Our Programs

Gumboots – Water and our Relationship with the Environment

Water and our Relationship with the Environment

In this 4 hour workshop for students in grades 1-4. Students will explore the ecology of the beach, enjoy shared discussions around an indigenous-linked story, play games and will take part in a curriculum specific, grade-focused activity. The Gumboots workshop links 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.

Find more curriculum – specific content for each grade detailed below.

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

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 conservation:
- The water cycle
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

The world under the water. In this workshop students will learn about the marine biome and how living things sense and respond to their environment through ways of communicating (echolocation) and responses (plants responding to temperature and light changes). Students will be encouraged to consider some of the environmental consequences of their actions and discover ways they are able to contribute to the community and care for the environment. Students will also take part in an environmental stewardship workshop whereby they will have an opportunity to discuss some of the threats towards the marine environment and then come up with their own call to action.