Dog and Cats and Things that Grow: Ethnobiological pedagogy with college freshman

How do we inspire first-year students in college to care about the world beyond their own social lives and the next paper due date? Partly through engaging them in careful, contemplative and meaningful engagement with the natural world around them. In this presentation, I discuss my experience teaching a freshman seminar class in the past two years (titled People, Plants, and Animals) in terms of integrating an ethnobiological pedagogy that connects the heart and mind of a student to the natural world around her/him. By giving students opportunities to connect with places and non-human beings in their own lives, to read works by scholars in various disciplines (humanities and sciences) about human-nature relationships, and to write from their own experiences in conversation with those of others, we can help promote an awareness and consciousness of the natural world as a core aspect of a college education.