Multiple ways of knowing: Designing an Indigenous science module to support intellectual humility and open-minded understandings of science for first-year students
Session Type
Presentation
Room
Physics and Astronomy, room 148
Start Date
16-7-2025 3:00 PM
End Date
16-7-2025 3:30 PM
Keywords
Indigenous ways of knowing, Indigenous science, reconciliation, asynchronous online module, what is science, two-eyed seeing, multiple perspectives, nature of science
Primary Threads
Curriculum
Abstract
First-year science students often enter university believing that science provides the best approach for understanding the world. While science is powerful, it represents just one of many valuable ways of knowing. To broaden students’ perspectives on science and scientific practices, we introduced a module on Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Science into our required first-year science course at the University of British Columbia. This presentation describes our experience developing a 60-min asynchronous online module to deliver this content and provoke reflection. Most resources that introduce Indigenous culture to undergraduates do not focus on science, but we drew inspiration from an existing module developed at Carleton University. Ultimately, we curated resources and developed original content while also highlighting Indigenous faculty members from the Faculty of Science at our own institution, demonstrating local relevance and authenticity. Our online module explores how Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Indigenous science practices can complement and enrich Western scientific approaches. Students reflect on the strengths of different knowledge systems and how engaging with multiple perspectives can deepen scientific understanding. Our goal is to encourage students to develop an open and flexible mindset, recognizing science as a diverse, dynamic set of practices that expand our understanding of the natural world. This presentation outlines our design approach, key components of the module, reflective exercises, and provides preliminary results from evaluating our revised curriculum. Our experience demonstrates how intentionally weaving Indigenous Ways of Knowing and science enriches students’ educational experiences, broadening their intellectual toolkit and preparing them to tackle complex global issues collaboratively. In keeping with UBC’s policies, this work was excluded from ethics review as curriculum evaluation work for the purpose of quality assurance.
Elements of Engagement
- While this is mostly a presentation, we plan to ask for participants to reflect upon, and share, some of their experiences in the following manner:
- Near the start: Share what process, experiences, or challenges they have encountered in Indigenizing curriculum.
- Near the end: Share what initiatives or projects they have done that particularly attempts to Indigenize SCIENCE curriculum. This will be the final 5 min of the 20 min session.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Multiple ways of knowing: Designing an Indigenous science module to support intellectual humility and open-minded understandings of science for first-year students
Physics and Astronomy, room 148
First-year science students often enter university believing that science provides the best approach for understanding the world. While science is powerful, it represents just one of many valuable ways of knowing. To broaden students’ perspectives on science and scientific practices, we introduced a module on Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Science into our required first-year science course at the University of British Columbia. This presentation describes our experience developing a 60-min asynchronous online module to deliver this content and provoke reflection. Most resources that introduce Indigenous culture to undergraduates do not focus on science, but we drew inspiration from an existing module developed at Carleton University. Ultimately, we curated resources and developed original content while also highlighting Indigenous faculty members from the Faculty of Science at our own institution, demonstrating local relevance and authenticity. Our online module explores how Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Indigenous science practices can complement and enrich Western scientific approaches. Students reflect on the strengths of different knowledge systems and how engaging with multiple perspectives can deepen scientific understanding. Our goal is to encourage students to develop an open and flexible mindset, recognizing science as a diverse, dynamic set of practices that expand our understanding of the natural world. This presentation outlines our design approach, key components of the module, reflective exercises, and provides preliminary results from evaluating our revised curriculum. Our experience demonstrates how intentionally weaving Indigenous Ways of Knowing and science enriches students’ educational experiences, broadening their intellectual toolkit and preparing them to tackle complex global issues collaboratively. In keeping with UBC’s policies, this work was excluded from ethics review as curriculum evaluation work for the purpose of quality assurance.