Entrance Slip: Scientific Language in the Classroom

Reading Kimmerer’s reflection on the “grammar of animacy” made me think deeply about the role of scientific and mathematical language in the classroom. On one hand, I value the precision that terminology brings. Terms like isosceles triangle or photosynthesis allow us to communicate clearly and unambiguously. But as Kimmerer points out, this precision often comes at the cost of distance, the living world simply becomes objects and processes to be studied, rather than relatives to be in relationship with. In math, for example, it can sometimes feel like students are being taught a sterile set of terms and formulas, instead of being invited to see the beauty, creativity, and interconnectedness behind the language.

What struck me most in Kimmerer’s writing was her description of Potawatomi verbs that express aliveness, like wiikwegamaa, which means “to be a bay.” In English, we reduce the bay to a noun, a thing, something static and objectified. But in Potawatomi, the bay is understood as a living process, always moving, always in relationship with its surroundings. This perspective made me reflect on my own teaching: how often do I present math as a fixed set of definitions and objects, instead of as patterns and relationships that are active, dynamic, and continually unfolding?

In thinking about Indigenizing my classroom, Kimmerer’s work challenges me to reconsider the language I use and the ways I frame learning. I want to bring in more opportunities for students to engage with mathematics and science as processes of connection, through story, metaphor, and relational contexts, rather than only through technical terminology. For example, when teaching geometry, I could invite students to see shapes as “figures”, relationships between points, lines, and spaces.

Kimmerer reminds us that language shapes how we see the world, and therefore how we treat it. If my classroom can hold space for both the clarity of scientific/mathematical terminology and the respect inherent in the grammar of animacy, perhaps students will come away knowing the terms and also carrying a deeper sense of responsibility toward the world those terms describe.