THE TOWN OF THE GREENLAND HALIBUT
HIGH SCHOOL
The town of the Greenland halibut is one out of nine podcasts produced by Katrine Nyland for The Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat.
Guide to the Book Creator book
The town of the Greenland halibut is a student’s book associated with the podcast of the same name. The duration of the podcast is 4:22 minutes.
The activities have been designed to focus on the investigative, experimental, and creative approach of the students to learning. The process consists of three steps:
- Preparation before listening to the podcast
- Listening to and working with the podcast
- Further work with topics and insights from the podcast
It is a good idea to hear the podcast before presenting it to the students.
Cross-curricular – history, biology and religion
- The students acquire a fundamental knowledge of the Greenland halibut and its significance for Ilulissat and the settlements at the sea and the fiords, past and present.
- They learn about Inuit culture from the Stone Age to the pulsating life in Ilulissat of today.
- They practise their skills in communication and collaboration.
We recommend that students work in small groups, pairs or individually. Depending on what suits each student best and the competences to be developed. Keep in mind that your best friend is not necessarily the one you collaborate best with. Working together is about working together and not just being together.
Guide to the Book Creator book
The town of the Greenland halibut is a student’s book associated with the podcast of the same name. The duration of the podcast is 4:22 minutes.
The activities have been designed to focus on the investigative, experimental, and creative approach of the students to learning. The process consists of three steps:
- Preparation before listening to the podcast
- Listening to and working with the podcast
- Further work with topics and insights from the podcast
It is a good idea to hear the podcast before presenting it to the students.
Cross-curricular – history, biology and religion
- The students acquire a fundamental knowledge of the Greenland halibut and its significance for Ilulissat and the settlements at the sea and the fiords, past and present.
- They learn about Inuit culture from the Stone Age to the pulsating life in Ilulissat of today.
- They practise their skills in communication and collaboration.
We recommend that students work in small groups, pairs or individually. Depending on what suits each student best and the competences to be developed. Keep in mind that your best friend is not necessarily the one you collaborate best with. Working together is about working together and not just being together.
The town of the Greenland halibut
The students meet the Icefjord Centre in four pictures: summer and winter, the Kangia glacier front and the framework of the building. On page 6-7 there is a text and three videos (in Danish) showing the erection of the Icefjord Centre.
In class you can talk about:
- What the Icefjord Centre is.
- What the purpose of an institution like the Icefjord Centre is.
- What it looks like around the centre.
- The difference between summer and winter, where you live as well as in Greenland.
The students should clarify what they already know about Greenland before starting work on the podcast. In this podcast focus is on the Greenland halibut and its significance to Ilulissat but you may have worked with some of the other podcasts or in other ways acquired knowledge that can be activated in advance.
On page 8 there is a link to Google Maps. Here the students can try to locate the Icefjord Centre on the map.
You can also experiment with letting them find the places mentioned in the podcast, so that they get an idea of where they are situated. These are the places:
- Ilulissat
- The Sermeq Kujalleq glacier
- The Icefjord
Furthermore, on page 8 there are four questions to help the students get going. Here are suggestions for a few more:
- For how long have people been living in Greenland?
- Do you know the missionary Poul Egede?
- What do you know about the inland ice?
- Which languages are spoken in Greenland?
- What do you know about education in Greenland?
Page 9 is intended for answers. The students are free to use whatever form of expression they prefer. Some possibilities in Book Creator:
- make a model/a drawing by hand, take a picture of it and insert
- find pictures in Book Creator about Greenland and insert them. The pictures can be complemented with explanations in words.
- record an audio file telling what you know about Greenland
- – or a combination of the above
On page 10-11 you find a map of Greenland, with six red markers. Let the students place the markers where they know towns or settlements in Greenland. They can write the name of the town or settlement in the field next to the marker.
Sound recording, insertion of pictures and text: see instructions 1, 2 and 3 here.
Now it is time for the students to listen to the podcast The town of the Greenland halibut. On page 12 an introduction to the podcast is given, followed by a short instruction. Clicking the picture on page 13 will start the podcast.
It is recommended that the students listen in pairs or small groups. After listening to the podcast, the students could spend some minutes talking about what they just heard.
