Category Archives: Outside Classroom Walls

EDUC 452 Inquiry III Shared Reading: Last Child in the Woods – Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

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The book I chose to share is “Last Child in the Woods – Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder” by Richard Louv. I chose it because I feel it addresses an important issue that isn’t really covered in our teacher education program and therefore suggest that other UBC teacher candidates complete some reading on this topic.

This book really interests me because my background experience in education (before diving down the French/English track) was in environment education/outdoor learning (ie. nature school, Aquavan, interpretive centres). Furthermore, I grew up and received my elementary/secondary education in a rural nature-rich environment which was in stark contrast to what I saw in my practicum in Surrey. “Last Child in the Woods” gave me a deeper understanding of possible reasons people are disconnected from nature, as well as ideas of how to connect my students to nature.

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Sleepover at the Vancouver Aquarium

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I now know a new kind of tired: Teacher-on-an-overnight-field-trip tired.
This past week I chaperoned an aquarium sleepover for my brother’s school. There were approximately 90 kids from grades 8 and 9 on the trip. When the kids arrived at the aquarium at around 8:30pm they had already been to a convenience store and Starbucks, and were wired with caffeine from energy drinks and espresso! As they piled off the buses I started to wonder what I had just volunteered myself to help with. I was just as excited as they were though as it was my first aquarium sleepover!

The aquarium staff certainly seemed to know what they would be up against as they had a huge staff on location, and tons of activities to the keep the students busy. The students were separated into groups for touring the aquarium. We visited all the exhibits indoors, watched a presentation on Ocean Wise, and went into the wet lab for a chance to have some hands on fun with marine invertebrates. Here are some photos from the wet lab:

 Hermit crabsSea anemonesSea cucumberSea starsSea urchins

For the night the boys slept by the dolphins, and the girls slept by the belugas. It took everyone quite awhile to fall asleep because everyone was so interested in watching the belugas. They turn off the lights in the room, but light up the tank so that you can see them swim by. It was kind of funny because everytime a beluga swam near by one of the tank lights it lit up the area where we were sleeping. It kind of reminded me of when your laptop is “sleeping” and the light slowly pulses.

The kids were sure tired the following morning. They were given free time to explore the aquarium but most of them were just ready to go home. The sleepover with the whales was a really neat experience in itself, but I also really enjoyed the opportunity to interact with the grade 8s and 9s, and to see what it is like to take a class on an overnight trip.

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Cheakamus Centre

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Last week my UBC teacher education cohort, FLAGS, along with the French Education Specialists, were fortunate to travel up to the Cheakamus Outdoor Centre in Paradise Valley, formerly known as the North Vancouver Outdoor School.

Even more fortunate in my opinion were the multiple classes that were there for a variety of on-site overnight programs.

We saw students in hip waders in the river, trying out what it would feel like to be spawning salmon (I have so much to say about spawning salmon that you can expect an additional post!). Next the same students had the opportunity to help extract eggs and milt from the salmon in the small on-site hatchery. Another group were doing pond studies. They were catching various invertebrates from the pond, and perhaps a few stickleback as well, and taking them back to the lab to view them under a microscope. Over on the farm pigs were rooting around in the mud, and students were interacting with goats.

 In a outdoor covered space we saw children working on art projects. As our class left the big house, a group of grade four students arrived and were welcomed to where they would be spending the night.

 

The property was a hub of activity, and so large that there was space for so many groups and different activities. Many of the activities reminded me of my time working with the Nature School program at the Iris Griffith Nature Interpretive Centre. Additionally our class had the opportunity to try out the team building challenge area. It was a challenge but a lot of fun. We weren’t very successful at getting many people on the “all a board” plank, but my classmates did manage to get me up over a ten for wall!

I myself was so content to be out at the Centre for the day. As soon as we arrived I wasn’t inside for more than five minutes to drop off my backpack before I was outside to walk the boardwalk through the pond, climb the little bridge across the stream and watch spawning salmon, then scramble up the dyke to see the Cheakamus River alive with salmon and seagulls.

A good proportion of our day was spent outside, however we also spent time indoors to debrief our two-week practicum session, and to talk about teaching core French in schools. The lunch the centre served us was terrific. I can certainly confirm, as the North Vancouver School District claims as its slogan: “Nature is in session” because as we were eating lunch we saw out in the distance, across the parking lot, a black beat saunter by.
I left the centre sad to be leaving but so inspired after a great day outdoors. The site was a wonderful place, and I wish all students had the opportunity to take part in something  outdoors similar to this.
Currently one of my friends, a teacher candidate in Toronto, is attending Island Natural Science School with her students. I can’t wait to her about her experience, I have seen the school from the outside myself, and was very curious about it. It is located on Centre Island, a beautiful park-like natural setting just a ferry ride away from downtown Toronto. In the summer it is a great tourist attraction. It would be great if I could even have her write a blog post about the school to share about it!
Have you ever been the Cheakamus Centre as a student or a teacher? What other outdoor programs have you been a part of?

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