https://fraserriverdiscoverycentre....hat-led-to-the-my-river-my-home-resource-kit/
The bends in the road that led to the My River My Home resource kit
FEBRUARY 13, 2015
This year, the Fraser River Discovery Centre http://fraserriverdiscovery.org/ launched a new resource kit http://fraserriverdiscovery.org/MyRiverMyHome for teachers to complement our My River My Home exhibit focusing on the research of the Global Rivers Observatory http://www.globalrivers.org/ .
Designed with British Columbia’s school curriculum in mind, the My River My Home Resource Kit provides lesson plans, activities and background information related to the ecosystems, cultures and industries connected to the Fraser River.
It is so exciting for me to finally see the My River My Home resource kit in print and on our website for everyone to download! Creating it was an amazing collaborative process with many bends in the road.
The kit includes 25 lesson plans to help students connect to water and investigate sustainability.
http://fraserriverdiscovery.org/MyRiverMyHome
The lead scientists from the Global Rivers Observatory who are testing the water quality of the Fraser River joined our exhibit advisory committee, sharing their extensive knowledge to create a scientifically accurate exhibit that reflected their years of work testing the water quality of the Fraser and five other rivers around the world. The advisory committee was so committed to the process and forthcoming with their knowledge that we had a plethora of information, only a portion of which was to be displayed in the exhibit gallery. We had all this information and no format to share it with our audiences. It was a wonderful problem to have!
And so the idea for the resource kit was born. Way back in its infancy, this project started as a pH lesson plan for grade 7s to serve as a pre-visit activity for the My River My Home resource kit. Stephanie Chong, a UBC Museum Education graduate student, developed the lesson plan during an internship she completed for her Master’s Degree. Neither of us had any idea how big this project would become!
Testing pH at the Fraser River Discovery Centre
When I studied the grade 7 science text book for how it teaches pH, I saw an opportunity to broaden the scope of our project and include more information the advisory committee had shared with us. And so the project grew to include lessons about ecology, food chains, the salmon life-cycle, and the carbon cycle that would provide Fraser River case studies for teachers to use throughout their grade 7 science year. Woo hoo! We were almost done!
Then the unexpected happened. The BC Government released a new draft curriculum https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/ that proposed extensive changes to the BC curriculum. The draft proposes to shuffle ecology lessons out of grade 7 into grades 3 and 9. This presented an interesting challenge that turned into an amazing opportunity that we ran with.
What started as a single lesson plan for a single grade morphed into 25 lesson plans that hits curriculum requirements for grades K to 9. The resource is also now multidisciplinary and cross-curricular, providing a holistic look at the ecological, cultural, and economic sustainability of the Fraser River. The activities now cover science, social studies, visual and dramatic arts prescribed learning outcomes.
This has been an amazingly rewarding experience. We have made connections with many teachers in the Lower Mainland who piloted the kit for us and provided invaluable feedback on how they would use the resource in their classrooms. The result is a product I am very proud of because of its solid scientific foundation. I am so grateful to the committed team of educators who piloted the kit and suggested ways to make it work better for their classrooms. Now it is finally available for teachers, educators, group leaders, and families to use to as they help children in British Columbia develop deep and meaningful connections to the Fraser River.
The bends in the road that led to the My River My Home resource kit
FEBRUARY 13, 2015
This year, the Fraser River Discovery Centre http://fraserriverdiscovery.org/ launched a new resource kit http://fraserriverdiscovery.org/MyRiverMyHome for teachers to complement our My River My Home exhibit focusing on the research of the Global Rivers Observatory http://www.globalrivers.org/ .
Designed with British Columbia’s school curriculum in mind, the My River My Home Resource Kit provides lesson plans, activities and background information related to the ecosystems, cultures and industries connected to the Fraser River.
It is so exciting for me to finally see the My River My Home resource kit in print and on our website for everyone to download! Creating it was an amazing collaborative process with many bends in the road.
The kit includes 25 lesson plans to help students connect to water and investigate sustainability.
http://fraserriverdiscovery.org/MyRiverMyHome
The lead scientists from the Global Rivers Observatory who are testing the water quality of the Fraser River joined our exhibit advisory committee, sharing their extensive knowledge to create a scientifically accurate exhibit that reflected their years of work testing the water quality of the Fraser and five other rivers around the world. The advisory committee was so committed to the process and forthcoming with their knowledge that we had a plethora of information, only a portion of which was to be displayed in the exhibit gallery. We had all this information and no format to share it with our audiences. It was a wonderful problem to have!
And so the idea for the resource kit was born. Way back in its infancy, this project started as a pH lesson plan for grade 7s to serve as a pre-visit activity for the My River My Home resource kit. Stephanie Chong, a UBC Museum Education graduate student, developed the lesson plan during an internship she completed for her Master’s Degree. Neither of us had any idea how big this project would become!
Testing pH at the Fraser River Discovery Centre
When I studied the grade 7 science text book for how it teaches pH, I saw an opportunity to broaden the scope of our project and include more information the advisory committee had shared with us. And so the project grew to include lessons about ecology, food chains, the salmon life-cycle, and the carbon cycle that would provide Fraser River case studies for teachers to use throughout their grade 7 science year. Woo hoo! We were almost done!
Then the unexpected happened. The BC Government released a new draft curriculum https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/ that proposed extensive changes to the BC curriculum. The draft proposes to shuffle ecology lessons out of grade 7 into grades 3 and 9. This presented an interesting challenge that turned into an amazing opportunity that we ran with.
What started as a single lesson plan for a single grade morphed into 25 lesson plans that hits curriculum requirements for grades K to 9. The resource is also now multidisciplinary and cross-curricular, providing a holistic look at the ecological, cultural, and economic sustainability of the Fraser River. The activities now cover science, social studies, visual and dramatic arts prescribed learning outcomes.
This has been an amazingly rewarding experience. We have made connections with many teachers in the Lower Mainland who piloted the kit for us and provided invaluable feedback on how they would use the resource in their classrooms. The result is a product I am very proud of because of its solid scientific foundation. I am so grateful to the committed team of educators who piloted the kit and suggested ways to make it work better for their classrooms. Now it is finally available for teachers, educators, group leaders, and families to use to as they help children in British Columbia develop deep and meaningful connections to the Fraser River.
