The students were not given explicit instructions on how to construct their tepee. They were asked to figure it out on their own. We'd studied the tepee at Rouge Park up close, so the students had a good conception of how the tepee needed to be built. We've also studied a variety of photographs in class so they also knew how they were usually decorated as well as the environment that the tepees were usually found.
The task turned out to be more challenging than the students initially thought, but they demonstrated good collaborative skills while problem solving. The class quickly discovered that one of the biggest challenges was to keep the skewers from sliding around and staying in place on the 'ground'. Different groups tried a variety of different strategies on how to keep the skewers fixed. When one group found a solution, they would quickly share it with other groups, just like a First Nations community would have done.
Here are some initial photos of the tepee construction in progress.
