Building Nature Connection IV

Building Nature Connection is an annual event in the York Region District School Board; we are organizing the 4th one for April 25, 2018. It will be held at Barbara Reid PS. The event aims to build a nature connection in people's own backyards and is a culmination of student-action projects, eco-partner organizations and teacher/community workshops. Students work through an inquiry project to take action/raise awareness about an environmental issue that connects to them and their respected curriculum expectations (Gr.6 Biodiversity, Gr.7 Ecosystems, Gr.8 Water Systems) and they create an interactive booth that will be featured on the day of the Eco-Fair alongside our eco-partners. A Science Teachers Association of Ontario resource was created by myself and another colleague that guides teachers through the inquiry process as well as supports and resources for the teachers. This resource can be found at this address:
http://connex.stao.ca/classroom-catalyst/experience-sustainability-grade-8

Update (June 5, 2018)

We are very excited to inform Imagine-Action that the York Region District School Board's 4th Annual Eco-Fair Building Nature Connection IV was a great success on May 2, 2018. The event specifically brought together 4 elementary schools in terms of the funding and working together collaboratively on the overall project. These schools were Barbara Reid Public School, Aldergrove Public School, Louis-Honore Frechette Public School and Bakersfield Public School. Please also note that Vaughan Secondary School and Milliken Mills High School were also part of the collaboration. The purpose of this project was to have students, their families and the local community to be exposed to hands-on learning in order to build connections with their own local urban environment. Students from all the schools created and researched issues that they were passionate about and they created interactive booths that were showcased at the Eco-Fair. We also made connections with partners that set up booths during the fair as well. During the day, Barbara Reid Public School's students had full access to the interactive booths and after school students, teachers, community members and other school eco-teams attended. There were 8 free workshops that were showcased as well as environmentally friendly swag. We are very excited to report that Buidling Nature Connect V will be taking place in 2019 at another school in our school board and we are looking forward to making more connections as we continue to move forward.

Update (June 15, 2018)

We produced videos for the event:

https://youtu.be/WV6LH_ZnhFs
BNC IV - Trailer (2018)

https://youtu.be/gkiJuFNS3Es
BNC IV - Short Recap (2018)