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Maine Samplers addendum Painters of the Caves by Patricia Lauber |
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National Geographic Society, 1998 The Book: Imagine an underground art gallery, locked up in the dark for 30,000 years, discovered in France in 1994 by three adventurous spelunkers. No one may visit it, however, except for a few scientists. But Chauvet Cave is no longer "locked up," for several well-illustrated books have been written about it, and Internet Explorers can make virtual visits. Pat Lauber's contribution relates its art to "early moderns" and the uniqueness that distinguished them from other early peoples. She also examines again theories of why such paintings were done, how they were used, and what they meant to "the people who were us."
Mammoths: Mammoths were chosen because they were widespread, including North America, because recent discoveries of frozen mammoths have led to possible DNA cloning, and because they are popular with students. Many animals are depicted in Chauvet Cave, and similar activities could substitute any of them. 1. Many children's books about animals mix fact and fiction. An author tells an imaginary story about a day or a year or a crisis in the life cycle of an animal, sharing lots of facts about such an animal within this literary, educational device. Often these books will have an epilogue or afterword with 'interesting facts,' 'things to do.’ Or a bibliography so that readers may explore further. Collect books like this about mammoths or another animal depicted in the Chauvet cave. List the facts and concepts they contain about mammoths, including graphic information. Check these with nonfiction sources for accuracy and further understanding. If there are inaccuracies, write about them, citing your source(s). Have your writing inserted within the book by the librarian. Or, write and perhaps draw some interesting woolly mammoth information NOT included in the story or the afterword, and have that inserted at the end of the book. Include your sources. If a book has no bibliography or afterword, you could create one. Or, if a book has no afterward or bibliography, create one to be inserted at the end of the book. Alternatively, if there are no 'fiction using facts' books about another Chauvet animal you have chosen, research this animal and author a story about one, telling and illustrating a story about some aspect of a life cycle. Include a helpful afterword.
2. Prehistoric man found ways to successfully hunt mammoths, and to use just about every part of them profitably. Native Americans employed a number of techniques to hunt bison, and ingeniously used every part. Inuits and whales the same. Do some pre-searching to help you plan some ways to compare the three and to present your findings. Conference with your teacher/librarian before you move to in-depth research. Conference again when you feel you have extracted and analyzed all the information required. (Hand in your research journal and checklist the day before your conference.) Teachers/librarians: see assessment ideas for conferencing, journals, and checklists in Springboard accessible online at http://www.MASLibraries.org Now complete your product and your planned presentation. Option: Products from these animals are being used today. What are they, and do they differ from prehistoric use of these animals? 3. Research the numerous ways in which cave artists worked, including stenciling, painting and drawing, sculpting, incising, blowing. Try them out using fur pads, fingers, twig brushes, among other implements, and berry juices, clay, charcoal, liquefied minerals on stone surfaces. Research the designs and animals depicted in Spanish and French cave art, and those of Baja, California. Create an L-shaped, tunnel-like 'cave'. Use cardboarded tables whose inner sides and undersides have been lined with either crumpled balls of paper bags or 36" craft paper that have been dunked into diluted black/brown tempera, smoothed out, and dried. (Some of this idea comes from Arts Ed Net: http://www.artsednet.getty.edu/ Plan the cave art carefully so that it can be easily described and presented via a tape recording. Implement the art using only flashlights for light. Have at least one area include animals with more than the usual number of legs and feet, perhaps indicating motion, as you have researched. Create a tape recording that tweaks curiosity, informs, poses theories, and asks questions that viewers can react to via the art. For instance, in the tape point out the animals with too many legs in the form of a query, then provide the scientific theories as responses. Include in the tape your reactions to painting upside down, in a confined space, in poor lighting with unusual implements, or other. The tape might begin and end with reference to the cave as a replica, and describe the why and how of the Lascaux replica cave that is visited by 400,000 people each year. Try the tape out with a selection of your planned audience. Edit the tape as needed and make copies. Provide a group of potential supervisors for your selected "cave tourists" with headsets and tapes and flashlights. Conduct a a walk-through (actually a 'crawl-through') ending at a tour reservation chart. Option: Arrange an area where ‘cave tourists" may make a blowing tube image or their hand, replicating one cave painting technique that they have learned about. Panels should portray models, including partial hand paintings, together with theoretical translations. 