NLM Announces "Native Voices" Classroom Activities and Lesson

NLM's healing totem was created by master carver Jewell James of the Lummi Nation in the Pacific Northwest, to promote good health. The stories depicted on the totem highlight the meaning and interconnectedness of life and the environment, and the collective knowledge of all races of humanity.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) Division of Specialized Information Services has released classroom activities and lesson plans to supplement the Web site for its Native Voices: Native Peoples' Concepts of Health and Illness exhibition. Designed for students in grades 6-12, these classroom activities and lesson plans familiarize students with the health and medicine of Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians. The activities and lesson plans, incorporating Native Voices exhibition Web site content material and other NLM online educational/science resources, are available at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/resources/lesson-plans-list.html.    

The activities and lesson plans are composed of four units:

A scavenger huntAn environmental health science lessonA social science lessonA biology lesson

Each unit introduces a different way of exploring and learning about the Native Voices exhibition, and lasts between 1.5 and 3 hours. 

While the activities and lesson plans can be used in science classrooms, clubs and programs, they can be used also to reinforce the history and societal developments of Native peoples in social science and history classrooms.

About the Native Voices Web Site

The Native Voices Web site (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices) allows people to experience an exhibition currently on display at NLM on the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Maryland.  Both versions explore the connection between wellness, illness and cultural life through a combination of interviews with Native people and interactive media.

For additional information, please contact:

K-12 Team Leader
Alla Keselman, PhD
National Library of Medicine
keselmana@mail.nih.gov

The National Library of Medicine is the world's largest library of the health sciences and a component of the National Institutes of Health. NLM collects, organizes and makes available biomedical science information to scientists, health professionals and the public.

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