The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Discover Cathlapotle! Environmental and Heritage Education Kit is available for loan to teachers in the Portland, OR-Vancouver, WA Metropolitan area. Developed in partnership with the Chinook Tribe and Portland State University, the kit's artifact replicas, reference materials, and curriculum-related activities provide a resource base from which teachers can draw to address the learning styles and content focus their curriculum requires. Although geared for grades 3 through 6, the kit's materials can be adapted for both younger and older students.
Cathlapotle (pronounced kath-lah-poh-tul) is one of the few remaining Chinookan town sites on the Columbia River. Many other archaeological sites have been lost to flooding, development, or looting. Information collected from archaeological research at Cathlapotle sheds light on a culture which has played a prominent role in Northwest history but for which very little archaeological documentation exists.
The goals of the Cathlapotle Environmental and Heritage Education Project are to provide curriculum-based materials emphasizing hands-on exploration, discovery learning, and critical-thinking skills in language arts, social studies, math, and science, which:
If you are a teacher in the Vancouver-Portland Metropolitan area, you can arrange to use the kit in your classroom FREE!
1. Determine a range of preferred dates you'd like to use the kit. If you can, organize a group of teachers in your school who will share the kit during the two-week loan period (this period can be extended if several teachers schedule together). The schedule fills up fast, so get your request in as early in the school year as possible.
2. Contact Virginia Parks, Project Coordinator, at 503-625-4377, 503-625-4887 (fax) or firstname.lastname@example.org to reserve a date or to find out more about the kit!