Learning about Rock Art at the Southwest Museum
(excerpted from an article published in "Multimedia Schools" September 2001)

"I loved the software... I didn’t know there were so many places with...lots of interesting rock art." Tayanna, a 12 year old Mojave-Yaqui middle school student.

In April Pentewa Interactive and the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles co-sponsored a "Rock Art" workshop with The Los Angeles Unified School District. Sixteen Native American students from Paicoma Middle School to participate in a single days immersion in the study of rock art, a cultural expression common to many of these students' ancestors.

Exploring Rock Art, A North American Field Trip CD-ROM, was the basis for the workshop activities. In the computer segment of our curriculum, Exploring Rock Art provided an overview of the art, history and cultural context, which was then followed with a hands-on workshop of related arts and craft projects.

The Southwest Museum was founded in 1907and is one of the nation’s premier Native American art museums with a 300,000-item collection. The museum includes a research library as well as exhibits of Plains, Southwest and California Indian expression, artifacts and artwork.

"The students were hand-picked. But even handpicked students would tire after over an hour at the computer if the software wasn't interesting. These students were entranced." Ms. Barbara Arvi, Director of Educational Programs at the Southwest.

"The program and workshop opened communication between young people. These students, who can sometimes be cliquish, were brought together in a wonderful way by the workshop... They shared the events of day with friends, explaining how much they loved the projects. ...Many of these students have begun reading books and exploring this subject on their own. It's greatly encouraging to see young people responding so well to an educational experience" Ms. Mary Durm, a Title 9 instructor.

It was an exciting workshop. The staff at Pentewa Interactive and the Southwest Museum felt we had successfully combined computer based learning, cooperative hands on projects and a great field trip to provide an exciting educational experience. And in return we had the pleasure of working with a very talented and enthusiastic group of middle school students.

2. Next, download and print out the pattern for your parfleche. You can choose to make the parfleche shown to the left - download either a colored or a black and white version. Or you can design your own parfleche using the blank pattern.