Grade 1

The second edition of Natural Curiosity supports a stronger basic awareness of Indigenous perspectives and their importance to environmental education. The driving motivation for a second edition was the burning need, in the wake of strong and unequivocal recommendations by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to situate Indigenous perspectives into the heart of Canadian educational settings and curricula, most notably in connection with environmental issues.

The Indigenous lens in this edition represents a cross-cultural encounter supporting what can become an ongoing dialogue and evolution of practice in environmental inquiry. Some important questions are raised that challenge us to think in very different ways about things as fundamental as the meaning of knowledge.

Le présent document est un excellent outil pour l’enseignante ou l’enseignant de même qu’un incitatif pour l’élève à découvrir le monde qui l’entoure. Dans cette deuxième édition de Curiosité naturelle, on découvre plus en détail l’apprentissage environnemental vu par les Autochtones. Avec cette découverte, on ne peut que remettre complètement en question la place que l’on occupe dans le monde. Le point de vue autochtone de cette édition donne le coup d’envoi d’un dialogue qui permet à l’enseignante ou à l’enseignant de découvrir la vision autochtone des choses et à l’élève de tisser des liens durables avec le monde naturel. Vous pouvez acheter le ressource ici.

Emerging Leaders for Solar Energy (ELSE), in collaboration with The Critical Thinking Consortium (TC²), created the Shining Light on Solar Energy resource to support educators and learners in developing energy and climate literacy using critical inquiry and a multidisciplinary approach.

With twenty-four lessons divided into Division One through Four, this resource explores the roles that solar power might play in providing sustainable energy for our vehicles, homes, schools, and communities. This resource has been designed to nurture the competencies required for scientific thinking and critical inquiry, with a focus on using critical thinking to deepen conceptual and subject-area understanding.

Each fully-developed lesson includes teaching notes, briefing sheets, image sets, activity sheets, and assessment materials to support student thinking and learning about solar energy.

Butterfly Wings n' Wishes Ltd has a variety of critter kits for your classroom. Larvae Kits can be pre-ordered for the Spring anytime throughout the year, and preordering is recommended.  Kits do not include a habitat for the adult butterflies and must be ordered separately.

Butterfly Wings and Wished Ltd also offers in-classroom programs! Outreach programs include an up-close and personal experience with 7-10 animals, a mix of native and exotic rescue species. Topics covered are conservation, needs of the animals, ecological interactions, our effect on wildlife, and what we can do to help. 
Classes are one hour long, and program attendance is capped at 30 people. 

Nature Canada has a number of downloadable resources. From a scavenger hunt to tips on how to help nature in you area, these resources offer ways to get outside and connected with nature.

RecycleBots is a free mobile game where players learn how to sort waste into recycling, landfill or composting with the help of their robot friends.

The Alberta Education competencies: Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Managing Information, Creativity and Innovation, Communication, Collaboration, Cultural and Global Citizenship, and Personal Growth and Well-being all provide excellent opportunities to engage with environmental stewardship. These Environmental Stewardship Competency Cards provide a visual for showing students the competencies involved with engaging in environmental issues and action. 

Ocean Wise offers a traveling program visiting schools across Canada. To request a visit to your school, please visit the website. 

• AquaVan - We offer two program styles to accommodate a maximum of 260 students or a maximum of 500 students. All programs include four staff as well as live marine invertebrates.
• AquaZone - Full day program (four sessions) or half day program (two sessions) can accommodate up to 30 students per session and includes two staff, a selection of artifacts and live marine invertebrates.
• AquaKits - Standalone kits ready for use in your classroom complete with lesson plans, rented per day of use plus transportation costs to and from your location.

Vertical Oxygen can help schools design and install living walls. Their services include:

• Initial consultation
• Design, installation, and maintenance of walls
• Plants
• Automatic irrigation system
• Lighting
• Maintenance training

Custom applications include:

• Mobile living walls
• Integrated aquaponics
• Off-grid solar PV powered systems
• Rain-water irrigation
• Double-sided living walls

The Geological Bumblebee Program is an outreach program led by Dr. Katherine Boggs from Mount Royal University in Calgary that combines geology and biology. The program consists of learning about bee species in local areas and taking action to help conserve them. During the first classroom visit in spring, students construct bumblebee boxes, and the program then takes students on a field trip to a local natural area to install the boxes. Geology of the local area is explored as well, and students investigate what geology tells us about the place we live and how it was formed. 

In fall, the programs takes students back to the park to collect the boxes and see if they were used by bumblebees.

Please contact Dr. Katherine Boggs if your class is interested in taking part in the program: kboggs@mtroyal.ca

The Alberta Council for Environmental Education YouTube channel is a resource for teachers wanting to get inspired and inspire their students to take action. The channel features a variety of short video clip success stories of student-led action projects.