Submitted by: Damian A
Grade level: middle-years,elementary
Core Competencies: social-responsibility,positive-personal-and-cultural-identity,communication
Subject Disciplines: biology,history,indigenous-education,outdoor-education
What is Our One Hectare Backyard?
Our One Hectare Backyard is a series of educational videos that use a stewardship framework to guide exploration of an urban park. This virtual outdoor classroom connects elementary students with nature through short, fun lessons about native species.
Why create a video resource?
The benefits of outdoor classrooms are numerous, but some Vancouver teachers find it challenging to get outdoors enough. Multiple barriers exist and interact to prevent teachers from incorporating outdoor experiences into their classroom. This video series addresses two of those barriers: distance to parks and uncertainty about how to incorporate environmental learning into the current curriculum.
The series is set in Sparwood park and features local species that can be found there. This means these fun and age-appropriate videos provide historical, social and ecological context for the green space that elementary students use almost every day.
