May 2 - 4, 2007 Program

Students preparing for a communication game
The camp began with games and lessons about the importance of communication, trust and community support in the sustainability dialogue.

 
Sustainability Camp instructor Alana Jung teaching about biodiversity & conservation
The students spent most of their time learning outside, but often prepared for lessons or reviewed materials back in the Field Station's Classroom.

 
Tanya Dowdall of Parks Canada shows slides to students about marine pollution
As part of the pollution module, students worked with Parks Canada to clean up plastic debris on Long Beach. Many of the students live at Esowista, a First Nations community on Long Beach. Cleaning up plastic bottles which had floated in from Japan to rest in front of their homes helped reinforce how pollution has a global reach.

 
Cleaning up world-famous Long Beach
From Left: Junior (Long Beach), Jorge (Costa Rica), Jeremy (Long Beach), and Laura (Tofino)

 
Close-up of the "foam pile"
The students brought the beach debris back to the parking lot and organized everything into categorized piles. Tallying the garbage and graphing the categories reinforced the fact that most of the garbage collected was plastic, made from fossil fuels. Over 90% of the garbage collected was plastic.

 
Sustainability Camp: May, 2007
Thank you to the entire Grade Six class at the Wickaninnish Elementary School for making the first Sustainability Camp a success. Ms. Jaime Hansen was instrumental in the planning and implementation phases of the camp - thank you again, Ms. Hansen.