Indigenous Perspectives

Three Nations Energy provides teacher & student guides, videos, and fact sheets about the carbon cycle, methane cycle, climate change, energy efficiency, renewable energy, hydroponics, and gardening! The student guides allow for self-directed learning and include an activity, basic facts, and follow up challenges and experiments. The teacher guides can be combined with the associated factsheets. Alberta curriculum ties are identified for all activities.

These materials are available as a Basic, Advanced or General level. The Basic level has been designed for an elementary, junior high, or adult learner with less of a science or technical background. The Advanced level has been designed for a senior high student, trades person, or an adult with a strong science or technical background. The General level is more suited to a wider audience.

Guides include how to build a solar oven and solar air heating!

Choose your Voice and Voices into Action are two free online resources filled with curriculum based lesson-plans for teachers based on social justice issues and environmental justice issues, including Residential Schools, Chinese Head Tax, Japanese Internment Camps, Immigration, The Roots of
Slavery, Antisemitism, Gender Equality, LGBTQ rights, Cyberbullying, and so much more.
For Grades 5-8: Choose Your Voice
For Grades 9-12: Voices Into Action

Also available in French:  www.choisissezvotrevoix.ca and www.parlezetagissez.ca

Toronto Outdoor Education Schools has put together a searchable database of outdoor education activities for all grades and subject areas. 

Ocean Networks Canada provides a rich bank of resources for teachers and students to introduce and explore different themes and concepts of ocean science.

The Indigenous Games for Children Resource is a collection of traditional Indigenous games and activities to help introduce or reconnect children to recreational and sport activities that reflect the rich cultural heritage of our Indigenous peoples across Canada. 

The Niitsitapiisini Teacher Toolkit comes in two parts. The Blackfoot Culture section of the toolkit provides an overview of the culture and history of the Blackfoot people. This section introduces teachers to the Blackfoot world and how it has changed and adapted over the centuries. The Learning Resources section informs teachers of the protocols involved in teaching First Nations students, provides access to instructional units and a list of additional resources. The units are designed to compliment and extend the Virtual Exhibit web activities and include cultural and historical resources, activities and assessment strategies.

The Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley has downloadable lesson plans about wildlife, conservation, and climate change for Kindergarten to Grade 9 science and social studies curriculum. They continue to improve these plans, including an ongoing collaboration with the Nakoda Youth Council to weave together Indigenous and Western perspectives and will continue adding lessons to the page. The Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley truly welcomes teacher input and feedback for improving these resources. 

Furthermore, the Biosphere Institute is excited to visit teachers' digital classroom through your preferred online platform. They are happy to deliver short presentations in topic areas related to climate change, sustainability, and human-wildlife coexistence and are happy to work with teachers on a one-on-one basis to meet their classroom needs. Explore the programs here. Teachers can email education@biosphereinstitute.org to book a program or to reach out with any questions.

Another program is WildSmart, which teaches residents and visitors to live smart with wildlife. Programs include bear spray training sessions, wildlife awareness talks, classroom programs and interactive booths for youth, families, outdoor educators, people employed in the recreation and tourism industry, and outdoor recreationalists.

Classroom Resources includes online dissection alternatives, Animal Cams, and the Five Needs of animals video series. 

AnimalTales is a free book lending program with online resources and pre and post activities for Kindergarten to Grade 6. 

The following discussion questions and activities foster curiosity and link to Language Arts and Science curriculum for Kindergarten to Grade 7+. See past themes here, including kindness, respect, compassion, and responsibility. 

There are also Class Action Project ideas and guides to help animals, people, and the environment. Classes who complete projects can also end up on the Kindness Map. 

See CTS course offerings related to Equine, Animal Basics, and Animal Husbandry and Welfare. Teachers can complete the course as a class or a student can individually work through the course. 

The Seven Sacred/Grandfather Teachings include a teachers' guide and student activity booklet for Grades 1-2 and 3-6. 

Canadian Geographic's giant floor map program is a free resource offered to K-12 teachers. Each floor map comes with a teacher guide with at least ten curriculum-linked activities will help bring the map to life.

Maps include:

Energy Production and Transmission: This map gives students the chance to explore and learn Canada’s energy story, highlighting where Canada’s energy is produced and where it goes.

Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada: This map shows the locations of Indigenous communities, residential schools, reserves and more. Rather than political borders, Canada is broken up into Indigenous language groups.

Polar Knowledge Canada: This map looks at the world from a circumpolar perspective. Use this map to explore the Arctic region and discuss why the Arctic circumpolar region is so important.

Canada from Space: This map, comprised of images taken by Canada’s RADARSAT-2, teaches students how Earth observation satellites monitor Canada’s environment, climate and borders.

ChangeMakers is a community/network providing learning opportunities, events, social connection, and a platform to grow your network and champion ecojustice for all. 

Climate Game Changers is an interactive resource to help guide climate learning for students, adults, and teachers. With a ‘choose your own adventure’ style of learning, and ways to take climate action. 

Bring Nature Home Toolkit for parents, students, and teachers to support outdoor and wildlife education. The tool lets you filter activities by Grade and Topic.

Forest Stewards provides information about the relationship between fires and forests, logging, and hydrological processes. 

CPAWS also has an action project map to discover what actions are being taken by students around Alberta in order to preserve the integrity of our parks and protected areas. Have you done any projects recently? Add your actions to the map!