Eco-Explorers:
Sixth grade students explore their environment at FBC

After a cold, long winter that hid away all things green under ice and snow, spring presented the opportunity for people to once again take to the outdoors and learn from the surrounding environment. Spring brought more than just flowers to the Falls Brook Centre in Knowlesville this past May. This year grade 6 students came to the environmental education centre to become Ecoexplorers.

Julie Stinson, school programs coordinator at the Falls Brook Centre, organized the month long Ecoexplorer field day program for grade 6 students in Carlton and Victoria counties. Stinson said, “The field trips allowed the students to apply their knowledge and skills in fun, creative and challenging ways.” Amongst the activities of the fun filled day the students explored the Climate Change Bus and renewable energies like wind and solar power. The students made use of their abundant energy on a biodiversity orienteering hike. They got their hands dirty learning about compost. The One World Puppet Theatre presented the show “Fossil Fools” to include a global perspective in the day’s activities.

To keep with the hands-on aspect of learning on the field day, the students got to put their scientific and engineering skills to work with Brent “Electron” Crowhurst, renewable energy coordinator at Falls Brook Centre. For Electron the best moments of the Ecoexplorer experience were, “Witnessing those eureka learning moments during new experiences; like measuring how much standby power a TV uses when it is plugged in and not turned on, observing the electrical properties of solar cells, or discovering how a small wind turbine's output changes with different wind speeds.”

The experiential learning for Carlton and Victoria counties’ Ecoexplorers took flight with Big Blue, the Climate change Bus. As an interactive museum in the form of a bus the students were able to put their Climate Change knowledge to the test.

Steering away from renewable energies and Climate Change the students took to the forest at Falls Brook Centre. Under the direction of Julie “Critter” Stinson they participated in an orienteering hike. Away from the regular technology of cell phones, computers and cars, the Ecoexplorers were challenged to navigate the land by compass. With much enthusiasm, the students took to the forest collecting points for their team when they found and properly identified certain trees native to the Acadian Forest.

Once warmed up, everyone dug their hands into the dirt learning about man’s best friend, according to Darwin: the worm. Any Ecoexplorer could tell you that a red wiggler can be a key component to decomposition in compost.

The One World Puppet Theatre allowed the students an atmosphere to put on their creative caps. In groups of 4 or 5, comic strips were drawn out to create a second act and ending to the puppet show Fossil Fools. These comic strips highlighted solutions or alternatives for the fossil fuel dependent fairytale kingdom of Acirema. The princess of the story was in a dreadful mess, but with the clever ideas of the participating sixth graders her future didn’t look so dismal.

The Ecoexplorers were able to take the knowledge and skills learned in the classroom all year and use them in hands-on environmental activities. Stinson commented that the enthusiasm of the students was contagious, “I was glad to be a part of this important educational opportunity.”

Curiosity about the outdoors continues to flourish in New Brunswick youth and Falls Brook Centre continues to provide a positive space for students and people of all ages to take that curiosity to the next level with hands-on, outdoor, learning activities.