How I Hope to Use My Research with Students
The research I conduct through the Yale National Initiative has directly informed this curriculum. While I have researched key zoological science topics such as biodiversity threats, and environmental justice. This is not science unit. Rather it using these ideas to further implement and allow students to understand how to draw by making careful observations.
This research has helped me create lessons that are not only accurate and interdisciplinary, but also emotionally and culturally resonant with my students and our culture. I will develop bilingual materials, culturally responsive strategies, and scaffolded writing supports to ensure all students can engage deeply.
My ultimate goal is to use this unit to inspire students to see themselves as both artists and a little like environmental stewards. I want them to develop scientific literacy, creative fluency, and a sense of agency. By merging biology, art, and advocacy, students can understand that their voice—and their vision—matter.
Alebrijes: Where Science Meets Art is more than a unit—it is an invitation. It asks students to be curious observers, creative thinkers, and active participants in imagining a healthier, more just world. By creating Alebrijes inspired by Laurie Hogin’s haunting creatures and their own cultural heritage, students blend the real with the surreal, the scientific with the symbolic, and the personal with the planetary.
This unit equips students to not only learn about biology but to become part of them. It teaches that art is not a distraction from science—it is its extension. Through this curriculum, my students will discover that the future is not only something to survive—but something they have the power to shape.
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