1,750 kids went on Wildsight’s Classroom With Outdoors trips this spring

What involves countless sandwiches, generous slathers of sunscreen, dozens of bus trips, and the science of wetlands, grasslands and forests?

Wildsight’s Classroom With Outdoors! Another season of eco-field trips for Grade 4 to 7 kids has just wrapped and the numbers are impressive.

“Wildsight’s 10 educators just delivered 70 programs to approximately 1,750 kids across the Columbia Basin,” said Monica Nissen, Wildsight’s Education in the Wild manager. “The trips offer experiential, science-based learning about ecology and help kids connect with wild natural places in the region.”

Nissen said this year—the program’s twelfth—has been a great success.

The field trips aren’t the beginning or end of the Classroom With Outdoors program, said Nissen. “We provide teachers with pre-trip curriculum they can use to introduce their students to the key concepts before we head out for the trips.

“We also provide follow-up curriculum. That way, teachers are able to round out the learning and students learn more of the science to meet their grade-level requirements.”

So many students were able to go on field trips this year thanks to generous funding provided by Columbia Basin Trust,  BC Gaming Commission, Fortis BC, Teck, Columbia Power Corporation, Hamber, North Face Explore Fund, North Kootenay Lake Community Fund, Creston Community Fund and CBEEN (the Columbia Basin Environmental Education Network.)

“As school lets out, parents can encourage outdoor play and exploration with their kids,” Nissen said.

“It’s simply a matter of giving kids lots of opportunities to play outside in wild spaces, whether those are a backyard or one of the amazing provincial regional or national parks that surround us.”

Nissen says Classroom With Outdoors brings science learning to life. Wildsight offers the field trips through May and June.

“We’re so pleased to support kids in our communities to get outside during the last weeks of school to learn valuable lessons in a hands-on, experiential way,” Nissen said. “We acknowledge the sponsors who helped us to make this happen, and encourage parents to create opportunities for nature play and discovery throughout the summer months.”

Photo: Students from McKim Middle School in Kimberley study the wetland ecosystem at Elizabeth Lake. Photo courtesy Patty Kolesnichenko

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