THE TREASURES OF A GREENLANDIC FREEZER
HIGH SCHOOL
The treasures of a Greenlandic freezer is one out of nine podcasts produced by Katrine Nyland for The Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat.
GUIDE TO THE BOOK CREATOR BOOK
The Book Creator book The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer is a student’s book associated with the podcast The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer.
The duration of the podcast is 3:37.
The activities have been designed to focus on the students’ investigative, experimental and creative approach 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.
We recommend that you listen to the podcast before presenting it to the students.
Cross-curricular – biology, food knowledge and language
- The students acquire knowledge of the rich wild- and fishlife in the Disko Bay that through thousands of years have filled the larder of Inuit with nature’s food.
- They learn about the plants and animals that are gathered and hunted at different times of the year.
- 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 Book Creator book The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer is a student’s book associated with the podcast The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer.
The duration of the podcast is 3:37.
The activities have been designed to focus on the students’ investigative, experimental and creative approach 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.
We recommend that you listen to the podcast before presenting it to the students.
Cross-curricular – biology, food knowledge and language
- The students acquire knowledge of the rich wild- and fishlife in the Disko Bay that through thousands of years have filled the larder of Inuit with nature’s food.
- They learn about the plants and animals that are gathered and hunted at different times of the year.
- 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.
Hvad kummefryserne gemte
The treasures of a Greenlandic freezer
Qerititsivinni toqqortaatit
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 nature’s larder in Greenland 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 Icefjord
Furthermore, on page 8 there are four questions to help the students get going. Here are suggestions for a few more:
- How many people live in Greenland?
- What is the area of Greenland?
- What do you know about the inland ice?
- Which languages are spoken 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 treasures of a freezer. 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.
- Chest freezer – there are various kinds of freezers: one kind combined with the refrigerator, a chest freezer or an upright freezer. A chest freezer may contain more than the other two kinds, but it can be difficult to keep track of the contents.
What kind of freezer do you have at home?
Why is it good to have a freezer?
- Supply – is food you have gathered and stored for later use. You can store your supply in a larder or a freezer.
Do you have supplies at home?
Are there some kinds of food that cannot be stored for a longer period of time?
- The Disko Bay – the largest bay in Greenland. At the bay lies Ilulissat where the podcast takes place. Today this is one of Greenland’s most popular tourist destinations. It is an incredibly beautiful area with the enormous floating icebergs, the rich wildlife and especially the many whales. Here you can also experience small settlements with their hunting culture.
Even though hunting and especially fishing still is the basis for life in the Disko Bay, service trades gain more and more ground with the growing tourism.
Why is the bay called the Disko Bay?
Here is a concept not mentioned in the podcast, but relevant when solving the tasks.
- Food chain – shows the feeding relations between different organisms in an ecosystem. It differs from a food web by focusing on the type of food for a certain organism.
With what does a food chain always begin?
Sound recording, insertion of pictures and text: see instructions 1, 2 and 3 here.
The students are to imagine that they invite Malik, Elin and Vera from the podcast to dinner. They have to put together a menu and write an invitation.
On page 18-19 their freezer is shown, with food they have caught or gathered. In addition to the contents of the freezer their cupboards are filled with basic ingredients like flour, sugar, oil etc.
On page 20-23 six Greenlandic recipes are presented, three suggestions for a main course and three for dessert. The students are to select which dishes they can prepare from the raw materials in the freezer.
They write their invitation on page 24-25. It must contain the following:
- Time and place for the dinner
- The menu
- Clearly identified recipient and sender
If there is time in the process, the students could try to prepare the dishes from their menu at home. If they cannot get the ingredients used in the recipes, they could replace them with available ingredients. Instead of reindeer meat they might use beef or pork.
Let the students read each other’s invitations. Hold a joint review over food culture in Greenland. Here some suggestions for this:
- Did you know any of the dishes?
- Have you tried any of them?
- Would you like to try some of them?
Insertion of text: see instruction 3 here.
The subject is the animals and plants Malik mentions in the podcast. The task is introduced on page 26, and a link is given to a page about wildlife in Greenland.
Three food chains are shown on page 27, with reindeer, musk ox and ptarmigan at the top. The students’ task now is to find out if there are one or more carnivores above these animals in the food chain. If they find one, they place a picture of the animal in the empty box over their prey and write the name in the smaller box inside.
When the students have finished the search for a natural enemy of these animals, hold a joint review in class. You could talk about this:
- What is a food chain and a food web?
- What is the difference between a herbivore and a carnivore?
- With what does every food chain begin?
- Why can some animals only eat plants and some only meat?
- What is photosynthesis, and how does it fit into a food chain?
After the joint discussion the students should update their reference books with the concepts they have just learned.
Insertion of pictures and text: see instructions 2 and 3 here.
The Greenlandic legend The Mother of the Sea is the starting point. Click on the picture on page 28 to watch a video about the Mother of the Sea. Afterwards the students are to answer the questions in the black speech bubbles, using an audio file as their medium – place it on page 29.
