Category: Individual Student Projects

About me

Hi everyone! How fun it is that you are considering joining the sustainability education alumni family. I myself joined in September 2021 as a teaching candidate in the Bachelor of Education Program. Throughout the program, I felt so connected to the faculty, that when Dr. Vanwynsberghe mentioned there was a Graduate Program, I made a permanent mental note to myself to reach for it when I was able to commit to it. Now I am on track to graduate with my Master’s in Education for Sustainability, Resilience and Regeneration in June of 2026! It’s been an empowering, humbling, and necessary journey for me in my lifetime on this planet I am, and we all are, trying to protect. As a teacher, I completely appreciate the structure of this program. I have a full-time teaching job in a grade three classroom and am able to handle the courseload of this program with confidence.

Back to the Beginning

The sustainability cohort is a truly special community to be part of. For those dedicated to making the world a better place through teaching, who are mindful of the impacts of global warming and motivated to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis, this cohort offers a meaningful and supportive learning environment. In my experience, instructors within the Sustainability Cohort consistently went out of their way to ensure their curricula aligned with our shared commitment to minimizing environmental impact. For example, our art professor emphasized approaches to teaching art using natural and sustainable materials. Additionally, several cohort members who were committed to sustainability-focused teaching were placed in schools that encouraged strong connections between students and the outdoors. I was fortunate to complete my practicum on Bowen Island, where I gained valuable insight into how childhood outdoor education, social emotional learning, and climate activism are deeply interconnected.

EDST 401 was one of the most valuable courses that I studied in my B.Ed. program for several reasons. First, teaching is a profession embedded within many interconnected systems. Educators must navigate family dynamics, school boards, government policies, and individual school communities, all of which are nuanced, context-specific, and can often be challenging. EDST 401 supports teacher candidates in understanding how systems operate at the local level, while also developing skills that allow for adaptation in broader, global contexts. I have found that a deeper understanding of how systems operate has been exceptionally beneficial to my work-life balance and mental health as an educator. Additionally, Dr. Vanwynsberghe is a highly connected professor who leads with collaboration, flexibility, and a strong commitment to meaningful learning. He makes every effort to bring in relevant community members from a variety of professional backgrounds to teach us about specific systems. He facilitates important discussions with a gentle amiability and a sense of humour. I always look forward to any opportunity I am given to learn from him and pursued the Masters of Education in Sustainability, Resilience, and Regeneration specifically because he is the program lead on it.

Where I’m At Now:

When I was going through photos of the past two years trying to figure out which ones to include for this blog, I couldn’t help but feeling so fortunate to all the valuable learning experiences Dr. Vanwynsberghe created for us. From wondering through the old growth forest at Malcolm Knapp Research Forest, to spotting baby black bears in Lil’Wat while learning harvesting and conservation ideologies from Indigenous Elders, to the coopers hawk who dutifully watched over us in our summer 2025 institute at the Hidden Hut, everything has felt deeply connected to earth, humanity, and the cosmos. My capstone project for this year is related to fostering resilience through outdoor education in primary students, as I fundamentally believe that the children who are inheriting this planet,will absolutely need demonstrate resiliency to overcome the problems hurtling towards them. Dr. Cole and Dr. Vanwynsberghe have given me room to inquire, prototype, and create this capstone project and I very much look forward for it to come to fruition. If you are pursuing an accolade like this, I couldn’t recommend it with more enthusiasm. It is a nutrient rich program that connects like-minded students and professors with one another.

With care, Maria

About me

My name is Aldona Czajewska and I am a graduate student in the Master of Education in Sustainability, Regeneration and Resilience at the University of British Columbia.  I am an educator with a background in applied biology research, student engagement, and sustainability engagement programming across higher education.

Since starting my degree, I had have amazing opportunities to engage in hands-on experiential learning and project-based work that combines systems thinking and social innovation frameworks with adult education and sustainability, topics from Land and Food Systems, Indigenous ways of knowing, and ecology. This has expanded my perspectives on how to tackle complex, real-world issues. Systems thinking is a holistic approach to understanding complex problems by seeing the entire picture of a problem and how parts interconnect and influence each other, rather than focusing on  solving isolated components. It is an important skill useful for many industries that work with complex problems (education, healthcare, health and safety, business, engineering and many more!)

Practicum

During Summer 2025, my cohort put systems thinking  and social innovation into action by supporting the implementation of objectives at the UBC Farm to advance strategic educational goals under the theme, “Learning.” This practicum course (EDST 561 A & B) involved working with project mentors, gathering feedback and creating a needs assessment from a variety of stakeholders, integrating the feedback into our project plans, and developing prototypes.

My group took up the challenge of the transformative redesign of the UBC Farm’s Children’s Greenhouse (which, by the way, isn’t actually used as a greenhouse at all!) and to explore how we could enhance the space based on staff and audience needs, particularly for summer camps for children and youth.

Our challenge question was the following:

“How might we design infrastructure in the  Children’s Greenhouse to enhance the space  so that it is more engaging for learners and supports educators in facilitating meaningful, place-based education?”

We designed prototypes for a tea center, a mini-library, an idea for implementing whiteboards throughout the greenhouse for teaching, and a backpack storage ideas. It was a great project but had nobody to really implement it, so I took the initiative to take it on as an independent directed studies in Fall 2025 with UBC Land and Food Systems faculty, Will Valley. My team consisted of Will Valley (LFS Faculty), Camil Dumont (Education Manager at the UBC Farm) and Jasmine Lambert (MA student), all of whom are wonderful people I had a chance to work with and collaborate with!

