How can we meaningfully integrate Indigenous plant knowledge and First Peoples' values of land stewardship to enrich the learning of plants in Life Sciences 11?

Why is this important?

• A deep understanding of Traditional Ecological Knowledge connects us to the land and embodies the value of biodiversity, sustainability and land stewardship​

• Perspectives like two-eyed seeing are essential to solving complex problems​

• Honours the wisdom of plants​

• Shifts the learning of life science beyond facts in a textbook and situates learners in nature

Questions that came up:

How do we actually piece together all our ideas and meaningfully integrate it into a unit that was not initially designed to be taught in a way that is informed by traditional knowledge, land stewardship and ecology / biodiversity?​

How do we take what we learned from experts in the field – Lori Snyder (Metis plant knowledge keeper) and Dr. Chelsey Geralda Armstrong (archaeologist) – to create our lessons or activities?​

How do we use the seasons as a strength (rather than a deterrent)? The unit will be taught in the midst of winter.

Feedback from students:

• Being outdoors to learn about the plants (through reinforcement of concepts and content learned in class, or for the first time) was beneficial​

• For most students, learning about plants in nature in a hands-on way resulted in greater engagement / interest, and typically helped with learning the material​

• Being outdoors was important to recognize the relevance and value of learning about plants​

• Having an understanding of plants’ ecological role and its contribution to biodiversity helped many students recognize the importance of plants, and generated more interest in plants than without such insights​

• Students had insightful observations about how trees communicated with one another after watching Suzanne Simard’s TED Talk about how trees talked to each other​

• Students read Braiding Sweetgrass (YA adaptation) and identified passages that represented one of the three braids of sweetgrass – Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and teachings of plants

Survey Results:

1. Did learning about ecology and biodiversity, as well as going out to see plants in nature on multiple occasions, result in an increased interest in plants? (This interest can be scientific, an increased sense of engagement or curiosity, a greater understanding on the significance of plants and why they matter, etc.). Yes / No.​

93% (51/55) – Yes   |   7% (4/55) – No ​

2. Explain your response to question 1. ​

-To be in a classroom and see pictures/diagrams is one thing but going out to see the plants in their environments in person was a great experience. It really allows you to connect your in class learning to real world examples and applications. It’s great we have a GCP right next to us and we should definitely continue to use it as a learning resource. ​

-Looking at plants and now and understanding the actual structure inside them, and finding out about how they interact with other species, has raised my interest in them. It’s neat to be able to look at a tree or flower and pick out / guess what parts they are, and how they’d functions. The knowledge helped me understand the value of plants more.​

-I am not interested in plants that much but I did find the trips to Garden City Park helpful for my learning.​

-I thought it was really cool seeing how ecology really worked and play out in our real world by going outside and being with nature.​

3. Select which approach works better with your learning style, with engaging your interest, and with helping your understanding. ​

Exploring the plants outside first before returning to the classroom for detailed instructions with notes. 33% (18/55)​

Learning in the classroom first with notes before going out to explore the plants. 67% (37/55) ​

4. Explain your response to question 3. ​

-I feel like sitting in class all day wouldn’t allow me to think straight because it’s nothing really productive other than writing notes down and listening to the teacher talk. But waking outside and actually seeing plants just helps u visualize your learning which is not boring at all.​

-I chose this because exploring them in person builds a whole other perspective.​

-I like to have a foundation before going out to see the plants. To first learn about the plants in class with notes/diagrams allows me to get a good understanding of the plant before going out to observe it in GCP.​

-I feel like I need to understand the structure/theory of something before diving into it, or else I feel like I can’t retain the information.​

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5. How did learning about Two-Eyed Seeing and Indigenous Science (the rich knowledge First Peoples have of the land, the plants, and the many interactions that exist in nature) shift your perspective about the land and the plants? ​

-It made me realize how much science and knowledge can exist outside our more eurocentric understanding of science. To see the direct scientific and spiritual relationship between Indigenous peoples and their land, and their incredibly sustainable outlook on their life and land  goes to show how much we have to learn from them and other cultures.​

-It made me realize the flexibility of different plants and taught me to not waste parts society deems unnecessary​

-It shows that humans and plants are connected and have to coexist. I see more values in plants and can acknowledge how humans can help them grow better.​

-I feel like the connections among the plants, the land and people is actually much more bonding than what I thought.​

-That the land is life, and everything in the ecosystem has a purpose to fulfill.​

 

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• It made me realize how much science and knowledge can exist outside our more eurocentric understanding of science. To see the direct scientific and spiritual relationship between Indigenous peoples and their land, and their incredibly sustainable outlook on their life and land  goes to show how much we have to learn from them and other cultures.​

• It made me realize the flexibility of different plants and taught me to not waste parts society deems unnecessary​

• It shows that humans and plants are connected and have to coexist. I see more values in plants and can acknowledge how humans can help them grow better.​

• I feel like the connections among the plants, the land and people is actually much more bonding than what I thought.​

• That the land is life, and everything in the ecosystem has a purpose to fulfill.

Next Steps:

• We are in the midst of planning for next year’s plant unit while taking student feedback into consideration. ​

• Next year, we plan to do a significant portion of the lessons outdoors rather than in the classroom taking notes about minutiae details. ​

• We will build on the ecology and biodiversity piece, since these values really resonated with students.​

• We will continue to emphasize the perspective of Two-Eyed Seeing and Indigenous Knowledge because students appreciated these understandings. One student observed that we explore Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science as two separate entities – a more complementary approach would be worthwhile to integrate.