The Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center regularly engages with the community as part of our commitment to fulfilling our responsibilities as a federally funded Title VI National Resource Center. This outreach includes sharing cultural and language knowledge with K-12 students, educators, their families, and beyond.
September 6th, 2024:
The IAUNRC Graduate Assistants, Matt Hulstine and Lindsay Ruth, and CEUS and Linguistics PhD student Josh Sims, traveled to Bloomington South High School in Bloomington, IN, to present on the Mongol Empire. We presented to four different groups, consisting in total of 180 AP World History students. Matt, Lindsay, and Josh presented on the history, culture, and innovations of the Mongol Empire. We also involved the students in assembling a large yurt/ger model, so they could see what type of home many people in the Mongolian Empire lived in. The presenters also underscored to the students that the legacy of Chinggis Khan and his descendants continues to be important to Central Asian culture today. The students were especially impressed by Josh’s Mongolian language ability, as many students asked him to speak some sentences in Mongolian.
November 15th, 2024
The Assistant Director of the IAUNRC, Kasia Rydel-Johnston, and the Kazakh Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at IU, Gaini Tynyshtykova, traveled to a Pre-K classroom at Fairview Elementary School in Bloomington, IN. Kasia and Gaini brought along some traditional Kazakh clothing and pictures to show to the children. Gaini dressed in traditional Kazakh clothing to show the kids what the clothes looked like worn, and she showed them where the US is and where Kazakhstan is on a globe. Kasia and Gaini also presented on some childhood traditions and celebrations in Kazakh culture.
December 6th, 2024
IAUNRC Graduate Assistants, Matt Hulstine and Lindsay Ruth, and CEUS PhD student, Aleksei Rumiantsev attended Highland Elementary’s Culturefest on December 6th, 2024. The event consisted overall of a choir performance by the 2nd graders, a dance and music performance by La Troupe Makandal, and an array of tables where students could do activities with IU centers, programs, and departments. The IAUNRC helped students create a yurt ornament, a fun arts and crafts activity for the young kids to do while they learned about yurts and gers in Central Asia and Mongolia. The children were fascinated to know that yurts and gers could be transported and put back up/taken down on the move.
December 11th, 2024
IAUNRC Graduate Assistants, Matt Hulstine and Lindsay Ruth, traveled to Lincoln Elementary in Bedford, IN to teach 2nd graders about yurts and gers. The GAs called for volunteers who helped assemble a model yurt, while the students looked at a display of yurt and ger pictures and sketches. Matt took questions from students, and received questions such as “who invented yurts?,” “what are they made of?,” “can people take the yurt with them?,” and “how did they fit all their furniture in there?.” Then, the students were able to make their own yurt ornaments. They looked at example ornaments, and used their creativity to make their own rendition of a yurt or ger.