The COEHD Urban Bird Project (UBP) centers Indigenous science, ancestral knowledge, and place-based learning to connect with local knowledge keepers. By grounding learning in cultural, ecological, and historical dimensions of the Texas–Mexico borderlands, the team enhances student-community engagement and fosters awareness of how land, water, and non-human kin shape scientific inquiry.

Through transdisciplinary approaches and collaboration with local knowledge keepers, UBP models ethical, locally informed research that uplifts local and indigenous knowledge as central to teaching and learning. Claudia García-Louis, Ph.D., will discuss how place-based, community-driven learning strengthens intellectual growth, critical consciousness, and belonging - equipping students with the necessary skills to engage in conscious scientific inquiry.