C2C Field Experiences: Rooted in Relationships

Saturday, October 26th, 9:00am – 3:00pm

Overview:

The B.C. curriculum provides an unprecedented opportunity to rethink both our K-12 teaching and professional development practices – this day of field-based Pro-D will help you connect classroom to community in innovative ways.

Join us for a highly experiential day of exploration, exchange, inspiration and collaboration featuring unique learning destinations across Metro Vancouver. Participants will exchange ideas for action to adapt and enhance learning ‘beyond the exit sign” of B.C. schools, and connect with people and partners who share a passion for teaching and learning in, about and for the real world.

Transportation and lunch are included.

Each C2C Field Experience will: 

  • Feature engaging visits to unique learning destinations across the region

  • Explore the rich potential of place and land-based education as pedagogy - using the community as context for learning

  • Help you get to know a range of K-12 supporting partner organizations

  • Exchange ideas, success stories and inspiration to enhance and advance K-12 teaching and learning - for people, place and planet 

Meeting Place: Science World (False Creek), Vancouver

Time: Buses leave Science World between 9 – 10:00am, return between 3 – 3:30pm

C2C Field Experiences – Choose your own Adventure:

Experience 1: Stories, Relationships, and Connections from the River’s Edge

Location: Langley

Hosts/Leaders: Vanessa Lee & Marlee St. Pierre: Langley Environmental Partners Society (LEPS), Parks Canada, Langley Environmental Awareness Programs (LEAP), BCTF’s Environmental Educators Provincial Specialists Association (EEPSA), Metro Vancouver Regional Parks

Overview:

Flow from Derby Reach Regional Park to Fort Langley National Historic Site to deepen your understanding of the communities connected to and shaped by the Fraser River from past to present. Be inspired to embrace the river’s edge for impactful local learning!

Participants will:

  • Explore teaching strategies and connections to nature at Derby Reach Regional Park

  • Get to know how salmon help trees, lichen, and the bog with LEPS

  • Connect with educators from across BC over a tasty bannock lunch

  • Race around in teams to win the Fort Langley Challenge (while discovering bio-cultural relationships)

  • Be introduced to the Langley Environmental Awareness Program (LEAP) that embraces the outdoor classroom year-round

Experience 2: Watershed Stories on the Capilano River

Location: Capilano River Regional Park, North Vancouver

Hosts/Leaders: Kate Henderson (Metro Vancouver) & David Barnum (BCTF’s Environmental Educators Provincial Specialists Association (EEPSA), & Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation (HCTF))

Overview:

Every place has a story. Many powerful place-based stories focus around water. Through the lenses of human uses of water and more-than-human uses of water, participants will deepen their understanding of how to use their own local watershed as a teaching space. Together we will flow past Cleveland Dam, through Capilano River Regional Park, the Capilano Hatchery, to Camp Capilano. Participants will:

  • Experience and celebrate the spawning season, the salmon forest, connections to nature, and Coho Commotion, a popular annual public event 

  • Learn more about Metro Vancouver’s drinking water, water conservation, watershed management, and the history of the Capilano River

  • Explore innovative and interdisciplinary activities and K-12 resources from community partners, to grow literacy and nature-based inquiry strategies

  • Enjoy a tasty local lunch at Camp Capilano

  • Be inspired to deepen the use of local watersheds and other outdoor spaces to connect to nature and community partners

Experience 3: Exploring Food Literacy in Action at School and Beyond

Location: Trout Lake Park Farm Market & Van Tech Secondary, Vancouver

Hosts/Leaders: Brent Mansfield, Will Valley (UBC Land & Food Systems), Rowan Vriesema-Magnuson (Fresh Roots) & Bruce Ford (Metro Vancouver)

Overview:

Join us to explore inspirational strategies for growing food literacy (and other literacies) in schools! Explore how growing, harvesting, preparing, and sharing food can create exciting hubs for meaningful, joyful and community-connected learning. Find inspiration, resources, community partners and colleagues to inspire your real-world learning locally. Participants will:

  • Be part of the “story of food scavenger hunt” at Trout Lake Farmers Market

  • Visit the Fresh Roots schoolyard farm and get to know how this unique learning space and partnership has grown food, youth, and community for over a decade 

  • Walk and talk local learning to influence thinking, eating, and teaching green 

  • Enjoy a tasty and nutritious local lunch        

  • Explore strategies, ideas, K-12 resources, partners, and other key ingredients to grow food literacy at school and in the community

Experience 4: The Power of Story and Meaning Making: Embedded in Place and Relationship

Location: Rocky Point Park

Hosts/Leaders: Alisa Paul (UBC), Kelsey Keller (SD #41) & Sonya Rokosh (SD #73)

Overview:

Join us outside for a full day of exploring concepts and themes of storytelling, meaning making and how we build our knowledge of place. Rooted in story and nature journaling, participants will consider the dynamism of relationships to place. Beginning with an invitation to explore a forested outdoor classroom in a Coquitlam schoolyard, participants will:

  • Engage with real life students’ stories about their connection to this place and what having this relationship means to them 

  • Take time to approach the outside world with curiousity as we explore our connection through a creative lens 

  • Play with watercolour paints and reflective writing throughout the session (no previous art experience is necessary and all supplies provided) 

  • Root ourselves in relationship to the resident more-than-human beings and our local surroundings

Experience 5: The Heart of Strathcona on Foot

Location: Strathcona area, Vancouver

Hosts/Leaders: Elsa Medina (VSB) & Nolan Webb (VSB)

Overview:

Join us for a 3-hour walking tour of our historic and culturally-rich neighbourhoods of Strathcona in the homelands of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Immersing ourselves as we stroll through parts of Chinatown, Gastown, Japantown, and Hogan's Alley, participants will:

  • Explore place and land-based learning in an urban context and the histories of places 

  • Sample a diverse mix of food, art, environment, and culture 

  • Engage in relationships across a multitude of time scales: Indigenous peoples, cultural, historical, living and ethical responsibilities

  • Highlight BC curriculum links to social studies, science, art education, career education, core competencies and more through such walking curricula

Experience 6: Connecting to Nature with Technology

Location: False Creek, Vancouver

Hosts/Leaders: Jennie King (Science World) & Patrick Robertson (C2C)

Overview:

Technology is often cited as a distraction that prevents children from going outside and exploring the natural world. However, we also know that technology brings great potential for connection and the expansion of educational opportunities. This field experience, exploring Science World and the False Creek area, will explore a variety of digital tools that can be used to enhance our students’ understanding of the natural world with a specific emphasis on inspiring climate change awareness and action. Participants will… 

  • Obtain hands-on experience with tools and technologies for deepening their students’ understanding of environmental and climate issues

  • Engage in opportunities for facilitated discussion and collaboration with their peers on ways to adapt these tools for use in their own classrooms

  • Leave with classroom-ready resources and suggested next steps for empowering students to understand and engage with topics in climate change and environmental science