About

Genomics in Society is a collaborative initiative with the purpose of developing multimedia online educational materials tailored to the British Columbia (BC) high school science curriculum on the topic of Forestry Genomics, with a specific focus on connections to Indigenous heritage, community, and traditional knowledge. This work has been done by UBC undergraduate & graduate students from the Faculties of Forestry, Land & Food Systems, and Arts. Genomics in Society is funded by Genome BC and supervised Dr. Gary Bull from the Department of Forest and Resource Management.

The project as a whole and the educational materials developed are centered on the following three pillars: 1) connections to forestry, 2) connections to genomics, and 3) connections to Indigenous communities. The forestry genomics topics presented in the educational materials will include current, Canadian research and be placed in the context of a changing climate. All of the educational materials developed will be made available for free in an online repository and portions will be made downloadable for users to enhance accessibility to the resource.

This work is being done with the intention of connecting Indigenous communities, BC high school students, educators, and any other interested individuals with educational materials on the topic of Forestry Genomics. The educational materials developed from this process will hopefully foster a greater community-level understanding of genomic-based applications in forestry in the context Indigenous culture and climate change. A beta test of these educational materials will be available from StoryMaps by March 31^st, 2021.