Canada

What Trees Talk About features the excellent research of Canadian ecologists

Canada, Climate Change, Education, Field Work, Forest ecology, Natural History, People, Public understanding of science, Science Education, York University

I'm always thrilled when one of my colleagues contacts me, to alert me to their research hitting the mainstream media. On November 26th, 2017, CBC's Nature of Things, which is  introduced by Dr. David Suzuki, broadcast an absolutely fabulous documentary on the ecology of Canada's boreal forest: What Trees Talk About. I loved the programme […]

New Indigenous People & Plants Trail at Royal Botanic Gardens, Hamilton

Canada, Citizen Science, Education, First Nations, People

The new Indigenous People and Plants Trail at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton, Ontario, opens to the public on Monday 18th September 2017. The trail, located in Cootes Paradise, teaches us about how plants were used by the Anishinaabe people. I found a great journal article about Anishnaabe ethnobotany in NW Ontario, by Davidson-Hunt, Jack, Mandamin & […]

Gardening for biodiversity & local food in Carolinian Canada

Canada, Citizen Science, Climate Change, Education, Forest ecology, Invasives, Natural History, People, Public understanding of science, Science Education, Sustainability

Two excellent Canadian documentaries, The End of Suburbia (2004) and Escape from Suburbia (2007), discuss the enormous implications of our unsustainable North American car culture, which has spawned sprawling suburbs and gridlock in southwestern Ontario, and the Greater Toronto Area. These films include fascinating conversations with "futurists" about how people will convert their (sub)urban lawns into vegetable patches to grow local […]

Prof. Marc Spooner's next course should be "Best practices in conference organizing"

Canada, Education, Higher Education, Inuit and Métis, Public understanding of science, Science Education, Science policy, Science-Policy-Politics, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Women in Science

I fell behind with my blogs at the end of June, when my back pain flared up. I'd probably gone a bit overboard with driving and sitting/standing, and I spent Canada Day flat on my back, groaning. I'm again doing well with moving around and having the energy to stand and work. so I'm dealing with my 2 missing July posts, by (1) updating the […]

Getting back to field work at #BioBlitz2015 in the Don River Watershed

Canada, Field Work, Invasives, People, Plant Biology, Public understanding of science, Science Education

I took up field work for the 2nd time this season at the Ontario Bioblitz flagship event on the Don Watershed. The Ontario Science Centre was the HQ. I was joined by Vithuja Vijayakanthan, one of my remaining 2 graduate students from my IRIS director days. Her research, looks at the inherent tensions between the Bioblitz as a research vehicle, and […]

The sky high Opportunity Cost of dealing with #HigherEd administration

Canada, Forest ecology, Higher Education, People, Public understanding of science, Science Education, Social Media

The reason I am late by a week with this post, is that I spent a ton of time last week: 1. With inspiring high school students and great colleagues (at right). For the 2nd year, I judged the Toronto Envirothon at the Ontario Science Centre. 2. With inspiring university students: I edited the publishable research of my […]

Keeping on the bright side: High & Low points of my 2014 #HigherEd year in numbers

Canada, Higher Education, Public understanding of science, Social Media, Women in Science, York University

An Academic New Year's Resolution list: For 2015, 101 Big And Small Ways To Make A Difference In Academia http://t.co/DCBuVYWyLo — Conditional Accept (@conditionaccept) January 7, 2015 In my experience, what I do remains a mystery to most people both within and outside of Higher Education. When they were young, my daughters told me that […]