Posted January 28, 2025:
I am sharing my “Tiny Ecology Project” here for anyone else who may benefit from this information. This semester-long assignment is part of my current “Nature Memoirs” course.
This is a semester long assignment that focuses on attentiveness and witnessing nature within a space that is student-selected. I first encountered a smaller version of this project on the ASLE teaching site, written up by the always great Jeffrey J. Cohen. Over the many times I have taught this assignment the project has grown and evolved, as teaching assignments should. In its current phase, this Tiny Ecology Project is a recursive weekly activity in which students are expected to visit and note the developments within a space.
The current form of this project is influenced by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, as is so much of my thinking and teaching about nature. As Kimmerer writes, “[T]here are intelligences other than our own, teachers all around us” (58). My goal with this project is for the students to go into a natural space, and through their own witnessing learn from the animals, plants, and objects within that space.
Here is the assignment description from my course syllabus. This is my most up-to-date version of this assignment. I have also included the first worksheet/handout that I ask students to respond to. Students are expected to fill out a version of this worksheet at specific points over the course of the semester. I usually request three check-ins via the worksheets, but I discuss students’ experiences of visiting their Tiny Ecology space weekly.
Please feel free to utilize and modify this assignment as you like. I have really enjoyed the breadth and depth of students’ responses to this project.
Tiny Ecology Presentation Description [from course syllabus]
You will be responsible for one presentation on the last class meeting of the semester, during finals.
Between our first and second class meeting you will choose a place near where you live for intense and sustained ecological attentiveness. During the course of the seminar, from mid-January to late April/early May, you will make frequent visits to note changes within this space. Visit this location at least once a week, though more is okay too.
There are no special requirements for the ecosystem and space you choose: A built environment, a natural space, a human-curated space like a park or garden, an abandoned corner lot, a creek, or even just a tree. You will want to choose an area that you can easily revisit. The area can be small (like a concrete planter or a small park) or large (like a particular section of the Botanical Garden, or Van Cortland Park). Attention should be paid to plant and animal presences and how these both appear and shift and change over time, to human attention and neglect (including pollution, detritus, etc.), nonhuman forces (such as weather, sunlight, decay), and the surfacings of different possibilities or different histories, or different ways that the plants interact, or that sound functions within the space, etc., as well as how all of these affect the whole of the space you are studying.
Your process may entail learning more about the history of your selected space and the various things that inhabit it, living or not, the plants and creatures, the rocks and waste, etc. For instance, you may want to want to identify what species of plant is growing among a tree’s roots, or how old a piece of plastic caught in the plant is, how the plant responds to the plastic, etc. How living and nonliving matter interacts within your selected space may be an interesting thing to consider, as well as how these relate to you and how you relate to them.
Take ample notes, including the questions and insights that your observations elicit. I suggest making sketches, taking pictures, taking audio notes, writing poems, etc. I invite you to select a space that you will want to revisit and spend time in. Consider this as an opportunity to revisit, and revisit again, a space that you enjoy. Get to know this tiny ecology and the changes it goes through over the course of the semester.
This project is the closest to your own nature memoir that we will do in the course. Your presentation on the final day of class can take any format. Paintings, song, drawings, a comic strip, etc. In a certain sense, you can treat this as if you are scientist, author, artist, or historian—this is an opportunity to wear different hats.
Keep track of your field notes in whatever format they may take. I recommend dedicating a special journal to this project. Similarly, let this tiny ecology and its changes over the course of this semester inspire you, perhaps in ways you may not expect.
At the beginning of the semester I want you to purposefully consider the question: “How do I think this space will develop in the future?” Jot down some initial notes. Have selected your Tiny Ecology space and have visited it at least once by our second class. By the end of the semester you will have insight(s) into how the space developed and the processes of change that occurred there. At the end of the semester, consider how your expectations were met, surpassed, challenged, etc.
Again, in our last class meeting you will provide us with a presentation that represents your observations, experiences, or new understandings of your selected tiny ecology, of nature, of memoir, etc. The format of your presentation is completely up to you, but should not simply be you talking to us. Think about how you want to express yourself— I invite you to be inventive and to draw on skills or activities you enjoy doing (for instance, create a small coloring book and hand out a copy to your peers). The format of this presentation is open, so please translate your insights into a medium you find interesting or exciting.
Tiny Ecology Worksheet Update
Your selected location. Where is it? Describe it. Be clear about what the specific boundaries of your selected location are. These boundaries may be somewhat nebulous, such as “as far as tree branches reach,” but the goal here is to clearly delineate where your selected tiny ecology is and what space (including all three dimensions, or even into the earth, water, or air, etc.) your tiny ecology inhabits.
[Students fill in responses]
Your selected methodology thus far (this may change or evolve). Start thinking about how you will want to present your Tiny Ecology space and its changes over the semester. I invite you to be inventive and play to your own interests and strengths. Consider the following questions: Is my methodology interesting? Will it capture an audience’s attention? Does my approach invite excitement and engagement from others? Does my approach invite excitement and engagement from myself? Will pursuing/enacting this methodology likely bring me personal satisfaction over the course of the semester?
[Students fill in responses]
What plants and/or animals have you seen in your Tiny Ecology space? Any Changes that you have already noticed. By this point you should have visited your tiny ecology at least once, but perhaps you’ve visited more than once. What plants do you find within your chosen space? Can you identify them? What would it take to be able to identify them? Any animals? How about the effects of remnants of animals, such as paw prints? Or remnants of human animals? Have you begun to notice any changes within your selected space? What do you think might change? Provide possible answers to the question of “How do I think this space will develop in the future?” Consider taking photos (perhaps both close up and from a distance) of specific details. Consider jotting down your discoveries in a journal. Consider the specifics.
[Students fill in responses]