La Pédagogie de la marche pour l'enseignement des sciences et la connexion plus qu'humaine

This literary-visual métissage weaves together stories, scholarship and photographs. What can be unearthed—science education, embodied knowledge, environmental ethics—when we walk on the land? Embodied and sensorial engagement fosters relational and enlivening educational experiences. Whether preschool or post-doc, direct sense experience offers not only active and experiential pedagogy, but also a spiritual attunement with the natural world. Now, amid the climate crisis and screen fatigue pandemic, such Earth resonance is of utmost import. Let us walk through a snowy forest, ponder what counsel our shoeless feet (and David Abram) afford us, and envision the learning environment as an emergent and adaptable opportunity for connection and wonder.Ce métissage littéraire-visuel mêle des histoires, l’érudition et des photos. Que peut-on découvrir—l’enseignement scientifique, des connaissances incarnées, l’éthique environnementale—lorsque nous marchons sur la terre? L'engagement incarné et sensoriel favorise les expériences éducatives relationnelles et animantes. Qu'elle soit préscolaire ou post-doctorale, l'expérience sensorielle directe offre non seulement une pédagogie active et expérientielle, mais aussi une harmonisation spirituelle avec le monde naturel. Aujourd'hui, au milieu de la crise climatique et de la pandémie de fatigue écran, une telle résonance de la Terre est de la plus haute importance. Marchons à travers une forêt enneigée, réfléchissons aux conseils que nos pieds sans chaussures (et David Abram) nous offrent, et envisageons l'environnement d'apprentissage comme une opportunité émergente et adaptable de connexion et d'émerveillement

Molecular tweezers with freely rotating linker and porphyrin moieties

Molecular tweezers were synthesised by using a microwave accelerated alkene plus cyclobutane epoxide reaction between norbornyl appended porphyrin moieties and a diepoxide functionalised phenyl diimide spacer. The tweezers contain several rotational degrees of freedom; about the porphyrin with respect to the norbornyl linker, and between the two norbornyl backbone sections. The ability of Zn(super)II metallated tweezer 1 to complex 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO) was studied by UV/Vis and ¹H NMR spectroscopy and multivariate global spectral analysis. The system was found to form a strong 1:1 intramolecular complex (1:DABCO) with an association constant of K₁₁ = 8.1 × 10⁷ M⁻¹, transforming to a 1:2 open complex [1:(DABCO)₂] with K₁₂ = 2.7 × 10⁹ M⁻² at high concentrations of DABCO.Rhys B. Murphy, Duc-Truc Pham, Stephen F. Lincoln, and Martin R. Johnsto

Biostratigraphy of large benthic foraminifera from Hole U1468A (Maldives): A CT-scan taxonomic approach

Large benthic foraminifera are important components of tropical shallow water carbonates. Their structure, developed to host algal symbionts, can be extremely elaborate and presents stratigraphically-significant evolutionary patterns. Therefore their distribution is important in biostratigraphy, especially in the Indo-Pacific area. To provide a reliable age model for two intervals of IODP Hole U1468A from the Maldives Inner-Sea, large benthic foraminifera have been studied with computed tomography. This technique provided 3D models ideal for biometric-based identifications, allowing the upper interval to be placed in the late middle-Miocene and the lower interval in the late Oligocene

