LEAF Grant Awarded to Jess Slomka, Lindsay Schoenbohm and Interdisciplinary Team!

An interdisciplinary team consisting of Lab Coordinators and Faculty in CPS (Earth Sciences, including Jess Slomka, Lab Coordinator, and Professor Lindsay Schoenbohm), Biology, Geography, Anthropology/Archaeology, and the Office of Indigenous Initiatives at UTM, was recently awarded a Learning & Education Advancement Fund (LEAF) Impact grant through UofT’s Office of the Vice-Provost, Innovations in Undergraduate Education. Impact grants span a duration of three years and support projects that enhance core elements of undergraduate teaching and learning.
The project, titled “Learning through the landscape at UTM: Fostering community and belonging through interdisciplinary field- and place-based learning”, will create pedagogical tools that facilitate interdisciplinary, field- and place-based learning outside of the traditional classroom, integrate Indigenous pedagogies, and help students develop a sense of place at UTM.
On a departmental level, the number of undergraduate students potentially impacted by this project is ~3100 students per year. Pedagogical tools include the development of a Field Site, which is an outdoor learning space at UTM where students will engage in interdisciplinary place-based learning through landscape features, and an accompanying interactive Field Guide that focuses on hosting learning activities and expanding knowledge at the Field Site and other points of interest at and around UTM.