About the QUILLS Programs

The Queen’s University Indigenous Land-based Learning STEM (QUILLS) Program is five STEM Learning Bundles bringing together Indigenous land-based knowledge, Ontario Science curriculum outcomes, and locally conducted STEM studies. QUILLS is a collaborative project, drawing on the expertise of local Indigenous knowledge holders, teachers, and Queen’s STEM faculty, and is geared towards integrating the themes of the biodiversity crisis, global climate change, traditional Indigenous knowledge systems and the environment, invasive species, and contaminants in the environment. Click here to learn more about the collaborative team that created these resources.

In addition to the Learning Bundles, QUBS is also creating short videos to accompany each bundle, and facilitating professional development sessions for local teachers.

We recommend that anyone using these lessons read the following Teacher’s Guide first. This gives important information about how to deliver these activities in a good way.


Learning Bundles

QUILLS Activities

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A Spirited Epistemology

Through discussion with the teacher, students discover that while Western scientists categorize elements of an ecosystem as either biotic or abiotic local Indigenous community members view all elements in the natural world as spirited and, therefore, biotic and alive.

Aquatic Monitoring

This activity takes place at the Elbow Lake Environmental Education Centre. After making inferences regarding the impact of climate change on local fish populations students engage in an aquatic monitoring project and compare results to required standards. As an extension students catch a fish and prepare it using local Indigenous preparation methods.

Biodiversity and Climate Change: What do Frogs Have to Say About It?

Students will explore the impact of climate change on biodiversity, specifically on frog species and their life history traits.

Biodiversity and Contaminants

Students will be provided with a visual of a healthy ecosystem compared to an unhealthy ecosystem, to which they will then research how different species within that area are affected by contaminants.

Biodiversity and Invasive Species: A Garlic Mustard Case Study

Students will explore the impact of invasive species on biodiversity specifically by looking at garlic mustard. Students will draw a scientific drawing of the plant, play a game to understand how it moves through ecosystems, discover plans on how to eradicate it, and contribute to citizen science.

Biomagnification Tag Game

Students play a tag game that visually demonstrates how microplastics, toxins, and mercury accumulate in fish and humans, and illustrates the interconnectedness of living things.

Broken Promises and Access to Clean Drinking Water in Indigenous Communities across Canada

With a focus on Constance Lake First Nation students learn about the lack of access to clean drinking water in Indigenous communities across Canada. Students also learn about how technology can be used monitor water health and other changes in the natural world.

Building a Water Filter

Students build a water filter out of materials found in a wetland

Can you Recognize your Relatives? Why Does it Matter?

Students are asked to identify different logos, plants, and animals and reflect on why in our culture we are more familiar with corporate logos than we are with local plant species.

Ceremony Ensures Right Relations with the Land

Students learn about Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee ceremonies and land-based practices that enter community members into reciprocal relationships with the natural world. Students reflect on their own cultural traditions that encourage reciprocity with the natural world.

Ceremony Ensures Right Relations with the Land -Indigenous Knowledge

Students learn about Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee ceremonies and land-based practices that enter community members into reciprocal relationships with the natural world. Students reflect on their own cultural traditions that encourage reciprocity with the natural world.

Classification Systems

Students will explore the process of classifying species, using an assortment of items and different categories.

This program was primarily funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Promoscience program, secured by QUBS (Principal Investigator, Dr. Stephen Lougheed). Additional funding was gratefully received from the Community Foundation of Kingston & Area and the Mathematics, Science, Technology, and Education (MSTE) Group.