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K-12 Resources
Youth 4 Action

Teacher Workshops 

Explore K to 12 teaching strategies and tools to make sustainability real, relevant, engaging, BC curriculum-connected and fun!

  • Located at your school or at one of many Metro Vancouver facilities; such as within a regional park, or water and waste management facility. 
  • Duration of sessions range between 90-minutes and a full-day. 
  • Customized to suit the needs and interests of teachers. 
  • Includes a variety of resources; such as teacher guides with student lessons and background, maps, posters, videos, and links to other organizations with resources.

Want to book a workshop or find out more? Contact us:

phone number 604-432-6200 

e-mail  teacher@metrovancouver.org


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Sustainability and Ecological Health
Shift Happens - Exploring sustainability in the classroom and beyond! (Elementary, Secondary)
Workshop Description

In this fun and interactive session we will explore unique strategies to make learning about sustainability real, relevant and action-oriented.

Discover personal and local connections to water, wastewater, garbage, air quality, climate change and regional growth.  Delve into a variety of place-based resources to promote CARE and support environmentally responsible shifts in your school community.    

Explore strategies to turn ideas into action in class, on the school grounds and in the school community.   

Receive ideas, strategies, tools and inspiration to engage students in experiential learning about sustainability - the most important topic on earth.

Get Outdoors! Exploring strategies for using the outdoor classroom effectively (Elementary, Secondary)
Workshop Description
Get Outdoors
You don't need to be an expert naturalist to use the outdoor classroom effectively!  In this session discover and explore experiential strategies to enrich student learning in any subject area while also connecting them to nature. 
 
This workshop is co-delivered by Metro Vancouver and WildBC. 

Participants receive the Get Outdoors, An Educator’s Guide to Outdoor Classrooms in Parks, School grounds and other Special Places - a new resource packed full of fun and practical strategies for taking students outdoors; instructional posters, and a satellite map of the region.

Connecting Children with Nature (Elementary)
Workshop Description
Acquire effective and engaging tools, strategies and techniques for connecting students with nature and the outdoor classroom – including the school ground, the school community and nearby parks and green spaces!
Activity booklet included.
Garbage and The 4R's
No Time to Waste (Elementary)
Workshop Description
Discover what happens to the mountains of waste and recyclables that we produce. Through a variety of practical group activities and discussion, explore a variety of waste management issues such as the sources, composition, processing and disposal of waste and a variety of innovative waste reduction choices.
Receive curriculum resources, including a teachers' guide, instructional posters, and a satellite map of the region.
 
Regional growth
Shaping a Sustainable Region (Secondary)
Workshop Description
Examines the challenges and issues related to managing growth in the Greater Vancouver Region. The curriculum complements the Livable Region Strategic Plan, a key planning document. Concepts include: community, demographics, agriculture, parks, transportation, and complete and compact strategies.
Free resources
Participants receive a teachers’ guide, a CD-ROM of orthophotos of the region, a DVD/video on transportation, other growth-related publications, and a poster sized satellite map of the region.
 
Water
From Source to Sea - Water and Wastewater (Primary-Intermediate)
Workshop Description
Explore water from source to sea! Discover the challenge of supplying safe drinking water and collecting and treating wastewater for a growing region. Try activities designed to engage learners in thinking critically about the implications our water-use choices in the region.
Receive curriculum resources, including a teachers' guide, color maps of the water supply system and the wastewater collection system, instructional posters, student activity books and a satellite map of the region.

Curriculum Connections
Prescribed Learning Outcomes (PLO's) are statements of what students are expected to learn at each grade level; they comprise the curriculum.

Source to Sea:

Kindergarten
Subject: Science
Topic: Earth and Space Science
Page in IRP: 53
It is expected that students will:
• Demonstrate the ability to observe their surroundings

Grade 2:
Subject: Science
Topic: Earth and Space Science
Page in IRP: 71
It is expected that students will:
• Describe physical properties for air, water and soil
• Distinguish ways in which air, water, and soil interact
• Explain why air, water, and soil are important for living things

Subject: Social Studies
Topic: Environment
Page in IRP: 32
It is expected that students will:
• Demonstrate understanding of their responsibility to local and global environments

Grade 3:
Subject: Social Studies
Topic: Environment
Page in IRP: 32
It is expected that students will:
• Demonstrate understanding of their responsibility to local and global environments

Grade 4
Subject: Science
Topic: Life Science
Page in IRP: 87
It is expected that students will:
• Determine how personal choices and actions have environmental consequences

Page in IRP: 91
It is expected that students will:
• Measure weather in terms of temperature, precipitation, cloud cover, wind speed and direction

Subject: Social Studies
Topic: Application of Social Studies
Page in IRP: 34
It is expected that students will:
• Design and implement strategies to address school problems or projects

Grade 5:
Subject: Science
Topic: Earth and Space Science
Page in IRP: 101
It is expected that students will:
• Analyze how BC’s living and non-living resources are used
• Describe potential environmental impacts of using BC’s living and non-living resources

Subject: Social Studies
Topic: Environment
Page in IRP: 52
It is expected that students will:
• Describe the diverse distribution of natural resources within Canada
• Demonstrate understanding of sustainability, stewardship, and renewable versus non-renewable natural resources
• Assess effects of lifestyles and industries on local and global environments

Grade 7
Subject: Science
Topic: Life Science
Page in IRP: 117
It is expected that students will:
• Analyze the roles of organisms as part of interconnected food webs, populations, communities, and ecosystems
• Evaluate human impacts on local ecosystems

Get Tapped In - Drinking Water (Secondary)
Workshop Description
Examine the challenges and issues related to managing our drinking water supply in the Greater Vancouver. Work from the guide and participate in small and large group activities to explore watersheds, water treatment and monitoring, filtration, delivery to our homes, and safety
Receive curriculum resources, including a teachers' guide, color maps of our water system, a collection of regional maps on CD Rom, blackline masters, instructional posters, other water-related publications, and a poster sized satellite map of the region.
Air quality and Climate change
Let's Clear the Air (Elementary)
Workshop Description
Through group activities and discussion participants will address current and local air quality issues such as: the importance of clean air, the effects of poor air on people and other organisms, the connection between local activities, global impacts, and choices that contribute to poor air quality and environmental impacts.
Receive curriculum resources, including a teachers' guide, instructional posters and a satellite map of the region.
 
What's All the Fuss? (Secondary)
Workshop Description
Explores The Temperature Rising in Southwestern B.C. poster and practical classroom activities which address the concept of climate change, climate patterns and the impact of climate change on natural resources such as forests, agriculture, fish and wildlife, and natural processes such as local hydrology, flooding, and erosion. Examines how human activity may affect smog and health and long-term outcomes of climate change both globally and locally.
Receive curriculum resources, including a teachers' guide, two copies of the Temperature Rising posters, climate change-related publications, and a satellite map of the region.
 

 Upcoming Events
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Resources

Workshop participants receive teacher resources, a satellite map, instructional posters, student activities, system maps and background information to support classroom teaching and learning about sustainability topics.
Interested in a workshop? Contact
Education Coordinators
phone number 604-432-6200

Fast Facts

Why sustainability education in your classroom and school community? View the new Environmental Learning and Experience: An interdisciplinary guide for teachers (BC Ministry of Education, November 2007) VIEW