With support from TD Friends of the Environment and a partnership with UBC students studying Place-Based Learning, the Intergenerational Landed Learning Project is piloting a new program to help children and youth connect more closely with Indigenous forest ecology. The Forest Explorer backpacks were dreamed up by UBC graduate students Sonia Woodman and Brynne Clark. As part of their practicum in EDCP 532, the grad students helped Landed Learning develop curriculum to engage Farm visitors more closely with the Indigenous plants and the cultural history of our land. Woodman and Clark went above and beyond the curriculum development requirements of their projects to seek funding from TD Friends of the Environment so that Landed Learning could make resource backpacks that groups can use for self-guided hands-on activity tours.
The backpacks are full of curriculum ideas and observational tools, such as hand lenses and guide books, to help children and adults slow down and observe the native ecosystems that are increasingly rare in our urban environment. Teacher Nimi Sandhu and her students from the University Hill Secondary School Me to We club helped put together the backpacks and pilot the activities. Children and volunteers participating in Landed Learning are loving the opportunity to connect with the wonderful plants and animals in the forest, and are learning to care for and protect our ecosystem. Landed Learning hopes to be able to check the backpacks out to groups visiting the UBC Farm in the near future.