Outdoor Education students from George McDougall High School (GMHS) got their hands dirty during a recent lesson on water conservation.
On May 15, 20 GMHS students in grades 10 to 12 helped conservation group Stream Tender plant willow trees along the banks of Nose Creek. Teacher Ryan Haggarty said the project allowed students to not only get a hands-on lesson in environmental conservation, but also give back to their community.
“As part of Outdoor Ed, we look a lot at wildlife, the environment, and environmental conservation and stewardship,” he said.
Accompanying the tree planting, Haggarty added, students had an opportunity to learn about Nose Creek’s ecosystem and some of the pollution problems facing the stream.
“We also got the kids looking at the social piece they could take part in if they wanted to clean up Nose Creek a little bit more – the different levels of government they can contact and different advocacy projects they could do to maintain the water quality that flows through Airdrie,” he said.
In total, GMHS students planted 150 trees, according to Haggarty.
“It was nice to be able to do it right here in Airdrie and give back to where the kids live as part of their community,” he said.
Participating students said the experience was incredibly beneficial. Halle Reid and Jenny Titterington, both in Grade 10, said they were particularly impacted by seeing some of the challenges facing the local stream, in a way they might not have been without the hands-on lesson.
“You can sit in a classroom and hear about how polluted [Nose Creek] is and see a bunch of numbers, but until you actually get out there and see the water’s not very clean and there’s garbage floating around, then you really realize that it is polluted. It makes a huge impact,” Titterington said.
“I feel like being very hands-on helps you really understand everything,” Reid added.
Haggarty said he is an advocate of more involved educational techniques, which can engage learners differently then the traditional classroom approach. Learning opportunities like the tree planting also allow students to draw from all the subjects they are studying – during this outing, he said, students not only applied their Outdoor Ed lessons, but math and science, as well.
“It allows them to actually connect and see the purpose of what they’re being involved in,” he said. “Rather than just working on a paper or answering questions.”
Both Reid and Titterington said they’d love to have more opportunities to get out of the classroom and learn through practical experiences, and Reid noted she’d like to see activities like the tree planting become a regular part of the curriculum.
This was GMHS’s first land-restoration project, according to Haggarty, who said he was pleased with its success. In the future, he added, he hopes his class will be able to grow trees in the classroom, which can then be planted along stream banks.
