Tag Archives: Post Secondary

Module 4 (Post 4) – TEK Field Course

While searching for information about Traditional Ecological Knowledge in post-secondary for my final project, I discovered a hands-on science field course that was developed in partnership between the University of Windsor and the Walpole Island First Nation. Part of my excitement about this stems from the recent news that I may be able to participate in my department’s annual biology field course as a botany instructor in the coming years. I would very much like to implement activities for the students that focus on respect and understanding of the local landscape and was inspired by approach that is described in the video below.

Module 3 (Post 3) – Meshing Laboratory Science with Traditional Ecological Knowledge

The following article by Natalie Rademacher discusses post secondary educators who are combining their laboratory science courses with Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Some of the educators who are named include Gregory Cajete, who we know from our course readings, and Samantha Chisholm Hatfield, who teaches at Oregon State University.

Read the article here.

From the article:

“By meshing laboratory science with Traditional Ecological Knowledge, college professors aim to cultivate better environmental decision makers — and decisions.”

Module 1 (Post 3) – Decolonizing Undergraduate Chemistry

I came across this recent paper in the Journal of Chemistry Education that gives an account of York University’s approach to decolonizing the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. It seems that many institutions talk about taking steps towards decolonizing courses, but I have had difficulty finding guidance of how to do this effectively in a post-secondary science department. This paper outlines some of the steps that are being taken to shift the narrative of the courses away from solely a western view of science.

In one example, instructors of a colloidal chemistry course included a discussion of ancient Egyptian codification of knowledge of papyrus. While this is a relatively small step, the instructor is acknowledging that science has been happening by peoples all over the globe for longer than the western view of science has existed.

 

 

Dessent, C.E., Dawood, R.A., Jones, L.C., Matharu, A.S., Smith, D.K., & Uleanya, K.O. (2022). Decolonizing the undergraduate chemistry curriculum: An account of how to start. Journal of Chemical Education, 99(1), 5-9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00397