On page 14-15 the students are to make a summary of what they heard in the podcast. They may do this in various ways:
- write a text
- record an audio file
- make a model/drawing
- something completely different that they are used to with note taking methods and summaries
- – or a combination of the above
Sound recording, insertion of pictures and text: see instructions 1, 2 and 3 here
Now it is time for a joint review in class where the students’ work on pages 14 and 15 is discussed. The aim is to prepare the students for making their own reference books that they can revisit during work with the podcast. In this reference book the students should explain the meaning of the concepts and keywords from your discussion – by means of text, sound, pictures, drawings or a combination of these.
You could begin by asking the students to name the concepts and keywords they heard in the podcast. Then you can add those mentioned below, central to the podcast and important for further work.
- Shaman – also called Angakok, a very powerful figure in the Greenlandic community as he was the one who interpreted the will of the higher powers. The shaman had to undergo many years of training. The master usually was an older, skilled shaman.
To become a shaman you needed special powers. You should be able to contact spirits and the souls of the dead when performing the rituals, calling forward spirit helpers.
Find more information here: Greenland myths and legends
Are there still shamans in Greenland?
- Wildlife – at the Icefjord is different from wildlife in southern Greenland where fish are smaller. The reason being that icebergs from the glacier create turbulence in the water, stirring up nutrients to the benefit of animal life. Animals need nourishment to grow, and at the Icefjord there is plenty of that.
How do you tell the difference between fish from northern and southern Greenland?
- The Greenland halibut – is an arctic fish from the northern Atlantic. It has a big mouth and rather large teeth. Maximum size and weight are 120-130 cm and 45-50 kg.
The halibut lives at 200 to 2000 meters depth but does not move exclusively at the bottom of the sea like most other flatfish.
When it is nine to ten years old, it starts spawning. This takes place in May to August at 700 to 2.000 meters. When the larvae are about 20 cm, they obtain colour on the underside and are ready to seek deeper waters.
The adult halibut feed on fish, like small cod, and shrimps.
How does the Greenland halibut differ from other flatfish?
- Missionary – a person working to propagate a religion and convert people from other religions. Some religions want others to adopt their faith and employ missionaries for that purpose. Poul Egede was such a person.
Christianity is a missionary religion. Do you know any other missionary religions?
Sound recording, insertion of pictures and text: see instructions 1, 2 and 3 here
The subject is the waves of immigration in Greenland through history. The four waves of immigration are described on page 18-19, illustrated with a picture of the ulo (the woman’s knife), introduced with the third wave.
Using this information the students on page 20-21 are to place the seven peoples on a timeline. The sticks on the timeline must be moved around to hit the right year of immigration.
Conduct a joint review in class after working with this task. Discuss how these immigrations have influenced Inuit culture.
Suggestions for the discussion:
- What did those peoples hunt, compared to what Greenlanders do today?
- Which tools from the immigration waves are still in use today in Greenland?
- Which means of transport are still used today?
Next subject is the Greenland halibut.
On page 22 you find a quotation from Poul Egede’s diary which you can hear in the podcast. Mentioned is the good catch of halibut that can be made at the Icefjord. On page 23 a short introduction about the Greenland halibut is given, and the task of the students is defined.
A fact box on page 24-25 presents 12 bits of information about the Greenland halibut. To each of these a speech bubble is pointed with a question. To find answers to these the students can search the Internet. The answers also can be found here.
The students are to give their answers in an audio file. Hold a joint review of all the answers.
Sound recording: see instruction 1 here
Now the students shall work with the shaman’s significance in the community, and with the legend of the Mother of the Sea.
The shaman’s role according to the podcast is described on page 26, illustrated with a picture of the Mother of the Sea and a shaman. The legend is retold on page 27, and the students are set a task. Both pages should be read before starting on the task.
In small groups the students are to write a story about the Mother of the Sea, intended for a person who has never before heard the legend. While reading the story aloud, they should record it, and afterwards insert the resulting audio file on page 29. An illustration should accompany the story; it goes in the frame on page 28-29.
Sound recording and insertion of pictures: see instructions 1 and 2 here
This task can be used as introduction to a topic about fishing in the future. It may be skipped if you are short on time.
Page 30 gives an introduction and a description of the exercise.
The focus is on actual and future problems or dilemmas of fishing in Greenland. Let the students search for material on this subject on the Internet and reflect on these problems. The dilemmas should be discussed in small groups; in doing this the students should practise viewing cases from both sides and give arguments for each of them.
