Going to Egg Island: Adventures in Grouping and Place Values (Math in a Cultural Context: Lessons Learned from Yup'ik Eskimo Elders Series)

This module is designed for students in grades one and two. In a series of problems built around the story of a second-grade girl gathering sea bird eggs in the spring, students learn and apply the mathematical concepts and skills of counting and grouping two-digit numbers, estimating, measuring, sorting and place values. Students play traditional Yup'ik games while simultaneously investigating number patterns, which lead to a strong sense of grouping and place values.

About the Series Math in a Cultural Context

This series is a supplemental math curriculum based on the traditional wisdom and practices of the Yup'ik people of southwest Alaska. The result of more than a decade of collaboration between math educators and Yup'ik elders, these modules connect cultural knowledge to school mathematics. Students are challenged to communicate and think mathematically as they solve inquiry-oriented problems, which require creative, practical and analytical thinking. Classroom-based research strongly suggests that students engaged in this curriculum can develop deeper mathematical understandings than students who engage only with a procedure-oriented, paper-and-pencil curriculum.