a social justice program of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation

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Project Profile

Project Title:
Building Nature Connection V
Initiative:
Imagineaction Social Action Projects
School Name:
Barbara Reid Public School
School board / First Nations school jurisdiction:
York Region District School Board
Project Theme:
  • Engage [active & participatory citizenship]
  • Live [environmental sustainability]
Grade Level:
K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Subject Areas:
English, French, French as a Second Language, Science, Social Sciences and Humanities
City:
Stouffville
Province/Territory:
Ontario
Community Partners:
Over the years we have made very strong relationships with LSF, TRCA, LSRCA, YRDSB Outdoor Edu Centres, Oak Ridges Morraine Land Trust, Able Angler, Ministry of Natural Resources Fishing, EcoSchools Ontario, EcoSpark, BEAN, York University Faculty of Environmental Studies, Toronto Zoo, Ontario Science Centre and the Science Teachers' Association of Ontario. As well, the number of schools that have participated in previous events include Aldergrove PS, Barbara Reid PS, Bakersfield PS, L.H. Frechette PS, Beverley Acres PS, Julliard PS, Elder's Mills PS, Vaughan SS, Milliken Mills SS and Wismer PS. We are hoping to include these and many more for 2019.

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Building Nature Connection V

Over the past four years, YRDSB has supported the Building Nature Connection Event. It has been hosted at four different elementary schools and is once again scheduled tentatively for May 2, 2019 at Beverley Acres PS in Richmond Hill. The event takes the overall structure of a community eco-fair where students from all participating schools showcase their environmental stewardship projects in an interactive format along with eco-partners. All students, staff and community members are invited and the evening portion of the event is open to the entire school board.

Update (June 3, 2019)

Building Nature Connection V was a great success this year. It was held at Beverley Acres Public School in Richmond Hill. The event features student-inquiry environmental projects alongside our Eco-Partners. We were very fortunate to have participation this year from York Region Environmental Services, York Region Public Health, The Jane Goodall Institute of Canada - Roots & Shoots, Natural Curiosity, The Toronto Zoo - Aqua-Links, EcoSpark, The Science Teachers’ Association of Ontario, Toronto & Region Conservation Authority, and Discovery Planetarium. We also welcomed our partnering schools Barbara Reid Public School, Louis-Honore Frechette Public School, Romeo Dallaire Public School and Bakersfield Public School. It was a great day of interactive and hands-on activities for all the students during the day and some great informative and practical workshops for educators, parents and community members in the evening. The main purpose behind this annual event is to provide engagement and empowerment for people to build connections with nature in their own backyard, We are looking forward to BNC VI taking place in the spring of 2020!

Update (June 28, 2019)

As part of the annual school board eco-fair, this year's BNC V was a great success. What was most interesting is that we are now considered a bilingual event (French and English) as it was hosted at a French Immersion school, Beverley Acres PS in Richmond Hill, and featured many projects in French as well as the eco-partners showcasing their resources in both official languages.

There are now students who have been involved in the project for the past 5 years and every year we add one or two new schools as we host it at different elementary schools across the school board. The main purpose of the eco-fair to to help students, families, parents, teachers, community members, etc. learn how to connect with nature in their own backyards. From the students' perspectives it is about connecting and re-connecting with other like-minded individuals and to learn about what new initiatives each school is doing over the course of the school year. It also has had an indirect impact of mentorship opportunities for students and their teachers as the connections made at the past events have contributed to continued partnerships

We are looking forward to our next event that will take place May 2020 for BNC VI!