A Creative Approach: Teaching Science through Arts-based Learning

Active learning has been shown to increase student performance in science classrooms (Freeman et al., 2014, Haak et al., 2011), although this increase appears to only be relevant when constructivist approaches are used (Andrews et al., 2011). Arts-based approaches to learning—including aesethetic/sensory engagement, embodied activities, and creative student-led presentations—present an opportunity for active, hands-on learning that is experiential in nature. Inspired by the theme of this year’s conference, we will explore how to gather creative ideas for active learning, create something interdisciplinary, engaging, and insightful, and improve interest and knowledge retention. To do this, we need to make space for students to creatively re-imagine their learning environment. For many students science is scary, full of strange words, difficult concepts, and an intimidating methodology. How can we learn about biological cells, electrophoresis, carbon cycles—not to mention how our bodies work—in a fun, accessible, yet still scientific way? Art provides an answer. Through engaging activities, movement, drawing, metaphor and storytelling we can bridge the fear gap and tap into learner creativity. An interdisciplinary approach helps make science feel more inclusive and allows students to utilize the strengths they bring to the classroom. This talk will include props, poetry, music and other unexpected surprises, and will be highly interactive. References: Andrews, T.M., Leonard, M.J., Colgrove, C.A., & Kalinowski, S.T. (2011). “Active learning not associated with student learning in a random sample of college biology courses.” CBE Life Sciences Education 10(4), 394–405. doi: 10.1187/cbe.11-07-0061 Haak, D.C., Hille Ris Lambers, J., Pitre, E., & Freeman, S. (June 3, 2011). “Increased structure and active learning reduce the achievement gap in introductory biology.” Science, 332(6034)1213­–6. Freeman, S., Eddy, S.L., McDonough, M., Smith, M.K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M.P. (2013). “Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 111, no. 23, 8410–5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.131903011

Curriculum hidden: Contemplating more-than-human ethics

Homo sapiens rationalize their species’ uniqueness to justify anthropocentrism and self-interest towards nonhumans. Research and pedagogical practice such as mandatory dissection and animal experimentation, alongside mechanistic and atomistic assumptions deeply embedded in science curricula, reinforce the idea that nonhuman animals lack moral status. We need to devise and implement holistic, place-based curricula in our schools, where ethics are part of the conversation before students use nonhuman animals in their learning and research. Synergy and deep ecology can move us from exclusively biotic morality toward a more inclusive abiotic morality

Curating a Future Earth

In fall 2019, I enrolled in SFU's President’s Dream Colloquium course, Creative Ecologies: Reimagining the World. One of the scholars we read was anthropology professor Dr. Shannon Mattern. My creative response to Mattern’s paper—"The Big Data of Ice, Rocks, Soils, and Sediments”—offered an alternative way to engage with her scholarship. In searching for poetic and concise turns of phrase, I noted how her word choice and image-making related to her essay’s construction. I sought out bits of data from her paper, re-arranged them into a cohesive unit, and from this garnered a deeper meaning of her intent and expertise. I also noted what was absent or lacking, and this deficit of words, specifically toward ‘should we be exploiting the planet for research?’ inspired me to emphasize this in my found poem

All is water, and the world is full of gods

A poetic inquiry into our culture's privileging of the objective over subjective, mind over body, and rationalism over wonder

Snow in Summer

In this article art is used as inquiry to ask powerful questions, untangle paradoxes, and help us navigate loss and grief in the Anthropocene. Several central questions are considered and animated through narrative and poetry. How do we live poetically (Leggo, 2005) in a world that we need to exploit in order to survive? How do we engage in a more-than-human world full of ambiguity and paradox? How might nature become a teacher or mentor (Jickling et al., 2018), and what anthropocentric barriers do we face? How can stories and poems facilitate holistic expression and place-based connection? As we elucidate the wonder and loss of cottonwood, and the mentorship of ponderosa, Carl Leggo (2004, 2005, 2012, 2016, 2019a, 2019b) serves as a guide for artful attending and hopeful imagination for living poetically. Joanna Macy’s (Macy & Johnstone, 2012; Macy & Brown, 2014) work that reconnects and Leggo’s curriculum of joy offer parallel paths of grief and hope so that we might find our way through the Anthropocene

Science education in the key of gentle empiricism

Let’s begin this thinking about science education at the beginning: with the very meaning of science education. Science education may mean instructing in or learning about scientific information, knowledge, and methods in various disciplines. The goal here would be to equip our students with requisite knowledge and skills to become scientists, technicians, and science and technology educators. Our current system of science education is replete with this way of teaching science. And we need this form of education to cultivate future generations of scientists, technicians, and workers in science-related careers