Assignments

One of the fun challenges of interdisciplinary teaching is developing assignments that draw on a range of methods, skills, and disciplines. The assignments here offer inspiration and ideas for creative possibilities.

Three Highlighted Examples of Assignments

Species Story

Students are assigned a species that lives in the Salish Sea. They are asked to research scientific articles about the species and then develop a creative writing essay to tell their “species story.”

Reflection Journaling

SALI students receive a reflection packet at the start of the quarter, which includes the syllabus and placeholders for weekly reflections on each week’s themes and concepts.

Letter to a Leader

Students apply content knowledge to civic engagement by researching a cross-border issue, and writing to a leader who is responsible for taking action on a bill or resolution.

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    Research Project Overview
    This course is about examining the Salish Sea through multiple disciplinary lenses in order to appreciate the complexity of this region. This project will allow you to dig deeper into one facet of this region pursuing an area of interest by asking a question to which there is no apparent known answering an effort to expand our larger collective knowledge about this region. This project is both a way to synthesize much of what you've been learning in this class through a multidisciplinary lens, but it also will help you practice other important life skills like effective communication and building collaboration skills.
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    Letter to a Leader
    Students write a one-to-two-page letter to apply their knowledge and analysis to a contemporary issue and develop a position that reflects their research on the issue. Resources for locating a leader in a trans-border region with multiple jurisdictions on the Canadian and U.S. sides of the border is provided in the weeks leading up to this letter-writing assignment.
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    Academic Article
    Fish Farming in the Salish Sea: A Discussion of Five Perspectives
    This activity is designed to provide students with differing perspectives on the future of salmon within the Salish Sea using interview data with different stakeholders in the region.
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    Species Story
    A species story combines factual information about a species in the Salish Sea with storytelling skills. By using story, students move from a report- or research-mode to describe the natural world into a humanistic sharing of knowledge of a being in its place and context.
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    Salish Sea Reflection Journal
    A compendium of maps, resources, syllabus information, and reflection prompts, the Reflection Journal offers students and instructors a guide for sharing learning, questions, and ideas about Salish Sea Studies.
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Image Credits

1. "Purple Sea Star".  dreaming_of_rivers. May 30, 2015. CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0

2. “Writing”. Rubin Starset. 2009. CC-BY-NC-SA.

3.  Screenshot of website of the Members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia taken August 2nd 2022.