Make sure that the settings for feedback are positive criticism. The students should be supported in assessing: what is good – and what might be done better. Find more inspiration in Austin’s Butterfly. The idea with this is not necessarily to make new products but rather for the students to discover and work with this positive criticism. You could, though, choose to allocate time for further work with the products, so that the students might use the feedback for changes and improvements.
If you intend to work with some of the other podcasts from the Icefjord Centre it would make sense to save the students’ Book Creator books so that they may be reused.
The podcast The town of the Greenland halibut was made for the Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat by Katrine Nyland.
Graphics by Oncotype.
Teaching material for the podcast has been produced by Lotte Brinkmann and Daniella Maria Manuel, Anholt Læringsværksted.
The teaching material The town of the Greenland halibut is published under a Creative Commons crediting licence CC:BY. The texts, assignments and pictures can be shared, reproduced and adapted, with the proviso that “The town of the Greenland halibut by the Icefjord Centre Ilulissat” is credited as the source.
The students meet the Icefjord Centre in four pictures: summer and winter, the Kangia glacier front and the framework of the building. On page 6-7 there is a text and three videos (in Danish) showing the erection of the Icefjord Centre.
In class you can talk about:
- What the Icefjord Centre is.
- What the purpose of an institution like the Icefjord Centre is.
- What it looks like around the centre.
- The difference between summer and winter, where you live as well as in Greenland.
The students should clarify what they already know about Greenland before starting work on the podcast. In this podcast focus is on the Greenland halibut and its significance to Ilulissat but you may have worked with some of the other podcasts or in other ways acquired knowledge that can be activated in advance.
On page 8 there is a link to Google Maps. Here the students can try to locate the Icefjord Centre on the map.
You can also experiment with letting them find the places mentioned in the podcast, so that they get an idea of where they are situated. These are the places:
- Ilulissat
- The Sermeq Kujalleq glacier
- The Icefjord
Furthermore, on page 8 there are four questions to help the students get going. Here are suggestions for a few more:
- For how long have people been living in Greenland?
- Do you know the missionary Poul Egede?
- What do you know about the inland ice?
- Which languages are spoken in Greenland?
- What do you know about education in Greenland?
Page 9 is intended for answers. The students are free to use whatever form of expression they prefer. Some possibilities in Book Creator:
- make a model/a drawing by hand, take a picture of it and insert
- find pictures in Book Creator about Greenland and insert them. The pictures can be complemented with explanations in words.
- record an audio file telling what you know about Greenland
- – or a combination of the above
On page 10-11 you find a map of Greenland, with six red markers. Let the students place the markers where they know towns or settlements in Greenland. They can write the name of the town or settlement in the field next to the marker.
Sound recording, insertion of pictures and text: see instructions 1, 2 and 3 here.
Now it is time for the students to listen to the podcast The town of the Greenland halibut. On page 12 an introduction to the podcast is given, followed by a short instruction. Clicking the picture on page 13 will start the podcast.
It is recommended that the students listen in pairs or small groups. After listening to the podcast, the students could spend some minutes talking about what they just heard.
On page 14-15 the students are to make a summary of what they heard in the podcast. They may do this in various ways:
- write a text
- record an audio file
- make a model/drawing
- something completely different that they are used to with note taking methods and summaries
- – or a combination of the above
Sound recording, insertion of pictures and text: see instructions 1, 2 and 3 here
Now it is time for a joint review in class where the students’ work on pages 14 and 15 is discussed. The aim is to prepare the students for making their own reference books that they can revisit during work with the podcast. In this reference book the students should explain the meaning of the concepts and keywords from your discussion – by means of text, sound, pictures, drawings or a combination of these.
You could begin by asking the students to name the concepts and keywords they heard in the podcast. Then you can add those mentioned below, central to the podcast and important for further work.
- Shaman – also called Angakok, a very powerful figure in the Greenlandic community as he was the one who interpreted the will of the higher powers. The shaman had to undergo many years of training. The master usually was an older, skilled shaman.
To become a shaman you needed special powers. You should be able to contact spirits and the souls of the dead when performing the rituals, calling forward spirit helpers.
Find more information here: Greenland myths and legends
Are there still shamans in Greenland?
