PEDAGOGICAL PRACTISE

BEE LAND: Excursions into the Culture of Bees, University of Guelph (2017 - Ongoing)

Bee Land is an interdisciplinary seminar course for first year university students that I teach at the University of Guelph.

Bee Land explores the question: what can we learn from bees about how to BE in the world in a time of ecological and political instability? This course explores the culture of bees through the lenses of art, philosophy, dance, ecology, Indigenous knowledge, science, poetry, gastronomy, and hands-on encounters with wild and domestic bees. Students engage in field and arts-based research, look at intersecting and divergent ideas about interspecies relationships and the systemic roots of ecological decline, and explore inter-species activism and advocacy.

OWLS AND OWLETS, Trillium Waldorf School (2017 - Ongoing)

Owls and Owlets is a program I run with educator Danielle Gehl for young children and their caregivers hosted in the beautiful forest and farmlands of Fourfold farm - an organic farm outside of Guelph.

‘Owls” provides an opportunity to gather, connect with the natural world and build supportive care-giving community. The program is inspired by Pickler and Waldorf approaches to early childhood and includes nature observation and skill building, songs, stories, forest tea/snacks and conversation.

GARDEN QUILT, Ontario Arts Council Artists in the Schools (2010 - 2016)

I designed and facilitated programs in Ontario schools exploring pollination biology, natural history and gardening through the arts. Students learned about wild pollinator species and their connections with plants and ecologies. Though hands-on workshops, students made hand sewn field guides with drawings, made seed paper and sewn sculptures and installed pollinator gardens on their school grounds.

Garden Quilt was generously funded by the Ontario Arts Council.