Taking on a challenge problem through a directed studies

While I’m always up for doing everything, the reality is that it’s hard to implement a big project within a limited amount of time and big ambitions must sometimes be scaled down to a manageable level with manageable timelines and resources. Our team met and decided what would be the most practical and immediate need for the Children’s Greenhouse? Well, kids at summer camp often leave their backpacks lying around the greenhouse so building a backpack cart that could be used as early as Summer 2026 seemed the most practical project after an assessment need.

The question was, what would this structure look like? And how could we maximize the space for it to hold 50+ backpacks? I had to put on my design hat and research some ideas. And then I found out we are going to be actually building it from scratch!

First steps

This is the design I came up with (based on some existing structures in elementary schools for backpack storage):

 

Just by chance, I ran into a fellow student in my cohort at the UBC Farm one day and we discussed the backpack cart and he gave me idea of making a 3-D model for it using Tinkercad, a free 3-D web application to create models. This gave my team an idea what the final cart will look like and what the dimensions would be.

(Thanks, Issac Li, for the idea of using the online building platform Tinkercad for making a 3-D model! Everyone should try out Tinkercad, it’s fun!)

Next came the application of my project management skills: project timelines, materials list, and task delegation. I created Excel sheets listing a timeline for project completion, what needs to be done and by whom, and by when. This kept our team on track given we only had 4 months to complete it and we wanted to complete it by end of term.

Constructing the backpack cart

Here are the steps we took to complete this project:

1. We began preparing wood from our wood inventory to begin construction:

2. LFS 350 students and student skill development

At the time of our project, Will was teaching an LFS 350 project course and proposed the idea of getting his students to incorporate this project into their group projects and to get them to help build the carts. We had about 10 students who helped us build 2 backpack carts using my design, all of whom were ready, willing, and excited to dive into the unknown world of furniture construction. Many of these students never held a handheld drill or hammer before and certainly few of them knew how to even begin a carpentry project. As an educator, it was a real pleasure to watch students jump right in with their measuring tapes, forming teams, collaborating, resolving conflicts, and developing a plan how best to approach the construction of their backpack cart. With our mentorship and guidance (my supervision, Will and Camil’s expertise in carpentry and Jasmine’s encouragement and hands-on help), we inspired students to become confident in their progress, even though this was new territory for them!

I had the opportunity to attend students’ final presentations where they reflected on their learning and growth throughout the project. Students highlighted the development of practical skills such as using handheld tools, as well as skills including teamwork, collaboration, and increased confidence in navigating uncertainty. Most notably, many emphasized a deeper understanding that learning is rooted in the process rather than solely in the final outcome. Through ongoing problem-solving and iteration, they recognized how engagement with challenges shaped their skills and personal growth. This kind of experiential skill development is essential in supporting students’ academic success, and career and personal development. I was fortunate to be part of this process and it was the greatest highlight of my directed studies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next steps?

The completion of the backpack rack! It is now fully operational at the UBC Farm to support Summer camps!

Hey there! My name is Mikayla Petrie and I started the Master of Educational Studies in Sustainability, Regeneration and Resilience program in July of 2024. I did not know what to expect as all of my professional experience was in a primary education setting with no prior work in the sustainability field. My goal was to learn to help students see the world through a more diverse, decolonial, and sustainable lens, and to grow my own skills in the process.

The immersive and transformative education approach has helped me think deeply about my own place in the sustainability world and how I can use my role as an educator to help build new skills and passion for students. Our current cohort is small and filled with lovely professionals from so many different backgrounds. This cohort has been witness to how important it is to tackle large-scale and complex issues like climate change and sustainability through an interdisciplinary approach. Learning alongside my classmates has brought me so much joy and connection and opened my eyes to many new pedagogies and ways of learning about the land through varied courses, field work, guest speakers, conferences, and field trips with our professors.

I really enjoy the interdisciplinary approach- I find this super applicable to real life interactions. We have learned first hand that sustainability is a complex issue that requires many types of professionals and community members’ collaboration.

My project for my M.Ed

Currently I am working on my graduating paper and project in collaboration with Lil’wat First Nation surrounding public education on cultural burns. I became interested in this topic after taking Dr Tonya Smith’s immersive course on Social, Community, and Indigenous Forestry.

What have I learnt in this program?

Through this program my knowledge of community-based learning has grown and evolved. I always had an inclination of how important community is, but I never knew how to be a part of it. By working closely with the land, community partners, classmates, and other educators it is so evident that this type of work and learning is very important to building active, aware, and resilient citizens. I am no means an expert yet, but I have learned that in order to fully understand something- such as the practice of collaborating and reimagining ways of being sustainable and resilient- you have to immerse yourself in it (and get comfy with being uncomfy along the way).

I’ve learned to think beyond the “all or nothing” approach to sustainability and instead incorporate small and incremental changes in my daily life and in my relationship to those around me. I’ve also stepped out of my comfort zone and enrolled in courses such as Forest Fire Fuel Mitigation with Dr. Lori Daniels and Forest Science with Dr. Suzanne Simard. 

I am looking forward to continuing to learn and grow in this space. I cannot wait to see what my classmates are creating this winter! I am so grateful to Rob for developing such a unique and relevant program. I truly believe I am a better educator, friend, and community member because of it, and really, that is the point of the whole program!

With kindness and curiosity, 

Mikayla Petrie, M.Ed In Sustainability, Resilience, and Regeneration Candidate, 2026,  University of British Columbia