This workshop will provide educators with information, skills and tools on how to create outdoor learning opportunities for students anywhere on the planet, but most practically in their own home ranges or urban or rural ecosystems. Topics covered include adaptations of plants and animals to the changing seasons, especially the transition from Summer to Fall to Winter.
Opportunities to engage students in ways that make meaningful contributions to the conservation of biological diversity at local, national and international levels can be empowering, helping them deal with climate and environmental related despair arising from exposure to media reports on the real challenges facing our planet.
Participants will explore the grounds where the Summit is held and learn about ways in which students of different ages can learn about and appreciate wild species through art and science. They will be provided with information in advance of the workshop about a Manitoba-specific smartphone app called Go Wild Manitoba and its more generic parent app called iNaturalist. These apps facilitate learning and the identification of species through immediate feedback and longer-term validation by taxonomic experts, enabling students and naturalists to participate in Citizen Science in a non-intimidating manner. A demonstration of how to use these apps will support their use that day and beyond the Summit. Participants who are able will need to download them before hand, whereas those that cannot will be able to observe them in use.
https://www.inaturalist.org/ or Go Wild Manitoba app
https://residents.gov.mb.ca/apps/go_wild.html
