The Friends of Presqu'ile Park would like to (re)invite you and your children into to the Park this Spring, Summer or Fall for a wealth of education and recreational exploration of our biodiversity. If you were a patron in 2010 read on! We have a lot more new this year …
To coincide with the United Nations International Year of Biodiversity 2010 and the United Nations Year of the Forest 2011, the Friends of Presqu'ile have unveiled their new Biodiversity offerings:
- the Kids ‘n Nature school curriculum,
- an expanded format for the Park's Nature Centre,
- new summer day camp, centred on our new Marsh Boardwalk and four other diverse habitats.
Biodiversity is a big word and concept, but put simply it is life connected and interacting in all its variety. ‘Those interactions create communities and systems, and those systems provide goods and services such as oxygen production, pollination, water filtration and storage, pest control, food production, carbon storage, and erosion control … biodiversity anchors nature's life support system.' (see http://www.biodiversityeducation.ca/ for more great information). It has attracted UN attention because it is being degraded by human (in)activity: we stand inside, not outside, nature and affect it. Hence the mission this year to Retain, Restore, Replace, and Recover.
Presqu'ile, as probably the most diverse of Ontario's Parks, is well-situated, and has a long history of presenting an awareness of biodiversity. This year, though, we're problem-solving it … not just classifying it! Check out our new Marsh Boardwalk signage as an example of this.
Kids 'n Nature
The overall biodiversity theme is that variety of life matters for the survival of all interconnected species/habitats in nature. The focus is on producing a sense of awe, connectedness, and stewardship in the student. It stresses linkages and interdependence, where the human is no mere observer. It avoids a sense of impending doom re pollution, loss of habitat, endangered species and invasive alien species, and focuses on grade 2-8 science themes.
Our 2011 units will cover: our Class 1 wetlands/marsh, our old growth forests, our unique pannes/dunes system on the Park's tombolo, our lake habitat, and our old fields as topical themes. Using these habitats, we will include: food chain, habitat quality and interconnectedness, species and habitat sustainability, human benefit, and diversity.
If you were here last year with your students, come back, as the choice is twice as broad!
The proven and successful Kids ‘n Nature programs uses the new schools curriculum approach to project-based learning whereby students gather information, evaluate it, and then make decisions based on their findings in order to achieve authentic assessments. The revised school curriculum removes the focus from classification-based learning (dragonflies have 4 wings), and places a large emphasis on experiencing the relationship between science and technology (solving problems).
The Kids 'n Nature program is specifically targeting grades 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7; however education opportunities for the entire elementary grades are available. The program works by delivering an in-class session to students to assess their knowledge of the program and introduce the elements of biodiversity. This lesson is followed up by a trip to the chosen habitat where they will experience teaching areas, on the ground, at different parts of the habitat. Each program is tailored to the specific expectations of grade-related Ontario Curriculum.
For, example: the boardwalk allows visitors to enter a bio diverse landscape that would otherwise be inaccessible. It also allows for a variety of educational opportunities for the community and the Park. Interpreters can lead guided hikes through the marsh, school groups can solve mission based problems regarding the Presqu'ile Marsh, and visitors can walk quietly and observe a plethora of birds, fish, amphibians, and invertebrates on any given day.
Click here for printable pdf
Nature Centre
In 2010 we also changed our recreation-based education: the things you learn when camping in the Park. This focussed, first, on revisions to our Nature Centre to reflect habitats rather than species. We secured support from the Biodiversity Gallery at ROM; established a new floor plan; acquired additional props from other Parks; built new dioramas, and partnered with an ENSS art student to paint them, and added new species to populate the building. Lively and noisy this past year! In 2011 we will expand the forest presentations in keeping with the United Nations Year of the Forest, improve a passport-certificate program, and add more Lake habitat interpretation. You'll be able to play real hands-on biodiversity games too - or see it in our movie theatre.
Year of the Forest
What better way to celebrate the United Nations Year of the Forest than reforestation in Presqu'ile? We'll have tree planting in the Spring and Nursery habitat maintenance during the summer. Watch our website for details.
Contact David Bree at 613 475 4643 ext 225 or david.bree@ontario.ca for more information on the Kids 'n Nature programme.
