation could continue.

She was very beautiful and all of the men fell in love with her, desiring her affection deeply. As the men died they became mountains, turning the originally flat land into mountains. The mountains turned to volcanoes as the hearts of the men within each mountain still burnt with fiery love for the woman.

If you want to know more click here

Koryak Myth Activities

Create an image to illustrate the Koryak myth.

A Maori Myth explaining NZ’s volcanoes

Below are two different representations of the same story.

You can watch one or listen to the other to answer the next questions on slide 7.

But you will need to watch/listen to both for the work on slide 8

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2

Click on the speaker symbol to listen. ⇨

Maori Tongariro/Taranaki Myth Activities

Compare two presentations:

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2

What to look For

Explaining Our World: What the Scientists have to say

“We can't afford to dismiss any source of information about past events”

“Myths such as these have helped scientists understand some very large past events, Sigurdsson says. One such large event was the eruption of Kuwae in 1453, a volcano in the islands of Vanuatu in the Southwest Pacific. This proved to be one of the largest eruptions anywhere on Earth within the last 10,000 years and was so big it simply sank the island into the sea. Piecing together the details of an eruption from the geological record can be tricky, Nunn says. Geologists analyse the lava, sediments and other debris that came from the volcano to determine what happened - material that’s become changed, reworked and redeposited over time.

“You're trying to piece together the whole event from those isolated bits of information and it involves a huge amount of assumptions,” Nunn says. “But a lot of the old histories and myths that talk about volcanic eruptions do actually give us insight into the sequencing.”

The Kuwae myths also talk about events leading up to the eruption. In this way, they provide valuable information on how to recognise the precursors of such eruptions, Nunn says. The oral traditions talk about sorcerers digging holes and hot water soaring out, unusual noises from the crater and the exodus of tigers, monkeys and rabbits into the villages before the final eruption.” From BBC Earth

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Stories from Around the World about the Moon

For thousands of years humans have looked at the moon and made stories to explain:

- how the moon got into the sky,

-why it gets smaller as the month passes

-why the moon has the markings it does.

- how the moon moves across the sky

Click on the images of the moon to read some of them.

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Thinking about Stories From around the world about the Moon

Create:

Choose one of the myths about the moon to create image or cartoon to illustrate.

Upload/insert it here:

A Myth from the Maori about the Moon

The Maori have several myths about the the moon.

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At Kapa Haka, we sing about ‘Rona and the Moon.’

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Listen to a version of Rona’s story by clicking here:

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Please put earphones on first! 🎧

This comes from ‘Night is a Blanket’.

Thinking about Rona and the Moon

Create:

Write your own story about how the moon got its markings. Use Explore to find a picture of the moon to be inspired by.