4. Prepare rock art (petroglyph) ‘learning centers’ for a specific grade level. Little cave art has been located in the United States. But some pictographs and especially petroglyphs have been disc First learning center. A simple yet clear way of explaining what symbols are and relating that to rock art as symbols. Cover panels with photographs or pictures of rock art and add possible interpretations: The design could be replicated at the head of each page over a description that explains what it could mean and why it would have been made This center could also have panels that defined petroglyphs, with photographs, locations, and other information. A book collection about petroglyphs would also be a good idea. References:
Second Learning Center. Display round stones covered with simulated ‘desert varnish" and transformed into petroglyphs by your group. Hang charts of African, Australian, European, and North American petraglyph syhmbols on panels. Hang clear, how-to instructions that exlain the differences between direct and indirect percussion. Provide tools and smooth stones prepared with ‘desert varnish’ so a small group can create petroglyphs
Third Learning Center. A writing area where students can take their rocks and create stories about them, using some of the theories they explored in the first learning center. Include some completed rocks for students to write about who prefer one of them or who have not made or completed their own petraglyph. 5. When new technologies are compared to existing technologies, contests are often part of this comparison. Just think of John Henry's hammer competing with an engine, or foot treadle sewing machines vying against electric sewing machines. Many people say information on the Internet is so disorganized, piecemeal, unverifiable, and undivided as to reading level, that using books from your library is better. Others say that your library is inadequate and incomplete, and that the Internet is better. Design a contest for two groups to compare on-line Internet information with library texts, using some concepts about the woolly mammoth as a common inquiry. Be sure each group has comparable search skills for its resource area before it begins. Be sure teams keep good records of time, resources, quality information, including depth and breadth, attitudes, available help, and other components that will contribute to a final comparison. As part of the final comparison, include if either area has unique assets or liabilities regarding research. As the year progresses, keep the conclusions in mind, perhaps as a class chart or bulletin board. Add new insights or underscore original decisions based on personal or classroom experiences, with examples. At the end of the year, prepare a summary of the year's findings, and conclude with some predictions. 6. Write a history of the woolly mammoth. Include the following:
7. Explore some of the new science concepts related to frozen mammoths. Include:
Or, explore some of the mysteries about frozen mammoths, including superstitions. Which of these mysteries have been explained and how? Or, explore what has been learned and what could be learned from examining frozen mammoths. Create an interactive product about the content you have collected. Use a web page, a computer application, or other method that has good access for other students. Use a query system for many of your entries to invite user involvement. Some possible options:
Describe a different kind of park, 'Mammoth Park' which is potentially much more realistic, and even exists in some scientists' plans. Create a 'Mammoth Park' story, including any existing facts and theories you can find that are relevant. Have links available at these spots to explanations of these and your sources.
8. We've come a long way when it comes to the public and aesthetic and scientific treasures that are irreplaceableÑ caverns and caves, pueblos, forests, fossils. We have learned about their vulnerabilities the hard way, and many a treasure has been ruined. This has resulted in prohibiting or limiting the public from many sites. On the other hand, creative people have devised ways to make treasures both accessible to the public AND protected for future generations. Explore how a number of 'treasures' have been ruined or badly damaged and prepare a detailed description of the sources of the problems. Provide visual examples. Explore how the stewards of several treasures have utilized both accessibility and preservation techniques. Be sure to include the Kartchner Cave in Arizona. Prepare a detailed description of the solutions to problems together with visual examples. Create a "conservation ethic" for world treasures that results from your understanding of all of the above! Find out where in your district curriculum the subject of ethics is included. Ask for a hearing to present your problems, your solutions, and your ethic as a possible part of that curriculum. Some models:
Further Resources:
Web Sites:
[Note a Discovery Channel presentation about frozen woolly mammoths.]
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overed on exposed rock walls and on stones. Research petroglyphs and create 3 learning centers.