This term, Jennifer Klenz incorporated a new Nature Journal assignment series in her BIOL 111 course to enable students to reconnect with all the living things around them.
Below, Jennifer shares her motivation for creating this assignment series, how she did it, the impact it has had on students and the course, and what she’s learned along the way.
What was your motivation for developing these assignments?
I have been reading a lot of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s writing as well as listening to her speak and I wanted to do two things: 1) incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing into my class, and 2) because it is 2024, teaching about climate change and ecological footprint just isn’t enough. I wanted to do something different and Robin Wall Kimmerer had the answer: we suffer from species loneliness where we have shut ourselves away from all the other living things as if we are special and not part of the living world. We need to rejoin our “kin”. That really spoke to me.
How did you create and implement them in the course?
The idea of the nature journal came to me as I woke up one morning. To really help foster a connection it couldn’t be a one-time thing. So I decided it had to be every week. The students were told to go outside and observe some non-human living thing with their senses and then make a rough sketch of it and describe it. They also had to come up with some connection between them and the living thing. This was really important because in Indigenous ways of knowing you don’t just use your brain and your senses to know something, but you use your spirit and your emotions as well.
How have students responded to them?
They love it. From the very first week they told me how it helped them slow down and calm down getting off screens. I told them they had to do it on paper in a book. No iPads. They are so wonderfully philosophical about the connections they make between them and the living thing.
What impact has this assignment series had on students or the course?
Now I am really going for it. I am having a whole lecture based on Species Loneliness, Human Exceptionalism, our Kinship to other living things, and practicing Reciprocity. It could sound “woo-woo” if you haven’t already spent six weeks outside building your kinship with a nature journal.
What have you learned or found surprising?
They completely get it, and I have been really moved by a lot of the things they have said. I gave a workshop this summer where one of the things a colleague said she learned was “Trust Your Students”. Absolutely.
What challenges did you encounter when creating or implementing these assignments?
It took a little time to figure out how best to administrate it with Canvas, but talking about it with a Science Education Specialist helped me figure it out.
What advice would you give someone who wanted to incorporate something similar in their course?
Be brave and trust your instincts. Doing this assignment was my act of reciprocity to give back to our living relatives and it just feels right.