- Wildlife – at the Icefjord is different from wildlife in southern Greenland where fish are smaller. The reason being that icebergs from the glacier create turbulence in the water, stirring up nutrients to the benefit of animal life. Animals need nourishment to grow, and at the Icefjord there is plenty of that.
How do you tell the difference between fish from northern and southern Greenland?
- The Greenland halibut – is an arctic fish from the northern Atlantic. It has a big mouth and rather large teeth. Maximum size and weight are 120-130 cm and 45-50 kg.
The halibut lives at 200 to 2000 meters depth but does not move exclusively at the bottom of the sea like most other flatfish.
When it is nine to ten years old, it starts spawning. This takes place in May to August at 700 to 2.000 meters. When the larvae are about 20 cm, they obtain colour on the underside and are ready to seek deeper waters.
The adult halibut feed on fish, like small cod, and shrimps.
How does the Greenland halibut differ from other flatfish?
- Missionary – a person working to propagate a religion and convert people from other religions. Some religions want others to adopt their faith and employ missionaries for that purpose. Poul Egede was such a person.
Christianity is a missionary religion. Do you know any other missionary religions?
Sound recording, insertion of pictures and text: see instructions 1, 2 and 3 here
The subject is the waves of immigration in Greenland through history. The four waves of immigration are described on page 18-19, illustrated with a picture of the ulo (the woman’s knife), introduced with the third wave.
Using this information the students on page 20-21 are to place the seven peoples on a timeline. The sticks on the timeline must be moved around to hit the right year of immigration.
Conduct a joint review in class after working with this task. Discuss how these immigrations have influenced Inuit culture.
Suggestions for the discussion:
- What did those peoples hunt, compared to what Greenlanders do today?
- Which tools from the immigration waves are still in use today in Greenland?
- Which means of transport are still used today?
Next subject is the Greenland halibut.
On page 22 you find a quotation from Poul Egede’s diary which you can hear in the podcast. Mentioned is the good catch of halibut that can be made at the Icefjord. On page 23 a short introduction about the Greenland halibut is given, and the task of the students is defined.
A fact box on page 24-25 presents 12 bits of information about the Greenland halibut. To each of these a speech bubble is pointed with a question. To find answers to these the students can search the Internet. The answers also can be found here.
The students are to give their answers in an audio file. Hold a joint review of all the answers.
Sound recording: see instruction 1 here
Now the students shall work with the shaman’s significance in the community, and with the legend of the Mother of the Sea.
The shaman’s role according to the podcast is described on page 26, illustrated with a picture of the Mother of the Sea and a shaman. The legend is retold on page 27, and the students are set a task. Both pages should be read before starting on the task.
In small groups the students are to write a story about the Mother of the Sea, intended for a person who has never before heard the legend. While reading the story aloud, they should record it, and afterwards insert the resulting audio file on page 29. An illustration should accompany the story; it goes in the frame on page 28-29.
Sound recording and insertion of pictures: see instructions 1 and 2 here
This task can be used as introduction to a topic about fishing in the future. It may be skipped if you are short on time.
Page 30 gives an introduction and a description of the exercise.
The focus is on actual and future problems or dilemmas of fishing in Greenland. Let the students search for material on this subject on the Internet and reflect on these problems. The dilemmas should be discussed in small groups; in doing this the students should practise viewing cases from both sides and give arguments for each of them.
Make sure that the settings for feedback are positive criticism. The students should be supported in assessing: what is good – and what might be done better. Find more inspiration in Austin’s Butterfly. The idea with this is not necessarily to make new products but rather for the students to discover and work with this positive criticism. You could, though, choose to allocate time for further work with the products, so that the students might use the feedback for changes and improvements.
If you intend to work with some of the other podcasts from the Icefjord Centre it would make sense to save the students’ Book Creator books so that they may be reused.
The podcast The town of the Greenland halibut was made for the Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat by Katrine Nyland.
Graphics by Oncotype.
Teaching material for the podcast has been produced by Lotte Brinkmann and Daniella Maria Manuel, Anholt Læringsværksted.
The teaching material The town of the Greenland halibut is published under a Creative Commons crediting licence CC:BY. The texts, assignments and pictures can be shared, reproduced and adapted, with the proviso that “The town of the Greenland halibut by the Icefjord Centre Ilulissat” is credited as the source.
