Exit Slip: Reconciling Ways of Knowing with Dr. Kimmerer

 My two big take away ideas from the zoom session with Dr. Kimmerer and from our session as a class was the importance of indigenous stories and the natural healing of land and nature.

I agree that the stories of grief and suffering of indigenous people need to be told and heard but indigenous genus and brilliance need to be taught just as much. Someone quoted this in another lecture of mine and it rings in my head. 

Incorporating indigenous teaching in a physics doesn't sound easy at first. How do I make it relevant to physics principles? This reminded me of a guest indigenous speaker who would come to my class in Grade 3 and tell us stories of the native animals in BC. I still remember some stories to this day. It also reminded me of my Biology 12 teacher. He had no indigenous background to my knowledge but he would always be telling us stories about his life and family and friends and somehow relate it back to the systems and functions of our bodies. I remember stories, I forget facts. So much learning can be had when one grabs the attention of students through something relatable. I believe the use of stories is a form of indigenous knowledge in itself. Young people learning from their elders through previous knowledge. 

Connecting this to my second point, something we can all relate on is our environment. Nature surrounds us no matter what. During quarantine in March, I got to return to my roots in Salmon Arm and I reconnected with the trees, rivers, and lakes of my land. I understand its healing powers and that just being outside makes a huge difference to ones mental state. I think it is quite possible to connect these two principles and use the stories of the land and present them through the medium of science questions, even in a physics classroom.

 I had a professor in my first year of university give us physics questions around the story line of a penguin. He did not write the questions, they were from the previous professor of the college. The questions always made me laugh because they gave me a firm visual of Rocket the rock hopper penguin sliding around on ice(assuming the ice frictionless as always). These physics questions stick with me because there is a story. I think it is quite possible with a bit of effort to adapt questions into stories of land and her native animals. For example, Squirrel needs to break the nut and she has the brilliant idea to use the height of Ponderosa Pine to her advantage, which branch should she drop the nut off? If wind is blowing at 5m/s, how far will he carry the nut before the nut hits the forest floor? 

I think phrasing questions in the form of a story line could inspire more interest and more respect for nature and help from a kinship between the students and the land as well as help them learn the material.