Posted: December 20, 2023
Watershed Learning: On a roll of educational workshops in fall 2023!
Ottawa Riverkeeper's education team has been going to schools in Gatineau to teach students about the watershed and the issues it faces, thanks to our funding partners.
This fall, Ottawa Riverkeeper’s education team was on a roll! Thanks to the financial support of the City of Gatineau’s Green Fund (Fonds vert), the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, and NSERC’s PromoScience Program, we were able to meet with nearly 200 students and their families from École Jean-de-Brébeuf and 180 students from École secondaire de l’Île, to raise awareness of the environmental issues facing our watershed and to share with them ways in which each and every resident can contribute to maintaining the ecological health of our watershed.
Water tasting at Jean-de-Brébeuf
As part of Jean-de-Brébeuf’s Back-to-school corn roast, we set up a water tasting booth where students and their families could taste three different types of water: tap water (from the Ottawa river, of course!), spring water and bottled water. This helped illustrate that tap/river water tastes great and reduces plastic pollution from bottled water. Students and parents used to drinking bottled water were surprised by the quality of tap water. As one young water taster shared with Julia Ostertag, our Director of Education and Community Engagement, “The tap water that I drink at home is my favourite water in the whole world!”
Two students from Jean-de-Brébeuf school taste different sources of drinking water and come away informed and well-hydrated.
Watershed issues with École secondaire de l’Ile
Students from the École secondaire de l’Ile were also able to learn through our workshops. As part of their ethics course and at the request of their teacher Julien Campbell, 180 Grade 4 students attended a presentation on our watershed, its environmental challenges, and related mitigation measures. The issues addressed were numerous: combined sewer overflows, shoreline denaturalization, the use of road salt, plastic pollution, agricultural runoff, the proliferation of invasive species and the impacts of habitat loss on biodiversity were all presented to the students.
Maxime Chaumont-Lessard, educator at Ottawa Riverkeeper, Julien Campbell, Ethics teacher, and students from one of the 6 groups at École secondaire de l’Île who took part in the cleanup
Following these presentations, the 180 students rolled up their sleeves and carried out cleanups around their school, concretely fighting plastic pollution in their local environment. Their dedication was notable, as they collectively managed to collect over 750kg of garbage, a significant proportion of which was located just a stone’s throw from Brewery creek. According to M. Campbell shared, As part of their ethics course, the students learn the importance of community involvement, so I find that giving them an opportunity to take concrete action for the health of their environment through a cleanup is a good way to raise their awareness that there are many ways to help one’s community.”
Thanks to our partners!
Ottawa Riverkeeper warmly thanks Julien Campbell and the students of École secondaire de l’Île for their contribution to the health of the watershed, as well as the City of Gatineau’s Green fund, the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s PromoScience Program without which this project would not have been possible.
This funding also enabled us to meet with students from the students’ environmental club at École secondaire de l’Île, known as “La Vague Verte”, to present the challenges of the watershed and support them in implementing an action plan to protect water. In addition, students at Jean-de-Brébeuf school will benefit from 4 “Salty streets around my schools” workshops on the impacts of road salt (once the teachers’ strike ends!). We look forward to meeting them and sharing the wonders and challenges of the watershed!
If you would like to organize a shoreline cleanup with your school or book a workshop with our Education team contact education@ottawariverkeeper.ca.
To find loads of educational resources to teach the importance of water protection visit our Learning Library to access borrowable materials, online activities, videos and teaching guides.
< Previous post Next post >