uwloo

BIOL 225Plant Knowledge and Practices: Indigenous and Western Science Perspectives

Units
0.50
Faculty
Science
Subject
Biology

When it runs

  1. F24
  2. W25
  3. S25
  4. F25
  5. W26
  6. S26
  7. F26
  8. W27
  9. S27

Ran in 3 of the last 7 terms. Winter 2027: not on the schedule. Spring 2027: schedule not out yet.

This course welcomes students and knowledge keepers together to explore the long-lasting relationships between plants and humans, how our histories entwine, and the importance of botanical familiarity in our lives. Both historical and contemporary connections to plants will be discussed including with an Indigenous context. Plant structures and life histories will be discussed as well as medicinal, textile, food, and other usages in modern contexts. Knowledge of plants will be shared from multiple sources to construct a fuller understanding of, and relation to, plants and their fundamental importance to human civilization.

Prerequisites

None listed.

Antirequisites

None listed.

Leads to

No course lists it as a requisite.

Reviewed on UW Flow

96% liked it94% easy69% useful

From 23 ratings and 7 comments on UW Flow. The most helpful comments, quoted as written, without names. Read them all on UW Flow.

  • Lots of people take this as a bird course (including me), which it is easy but it's also very informative and interactive which made it enjoyable. in F25 the only deliverables were participation, a group video assignment, a personal land acknowledgement, and a critical reflection. no midterm no exam

    Jan 2026 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this

  • One of my fave courses in my undergrad career. Such a perspective shift, excellent instructors, really informative perspective change for anyone but especially science students. Highly recommend.

    Oct 2025 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this

  • This course isn't what the comments make it out to be. The content itself isn't super challenging, but Dr. Chuong does make the three-term tests quite hard, with the average being around 55% this term. The content covered doesn't really relate to anything else in any other course and oftentimes is just random facts that don't relate to anything else covered in the course. It's all pretty much just memorizing the slides and hoping that you wrote down everything he said in class, as he loves putting in questions about things he mentions once in class. Overall not a great course and definitely not worth taking, in my opinion.

    Dec 2022 · didn’t like itOn UW FlowRemove this

  • The first half of the material was interesting, the second half was not so interesting. 3 midterms, a bunch of online quizzes and one group presentation. Overall, will probably raise your mark, it is not hard to do well if you study a decent amount. Dr. Lolle is a good professor.

    Nov 2019 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this

  • I didn't need it for my program, but it was a fun course for me. The exams were a little weird, and didn't test super relevant material, but it was still pretty easy.

    Nov 2018 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this

Discussed on r/uwaterloo

24 posts and comments in 23 threads mention BIOL 225, March 2015 to December 2024. Quoted word for word, newest first; each reply sits under the post and the comment that started its branch. Search r/uwaterloo for newer posts.

Fall 2023

Bird Science Courses 4 points, 11 comments

u/chomnks7: “Hi, does anyone have recommendations on bird science courses in the 200, and 300 levels( (excluding BIOL 225, BIOL 280/PHYS 280, and SCI units) ? If not birdy, just something that isn't gonna give me hair loss. Thanks!”

View on RedditRemove this

Fall 2022

Spring 2021

Fall 2020

BIOL 225 content (esp. week 4) 3 points, 0 comments

u/biol225wtf: “So uhh... the midterm for BIOL 225 is tomorrow and they took down all the content just now with no warning "to avoid technical issues during the midterm" and I hadn't finished reading week 4 yet. Any chance anyone saved the course content?”

View on RedditRemove this

Syllabus for any of these courses currently? 4 points, 0 comments

u/New_99: “I'm still on the fence about deciding between which of these courses I want to add/drop, Does anyone have the syllabus currently (Fall 2020 online) for any of these courses that they would be willing to share? Courses: Biol 225, Japan 101r, Clas 252, Hist 210, Hist 256, Clas 104”

View on RedditRemove this

Winter 2020

Fall 2019

Not too hard Science courses 1 point, 14 comments

[deleted]: “Hey y’all what are some not super hard Science courses that y’all have taken? I’ve already taken biol 130,240,225, 239, 359, chem 120,123 earth 121 sci 206,207. Need some good 200+ level suggestions. Thanks”

View on RedditRemove this

Check it elsewhere for Fall 2026

Calendar versions

Undergraduate Calendar