Our Programs

Gumboots – Water and our Relationship with the Environment

Connect. Fall in Love. Take Action.

At Ocean Ambassadors, we believe that we protect what we love — and to love something, we first need to feel connected to it.

Our Gumboots program gets students out of the classroom and down to the beach, where they can explore, touch, learn, and play. With their feet in the sand and water, students discover the magic of the shoreline — turning curiosity into connection and connection into inspiration.

Through hands-on exploration, students watch crabs scuttle, isopods crawl, barnacles feed, sea stars cling, seals swim, and shorebirds feed. Students learn about underwater kelp forests, and how these incredible coastal ecosystems work and why they matter. Students learn about the Coast Salish Peoples understanding of the need for balance. They begin to understand how human activities, like plastic pollution and habitat loss, impact ocean health, and they start to imagine what they can do to make a difference.

Each Gumboots experience inspires students to think creatively about solutions, empowering them to take meaningful action in their schools and communities. From small daily choices to big environmental projects, we support young people as they become part of a growing community of Ocean Ambassadors — passionate advocates for the seas that surround us.

Because when students get their feet wet, they start a lifelong journey:
connection → love → protection.

The Gumboots workshops link to the BC Curriculum focus on flexible learning environments and developing a sense of place. Our materials correlate to the BC Curriculum “Big Ideas” in Science and Social Studies, and to the core competencies including social responsibility, personal awareness and responsibility, critical and creative thinking and communication.

We know that the best learning happens when kids are comfortable. That’s why we provide raincoats and gumboots for those students who need them.

Instructor/Student Ratios:
Our instructor to student ratio is 1:10 for our Gumboots workshop.

Parent volunteers are not required for our programs.

Length: 4 hours
Cost: $32 per student
Minimum 20 students

For more information and to book, please email Sari at admin@oceanambassadorscanada.org.

Living vs Non-Living
- Classification of living and non-living things. Is it a plant, animal or something else?
- Living things have features and behaviours that help them survive in their environment
- Names of plants and animals found at the beach and along the shoreline
Structural features e.g. skeleton, no skeleton or exoskeleton and studying the parts of kelp
Social responsibility - Consider some environmental consequences of their actions
- What effects do the activities in your community have on the environment?
- Contributing to community and caring for the environment

Water sources:
- Local watersheds
Experience and interpret the local environment
Recognize First People’s stories as ways to share knowledge:
- Local First People’s knowledge of water: water cycles, conservation, connection to other systems
Social responsibility - Consider some environmental consequences of their actions
- What effects do the activities in your community have on the environment?
- Contributing to community and caring for the environment

Living things are diverse, can be grouped, and interact in their ecosystems
- Biodiversity
  - What is biodiversity? Why is biodiversity important in an ecosystem?
- Food chains and food webs (energy transfer)
  - Interconnectedness means that all things are related to and interact with each other in the environment. How does local First Peoples knowledge of living things demonstrate interconnectedness?
Social responsibility - Consider some environmental consequences of their actions
- What effects do the activities in your community have on the environment?
- Contributing to community and caring for the environment

Sensing and responding:
Biomes as large regions with similar environmental features
The impact of colonization on First Peoples societies in British Columbia and Canada
Students develop awareness of and take responsibility for their social, physical, and natural environments by working independently and collaboratively for the benefit of others, communities, and the environment. They are aware of the impact of their decisions, actions, and footprint. They advocate for and act to bring about positive change.