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Explorations Outside: Getting Outdoors Can Create a Better Learning Atmosphere

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Guest post and images by Teya W.

On Friday, May 22nd, the Explorations students of all grades took part in an outdoor field trip to Deas Island for an invasive weed pull and nature walk. We really didn’t know what to expect when we stepped foot onto the bus. Weed pulling does not sound appealing in any way that you put it, to be quite honest, but with an optimistic spirit and a good attitude we embraced it.

Getting there was actually only a short distance from the suburbs of Richmond in which we all live.  Grasslands that connected to water and sand that spouted plants about knee height is a very different atmosphere from what we’re used to but it was actually only a stone’s throw away from the Vancouver International Airport.

With some instruction from Metro Vancouver naturalists on what invasive plants were, the pulling began. Creating piles on piles of invasive plants actually became quite satisfying. We couldn’t just leave a plant there; we had to pull all the nasty bunches of Scotch Broom and Himalayan Blackberry that we could reach.

The grade 10s in particular got carried away. We got the much earned bragging rights of accumulating a pile of invasives that was twice the size of the rest of the grades' combined.



After the weed pull, we began our nature walk.  Our naturalist handed out hand-held microscopes so we could closer investigate specimens we found in this grassland environment.  Some of this time was in fact spent closely examining our friends’ skin and hair follicles, but we mostly stayed on task, checking out invertebrates from the pond water and spiders under beach logs.  It was so interesting learning about the wildlife in this different environment and the food chains and predator and prey system that functioned there.



One of the groups that went earlier in the day for their nature walk even got to witness the temporary catching and tagging of hummingbirds. We met with two members of WildResearch who would catch bird in these fine nets, attach a band to the foot, and set them free again. Some lucky and excited students even got to hold one of these incredibly interesting birds.


Continuing on our walk we encountered a family of geese - two parents and their teenage offspring. We admired them from afar, because the parents were not too fond of our presence so close to their kids.

We soon wrapped up, doing a quick recap of the day and then departing on the buses after an educational yet fun day. My opinion is that we can learn so much more and in a different way in the outdoors.  There’s so much wasted potential by keeping classes confined to the four walls of a classroom. Why not let the great outdoors be your classroom sometimes?

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