Indigo Dyeing
Sweetgrass Basket Making
Rice Impoundments
Gullah/Geechee video series

Indigo Dyeing

A Lesson to Dye For: An Integrated Science-History-Art Unit On Plant Dyes, The Bakken Library and Museum, Minneapolis, MN. This unit introduces students to plant dyes and their history and highlights investigative skills as they explore variables in their own plant dyeing.

     • A Lesson to Dye For:  Part I
     • A Lesson to Dye For:  Part II

African Clothing, History for Kids.com. This site provides a historical overview of how African clothing was made and includes a small overview of the use of indigo.

Developing an Understanding of Science from the Sierra Leonean Traditional Gara (Indigo) Dyeing Process, Gender and Science and Technology Association. This paper gives a brief historical account of 'gara' dyeing in Sierra Leone and explains the traditional method of gara dyeing. (Appropriate for upper middle - high school audiences).

How To Dye Cloth, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Click here to locate a lesson plan suitable for middle schoolers. This activity engages students in the history of dyes, different kinds of dyes, the process of dyeing cloth.

The Effects of Alkaline Substitutions on the Indigo Dyeing Process, Sewanee: University of the South. Follow this link to access a chemistry activity addressing oxidation and reduction through using indigo as the context. This page also provides a brief background on indigo. (Suitable for high school audiences.)

Indigo: Mysterious Dyes, Louisiana State University - Louisiana Energy & Environmental
Resource & Information Center. This website provides a historical overview of the use of indigo in Louisiana, as well as its origin.

Synthesizing Pigment and Dyeing Cloth, The Art Institute of Chicago. Follow this link to locate a lesson plan involving students in the creation of a synthetic dye, oxidizing the dye, and recording the effects of the oxidation process.

Newspaper Basket, N.C. Teachers’ Network. This website provides a lesson plan integrating mathematics with the art of basketmaking with newspaper strips. (Appropriate for middle and lower high school levels.)

Sweetgrass: History, Basketry, and Constraints to Industry Growth, Purdue University. Follow this link to read more about the sweetgrass industry, history, identity and habitat, basket construction, and many others. (Suitable for high school, undergraduate, and teachers.)

Linking the Past with the Present (PDF file), Cleveland State University. This web site provides a lesson plan that integrates language arts, S.C. history related to sweetgrass basketry, and technology.

Humanities School weaves Lowcountry crafts to African roots, Lowcountry Now, online newspaper. Read this online news article describing an event that you may wish to do in your classroom, involving bringing a sweetgrass basket weaver into your classroom.

Rice Romp, US Rice Producers Association. Follow this link to investigate the science behind rice production.

Grow Rice in a Bucket. Here's an easy indoor gardening activity from our friends in Toyama, Japan.

Rice is Life, International Year of Rice. This website compiles a variety of rice-related resources for teachers, students, and parents.

Rice Science Portal, Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Rice Production. Visit this site to learn about the biodiversity found within rice fields, the grain itself, and many other scientific aspects about rice production.

Rice Production in the United States, ezedia.ca. (PDF file 172 k) This lesson plan provides the framework by which teachers get students engaged in a research project on the rice production in S.C.

The Will to Survive: The Story of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, as part of the video series, "Voices of Color".

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