Our research focuses on processes that can ground science education to engage with the Anthropocene to reimagine ecological futures. This entails designing learning environments that can lean into embodied, situated, and affective experiences in inquiry. We are particularly interested in promoting field-based experiences to explore themes comprising

 

• Citizen science

• Theory and Practice of STEAM education

• Critical Place-based Education

• Indigenous Knowledge Systems  

 

 

This includes asking questions such as

• How can community/civic ecology practices be integrated into science curricula, and what learning possibilities can emerge through such practices?

• How does deep understanding of field-based learning and contexts restructure discovery and innovation?

• How to design for expansive scientific inquiry that leverages students’ physical, socio-cultural and historical contexts?

 

To explore these questions, planned projects include

 

- Participatory studies of community-led gardens as “living learning environments” that support field-based STEAM education.

 

-Analysing learning trajectories using youth-centred, civic science projects, and engaging with field experts to understand their inquiry and motivation process

 

-Designing augmented reality, simulations, agent-based models and games that enable scientific inquiry of local ecological systems (e.g soil, wetlands, rivers, forests etc)

 

- Developing local campus initiatives based on food gardens as a demo and learning hub