Daylighting St George's Creek

We are requesting funds to help pay for educational opportunities that will give students unique opportunities to learn more about their community, its past and the natural environment. By providing students with a meaningful context, they will learn so much more than pulling similar information from a generalized textbook. These hands on activities will provide students with the background knowledge they can utilize in sharing this information with other students and members of the community. In the process, they will develop skills in research, critical thinking such as implement a plan of action to address a selected school and community issue after looking at the different perspectives of the stakeholders, and presenting and sharing this information with the wider community. Students will also be learning about the environment and how their actions can change their community into a healthier, more interesting place. Students will share info about the nearby creek with our community through art, signs, or meeting community groups on our Community Days. When they pass by the school in future years to come, Mount Pleasant students will only need to look at the impact they have had in the development of their community.

Update (October 31, 2012)

April 2012
To complete our study of coho salmon, we traveled to Stanley Park to release our salmon fry into Beaver Creek. First, we completed a checklist with the staff from Stanley Park Ecology Centre to see if Beaver Creek is a healthy habitat for the fry we raised in the classroom. Students enjoyed taking a clear cup, gathering stream water and finding a place to release their fry and observing where it swims to. We then investigated a Beaver Lake by dipping a net into it to see what creature live there. Two of our students were surprised to hear an elated shriek from our leader because we had discovered a salamander that is on an endangered species list. We also learned how sensitive the stream is to rainfall, appropriate vegetation and animals like a nearby beaver that continues to dam up the place where the pond enters the salmon bearing creek. The scientists are planning to install a Beaver Baffle to enable the water to enter the stream below the dam so both the beaver and the salmon can coexist.

Update (October 31, 2012)

January 2012
After spending a month in the fall walking field trips around the Mount Pleasant Community and noticing historical buildings, homes and natural flora of the area, we returned to school to refer to maps and historical digital photographs of our community. Students learned about how people lived, and about local personalities like Joe Fortes. A field trip to Roedde House in the west end of Vancouver taught our students more about how the Roedde family lived at the time. Class discussions and activities centered on the importance of salmon and trees in Vancouver’s development as well as their effect on local waterways. Brewery Creek was used as a flume to deliver fallen logs to nearby sawmills as well as a water-source to make drinks like ginger ale. We discovered that later on many of these creeks were filled in using culverts and as a result much of the local fauna and flora have disappeared.

April 2012
To complete our study of coho salmon, we traveled to Stanley Park to release our salmon fry into Beaver Creek. Before doing this we completed a checklist with the staff from Stanley Park Ecology Centre to see if Beaver Creek is a healthy habitat for the fry we raised in the classroom. Students enjoyed taking a clear cup, gathering stream water and finding a place to release their fry and observing where it swims to. We then investigated a Beaver Lake by dipping a net into it to see what creature live there. Two of our students were surprised to hear an elated shriek from our leader because we had discovered a salamander that is on an endangered species list. We also learned how sensitive the stream is to rainfall, appropriate vegetation and animals like a nearby beaver that continues to dam up the place where the pond enters the salmon bearing creek. The scientists are planning to install a Beaver Baffle to enable the water to enter the stream below the dam so both the beaver and the salmon can coexist.

May 15, 2012
Later we traveled to the Musqueam Nation and met their Senior Aboriginal Fisheries Officer. He shared how the Musqueam Nation is taking care of their local creek so it continues to be a habitat for salmon! He also guided us through the forest pointing out all the ways salmon are protected by the nearby vegetation. The Musqueam people culverted the creek so salmon can still live in the creek and people can drive over the creek. The Musqueam Nation found a way for salmon and roads to coexist.