The quote at the bottom of my website, taken from a science fiction novel of all places, neatly outlines my view of the natural sciences, and illustrates one of the primary lessons I try to convey in all of my teaching. More than 50 years later, I believe the sentiment is truer and more important now than when it was written. Processes in the environmental sciences are not occurring in isolation, and therefore they cannot be learned in that way. Therefore, in all of my teaching, I strive to make clear to my students how the topics they learn are connected to one another, how they contribute to explaining the things they see around them every day, and, most importantly, how the interrelated nature of the environment means human activities can result in unintended and sometimes surprising consequences. I believe that emphasizing connections promotes deeper learning and understanding of key concepts, empowering students to apply their learning to new contexts in a way they could not do solely through simple memorization of seemingly isolated facts. I believe that this deeper learning has another added benefit of enhancing student engagement with the material they are learning, since they are better equipped to see its “real-world” relevance. With this in mind, I conceptualize my teaching philosophy as having two interlinked goals: (1) working with students to discover the interconnectedness of concepts by emphasizing the environment as “a system;” and (2) To help students understand, predict, and share the “consequences” of altering the system.
(1) Teaching connections. Grasping the interconnectedness of the diverse components and processes of a natural system is not a simple or straightforward process. It requires students first be exposed to material outlining the principles of the subject, in order to give them the foundational knowledge upon which deeper learning is based. Students must then be taught to apply the knowledge they learned in isolation to new contexts by helping them to understand how the concepts are interrelated. This is why I make all tests and exams at least partially cumulative, to highlight to students that material builds on previous material. The quizzes and tests I develop include questions that reinforce linkages, such as filling in diagrams that conceptualize how systems function. We practice similar questions in lectures and labs, so that students gain practice viewing the material in this manner prior to being assessed on it. I have also come to rely increasingly on student presentations on synthesis topics as an assessment method. My reason for this is that I have come to realize that I personally gain a more complete understanding of the concepts I teach through the process of building my own teaching lectures and presentations. Having students prepare presentations to teach their classmates about their topics not only allows them to hone critical communication skills, but also helps them to strengthen their own understanding of concepts they’ve learned in the course within the context of their topics.
Incorporating a lab section into course designs presents invaluable opportunities for hands-on learning to reinforce the concepts covered in the course. Particularly in the environmental sciences, time spent conducting hands-on field work is essential for helping students see interconnectedness in the environment around them. Even in the urban environment of Toronto where I teach, there exists a great deal of opportunity for outdoor field research. One of my preferred methods of demonstrating interconnected systems in field-based labs is to conduct a series of different studies / sampling events in the same location over a period of time, as part of an inquiry-based learning strategy. By highlighting different components of the same area, and then having students synthesize their observations, a more complete understanding of “the system” is possible. For example, students in my “Soils and Vegetation” course at York sampled soils and identified trees and shrubs in the Boyer Woodlot, and compared their measurements and observations with other woodlots in southern Ontario. Students in my “Stream Ecosystems” class visited Black Creek weekly to assess overall water quality using various metrics employed by local conservation authorities.
(2) Understanding consequences to promote engaged citizenship. I want students to realize that classroom material has real-world relevance. I want them to understand why paving over a wetland can potentially lead to the flooding of their basement after a heavy rain event. I believe that students who have developed an understanding of the consequences of human activities (including their own) in the environment will not only be more engaged in the classroom, but more engaged as citizens as well. To accomplish this, I include compelling, everyday examples as case studies to demonstrate the material I am teaching. Unfortunately, there is no lack of examples of deleterious environmental change to be drawn from, and these are useful as cautionary tales. But it is equally important to celebrate positive examples of the consequences of human influence on the world, and to encourage students with these. An assignment I have used in a number of courses to put this into practice is to have students write a briefing note tailored for a government minister or company’s chief executive. In these short, directed documents, students get practice in concisely communicating a topic and its importance, in order to compel necessary actions to mitigate potential environmental problems. This winter I developed a module for the upper-year York Geography seminar course Rivers: Environment and Process inspired by the “Climate Change Negotiations Game” developed by climateinteractive.org. Students took on the role of different, competing stakeholders in the ongoing Site C dam development in British Columbia. In the simulation, students had to research and provide evidence in support of their position, with the “winners” the team that most thoroughly convinced the judges of their cause. It is my belief that the use of a complex, contentious, current Canadian environmental example put the material we discussed in the course into a relevant, real-world context, highlighting consequences for different stakeholders.
