Bioregion
Shifts


 

Bioregion, as defined in the Green Studies Curriculum, is an identifiable geographical area of interacting life systems that is relatively self-sustaining in the ever-renewing processes of nature. It is self-propagating, self-nourishing, self-educating, self-governing, self-healing, and self-fulfilling. (p 166, Thomas Berry, The Dream of Life)

 

Bioregions are very different for humans ,and so acknowledgement of how our immigrants are affected by this shift in bioregions is essential. Many immigrants are deeply affected by the change from one bioregion to another. We often focus on the cultural shocks and do not explore the impact of the change in the bioregion. It is immense and psychologically profound to be away from one’s bioregion.

 

Objectives

Green (Earth Literacy Goals)

  1. Students will begin to become familiar with their new bioregion.
  2. Students will become aware of how the immediate area impacts them.
  3. Students will become familiar with the sensations of their new environment.
  4. Students will make conscious comparisons between their new and previous bioregions.

ESL

  1. Students will use observation as a basis for research.
  2. Students will use observation data for oral and written discussion.
  3. Students will make comparative statements.
  4. Students will use comparison as a rhetorical device.
  5. Students will use personal reflection as a source of data for oral discourse.
  6. Students will write a first person narrative.

 

Materials

  • Notebooks.

  • Cameras (optional)

  • Tape recorders (optional)

  • Handout regarding areas of consideration. (see copy)

 

Time

1- 2  hours 

Steps/procedures

 Part 1

  • Give students the handout and either a list of local parks, or direct them to the sources of the information. The phone book and on-line.

  • Instruct them that this is an outside class activity to be done on their own (although an alternative could be to do it on campus or as a group excursion).

  • Some discussion about the nature of being alone with nature, might be good, as many students are from cultures that do most activities in groups.

  •  Set a date for completion.

  •  When students have their notes from the exercise, use the material for a large group discussion.  

  • Look for where there are common insights and note the most unique.

  •  The data that they generate are useful for journal entries.

Part 2  Written follow-up.

  • Write a short piece which summarizes the responses to the questions.  This will be a first person narrative.


     

Resources:

While there are many reflective pieces, some noted in other exercises, a classic from American Literature is Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

Handout

 Go to one of the local parks that are rich in nature. Find a spot to be alone. Spend at least 10 minutes in quiet observation and reflection.  Then spend about 30 with the following questions.

 Answer the following questions while considering your native environment and the one you are sitting in at the moment, which represents your new environment.  While thinking about the following questions, be aware of colors in the sky, land, plants, water.

  • Use all your senses.

    • What do you smell?

    • What is the climate like and how does it feel on your body?

    • What is the light like?

    • What sounds do you hear?

    • If you touch the ground with your feet or hands, what does it feel like to you?

    • What ideas are stimulated by these sensations?

    • What feelings are evoked?

 

  • What are the first impressions you have of the new environment?  Whatever your impressions, notice and note them.

    • Are they favorable and warming?

    • Are your impressions that the place is very strange and disconcerting?

 

  •  What are the most similar things about this new environment? List a few.

 

  • What are the things that are most different?  List them.

 

  • What do you most like about your native environment? Is that here too or missing? How does that make you feel?

 

  • What do you most miss about your native environment?

 

  • What do you least miss about it?

 

  • What do you think is the overall influence of the physical, natural environment on you here?

 

  • Do you spend more or less time with the natural environment here than you did in your birth country?

 

  • What impact does this new environment have on other aspects of your life? For example, some say that the meats taste different because of the differences in feed and soils.