SCED 245 - Teaching and Learning About the Salish Sea

The Salish Sea is a great estuary in both Washington and British Columbia where freshwater from mountain glaciers filter through temperate rainforests into rivers that meet the saltwater and tides from the Pacific Ocean, filling the Puget Sound, Georgia Basin and Strait of Juan de Fuca. The name “Salish Sea” honors the long history of Coast Salish peoples, who, for thousands of years, have nurtured reciprocal relationships with the lands and waters of this unique bioregion. Surging population, extractive resource economies, and global climate change have created challenges and mysteries for those who would come together to heal the sea. In this course, we will explore how teaching and learning about the Salish Sea can help engage students in meaningful experiences that connect them to their culture, community, and the sea and lead to a sense of place and responsibility here. Using the project-and place-based Explore The Salish Sea curriculum, we will examine how the practice of Western science in partnership with Indigenous Knowledge can generate investigable questions about ecosystems in our own communities that lead to both evidence and practice-based recommendations for giving back to a local habitat.

Credits: 2
Grade Mode: Letter