The environment plays an incredibly important role in all aspects of human life, and I believe people, regardless of their educational background, have an inherent interest in topics related to the natural world. Individuals that understand the consequences of environmental changes on the complex interactions of ecosystems will be scientifically-literate, engaged citizens, a skill set we need to combat the environmental challenges faced by society.
(1) Teaching connections. Grasping the interconnectedness of the diverse components and processes of a natural system is not a simple or straightforward process. It requires students first be exposed to material outlining the principles of the subject, in order to give them the foundational knowledge upon which deeper learning is based. Students must then be taught to apply the knowledge they learned in isolation to new contexts by helping them to understand how the concepts are interrelated. This is why I make all tests and exams at least partially cumulative, to highlight to students that material builds on previous material. The quizzes and tests I develop include questions that reinforce linkages, such as filling in diagrams that conceptualize how systems function. We practice similar questions in lectures and labs, so that students gain practice viewing the material in this manner prior to being assessed on it. I have also come to rely increasingly on student presentations on synthesis topics as an assessment method. My reason for this is that I have come to realize that I personally gain a more complete understanding of the concepts I teach through the process of building my own teaching lectures and presentations. Having students prepare presentations to teach their classmates about their topics not only allows them to hone critical communication skills, but also helps them to strengthen their own understanding of concepts they’ve learned in the course within the context of their topics.
Incorporating a lab section into course designs presents invaluable opportunities for hands-on learning to reinforce the concepts covered in the course. Particularly in the environmental sciences, time spent conducting hands-on field work is essential for helping students see interconnectedness in the environment around them. Even in the urban environment of Toronto where I teach, there exists a great deal of opportunity for outdoor field research. One of my preferred methods of demonstrating interconnected systems in field-based labs is to conduct a series of different studies / sampling events in the same location over a period of time, as part of an inquiry-based learning strategy. By highlighting different components of the same area, and then having students synthesize their observations, a more complete understanding of “the system” is possible. For example, students in my “Soils and Vegetation” course at York sampled soils and identified trees and shrubs in the Boyer Woodlot, and compared their measurements and observations with other woodlots in southern Ontario. Students in my “Stream Ecosystems” class visited Black Creek weekly to assess overall water quality using various metrics employed by local conservation authorities.
(2) Understanding consequences to promote engaged citizenship. I want students to realize that classroom material has real-world relevance. I want them to understand why paving over a wetland can potentially lead to the flooding of their basement after a heavy rain event. I believe that students who have developed an understanding of the consequences of human activities (including their own) in the environment will not only be more engaged in the classroom, but more engaged as citizens as well. To accomplish this, I include compelling, everyday examples as case studies to demonstrate the material I am teaching. Unfortunately, there is no lack of examples of deleterious environmental change to be drawn from, and these are useful as cautionary tales. But it is equally important to celebrate positive examples of the consequences of human influence on the world, and to encourage students with these. An assignment I have used in a number of courses to put this into practice is to have students write a briefing note tailored for a government minister or company’s chief executive. In these short, directed documents, students get practice in concisely communicating a topic and its importance, in order to compel necessary actions to mitigate potential environmental problems. This winter I developed a module for the upper-year York Geography seminar course Rivers: Environment and Process inspired by the “Climate Change Negotiations Game” developed by climateinteractive.org. Students took on the role of different, competing stakeholders in the ongoing Site C dam development in British Columbia. In the simulation, students had to research and provide evidence in support of their position, with the “winners” the team that most thoroughly convinced the judges of their cause. It is my belief that the use of a complex, contentious, current Canadian environmental example put the material we discussed in the course into a relevant, real-world context, highlighting consequences for different stakeholders.
The environment plays an incredibly important role in all aspects of human life, and I believe people, regardless of their educational background, have an inherent interest in topics related to the natural world. Individuals that understand the consequences of environmental changes on the complex interactions of ecosystems will be scientifically-literate, engaged citizens, a skill set we need to combat the environmental challenges faced by society.