Building a dugout canoe is both science and math thinking. Not only was there math involved in thinking about how to balance the canoe so that it would float, the actual use of the canoe was mathematically thought through. When hunting, in various parts of Canada, sometimes the prey was a lot larger than the canoe itself. Therefore, the math in 'taking down' a creature bigger than the canoe was always present.

Again, when building tools to create such things, math played an important role. How large should these tools be? How sharp? Science, thinking about force, was also a concept that the FNMI people had to consider. If you look at the tools below, the length of the shafts were important pieces in creation. If a shaft was too short, there might not be enough force behind it to work as intended.

Another science behind the dugout canoe was sails. Water was (is) life and the FNMI people knew how to live with the land. Therefore, they knew the tides and the winds and in turn, created sails for their canoes. Another scientific invention that aided them throughout their journeys. They had an intimate knowledge of tides, and weather systems so to be able to navigate within the territories efficiently.

A simple, yet impactful invention that has remained virtually unchanged in design for thousands of years, has proved to be ideal for travelling the numerous streams, rivers and lakes of North America.