Year: 2024
Author: Cher Hill, Neva Whintors, Rachel Upton, Ching-Chiu Lin
Type of paper: Individual Paper
Abstract:
In this session we will share our experience of working with 30 students in a lunchtime outdoor learning club where we engaged in a project to build reciprocal relationships with the more-than-human world. This work engaged children in digital story telling - a powerful medium for catalyzing flourishing and transformation within communities. Our goal was to enhance collective wellness (Four Arrows & Miller, 2012; Miller, 2019) by providing children with opportunities to meet their ‘neighbours’ and explore how we are all connected.
An emergent “pond” became the focus of our learning. Much to their delight, the students (ages 9-12) discovered tadpoles in the pond. They monitored their health, learned about their superpowers, and witnessed them grow and transform from water into land beings. We imagined what it was like to be a tadpole and what they might be thinking. Students used their own experiences of wellness as a lens to examine the needs of the more-than-human beings at the pond. Devastation struck however, when the children returned to school after an unseasonably warm temperatures to discover that the pond was significantly reduced, and that many tadpoles were dead or dying. Immediately and independently, the children sprang into action donating their water from their lunches to the pond. They raced to a nearby creek and used anything they could find to transport water from the creek to the pond. They developed innovative technologies from discarded items on a vacant property, including using an old microwave to collect rainwater and a giant sponge to filter creek water. Emotions were running high as children expressed rage at “global warming factory.” They cared for the tadpoles both physically and spiritually, praying for them at home and within their religious communities, as well as singing a water song to encourage the rain.
This situation parallels a concern Rick Bailey, an elder from Katzie First Nation, shared with the students about low levels of water caused by a hydro dam that destroys salmon habitat. This research explores why kids seem to “get it,” when seemingly adults don’t. Through digital storytelling we share our story of climate action, youth activism, and honouring place.
References
Four Arrows (2018). From a deeper place: Indigenous Worlding as the Next Step in Holistic
Education. in J. Miller (Ed.). International handbook of Holistic Education (pp.33-41). Routledge.
Miller, J. (2019). The holistic curriculum (3rd ed). University of Toronto Press.
An emergent “pond” became the focus of our learning. Much to their delight, the students (ages 9-12) discovered tadpoles in the pond. They monitored their health, learned about their superpowers, and witnessed them grow and transform from water into land beings. We imagined what it was like to be a tadpole and what they might be thinking. Students used their own experiences of wellness as a lens to examine the needs of the more-than-human beings at the pond. Devastation struck however, when the children returned to school after an unseasonably warm temperatures to discover that the pond was significantly reduced, and that many tadpoles were dead or dying. Immediately and independently, the children sprang into action donating their water from their lunches to the pond. They raced to a nearby creek and used anything they could find to transport water from the creek to the pond. They developed innovative technologies from discarded items on a vacant property, including using an old microwave to collect rainwater and a giant sponge to filter creek water. Emotions were running high as children expressed rage at “global warming factory.” They cared for the tadpoles both physically and spiritually, praying for them at home and within their religious communities, as well as singing a water song to encourage the rain.
This situation parallels a concern Rick Bailey, an elder from Katzie First Nation, shared with the students about low levels of water caused by a hydro dam that destroys salmon habitat. This research explores why kids seem to “get it,” when seemingly adults don’t. Through digital storytelling we share our story of climate action, youth activism, and honouring place.
References
Four Arrows (2018). From a deeper place: Indigenous Worlding as the Next Step in Holistic
Education. in J. Miller (Ed.). International handbook of Holistic Education (pp.33-41). Routledge.
Miller, J. (2019). The holistic curriculum (3rd ed). University of Toronto Press.