Hold a joint review in class where you listen to and discuss the answers.
On page 30-31 the students are to make their own legend, working together in small groups. They are free to find inspiration in the legend of the Mother of the Sea or other legends. On page 30 room is allocated for an illustration to the legend. The text of the legend is to be written on page 31. If they prefer recording the legend as an audio file, they could do that (and delete the text box).
Let the students present their legends to the rest of the class.
Sound recording: see instruction 1 here.
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 treasures of a Greenlandic freezer 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 treasures of a Greenlandic freezer 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 treasures of a Greenlandic freezer 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 nature’s larder in Greenland 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 Icefjord
Furthermore, on page 8 there are four questions to help the students get going. Here are suggestions for a few more:
- How many people live in Greenland?
- What is the area of Greenland?
- What do you know about the inland ice?
- Which languages are spoken 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 treasures of a freezer. 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.
- Chest freezer – there are various kinds of freezers: one kind combined with the refrigerator, a chest freezer or an upright freezer. A chest freezer may contain more than the other two kinds, but it can be difficult to keep track of the contents.
What kind of freezer do you have at home?
Why is it good to have a freezer?
- Supply – is food you have gathered and stored for later use. You can store your supply in a larder or a freezer.
Do you have supplies at home?
Are there some kinds of food that cannot be stored for a longer period of time?
- The Disko Bay – the largest bay in Greenland. At the bay lies Ilulissat where the podcast takes place. Today this is one of Greenland’s most popular tourist destinations. It is an incredibly beautiful area with the enormous floating icebergs, the rich wildlife and especially the many whales. Here you can also experience small settlements with their hunting culture.
Even though hunting and especially fishing still is the basis for life in the Disko Bay, service trades gain more and more ground with the growing tourism.
Why is the bay called the Disko Bay?
Here is a concept not mentioned in the podcast, but relevant when solving the tasks.
- Food chain – shows the feeding relations between different organisms in an ecosystem. It differs from a food web by focusing on the type of food for a certain organism.
With what does a food chain always begin?
Sound recording, insertion of pictures and text: see instructions 1, 2 and 3 here.
The students are to imagine that they invite Malik, Elin and Vera from the podcast to dinner. They have to put together a menu and write an invitation.
On page 18-19 their freezer is shown, with food they have caught or gathered. In addition to the contents of the freezer their cupboards are filled with basic ingredients like flour, sugar, oil etc.
On page 20-23 six Greenlandic recipes are presented, three suggestions for a main course and three for dessert. The students are to select which dishes they can prepare from the raw materials in the freezer.
They write their invitation on page 24-25. It must contain the following:
- Time and place for the dinner
- The menu
- Clearly identified recipient and sender
If there is time in the process, the students could try to prepare the dishes from their menu at home. If they cannot get the ingredients used in the recipes, they could replace them with available ingredients. Instead of reindeer meat they might use beef or pork.
Let the students read each other’s invitations. Hold a joint review over food culture in Greenland. Here some suggestions for this:
- Did you know any of the dishes?
- Have you tried any of them?
- Would you like to try some of them?
Insertion of text: see instruction 3 here.
The subject is the animals and plants Malik mentions in the podcast. The task is introduced on page 26, and a link is given to a page about wildlife in Greenland.
Three food chains are shown on page 27, with reindeer, musk ox and ptarmigan at the top. The students’ task now is to find out if there are one or more carnivores above these animals in the food chain. If they find one, they place a picture of the animal in the empty box over their prey and write the name in the smaller box inside.
When the students have finished the search for a natural enemy of these animals, hold a joint review in class. You could talk about this:
- What is a food chain and a food web?
- What is the difference between a herbivore and a carnivore?
- With what does every food chain begin?
- Why can some animals only eat plants and some only meat?
- What is photosynthesis, and how does it fit into a food chain?
After the joint discussion the students should update their reference books with the concepts they have just learned.
Insertion of pictures and text: see instructions 2 and 3 here.
The Greenlandic legend The Mother of the Sea is the starting point. Click on the picture on page 28 to watch a video about the Mother of the Sea. Afterwards the students are to answer the questions in the black speech bubbles, using an audio file as their medium – place it on page 29.
Hold a joint review in class where you listen to and discuss the answers.
On page 30-31 the students are to make their own legend, working together in small groups. They are free to find inspiration in the legend of the Mother of the Sea or other legends. On page 30 room is allocated for an illustration to the legend. The text of the legend is to be written on page 31. If they prefer recording the legend as an audio file, they could do that (and delete the text box).
Let the students present their legends to the rest of the class.
Sound recording: see instruction 1 here.
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 treasures of a Greenlandic freezer 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 treasures of a Greenlandic freezer 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 treasures of a Greenlandic freezer by the Icefjord Centre Ilulissat” is credited as the source.
