June 2013 Member Feature: Ingrid Liepa

CBEEN is excited to welcome Ingrid Liepa to our Board of Directors!

Ingrid’s involvement in both informal and formal environmental education activities has spanned close to three decades.  Some of her Basin highlights include teaching Environmental Stewardship for the Mountain Adventure Skills Training program of the College of the Rockies, delivering curriculum-connected programming to East Kootenay classrooms on air quality, climate change and active lifestyles as part of Clean Air Champions, initiating and coordinating the One Planet Film Series for three years in Kimberley, and co-producing two animated videos on climate change and one on wood smoke.  She has degrees in environmental studies and law, is a two-time Olympian in speed skating, operates an independent consulting business called The Connecting Link, and feels very fortunate to be able to call the beautiful places that are Kimberley and the Basin as her home.

CBT Seeks EE Engagement

Join the Conversation: CBT Wants Your Ideas on Future Environmental Plans
Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) is undergoing a review of environmental education (EE) in the Basin as part of their overall environmental strategic planning process.  We would strongly encourage you to attend one of these workshops to share your thoughts on what is going well and what could be improved to address EE needs in your community and across the Basin.

You can RSVP by clicking here.  You can also contribute to CBT’s broader economic, social and environmental engagement process by clicking here.

We invite you to join the conversation alongside others who share your interest in the environment by participating in a workshop.

Please RSVP by May 31. Save the date and mark your calendar today!

In-person Workshops

Each workshop will be preceded by an open house.  Lunch will be provided.

Open Houses 10 am – 11 am
Workshops 11 am – 4 pm

Revelstoke, Tuesday, June 11

Creston, Friday, June 14

Fernie, Tuesday, June 18

Invermere, Wednesday, June 19

Cranbrook, Thursday, June 20

Trail, Monday, June 24

Nelson, Tuesday, June 25

Video Conference Workshop

Valemount, Thursday, June 13 - 9:00 am – 11:00 am PST / 10:00am – Noon MST

Online Workshops

Thursday, June 13 - 11:30 am – 1:00 pm PST / 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm MST

Thursday, June 13 - 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm PST / 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm MST

Venue details and online workshop registration links will be provided via email in June.

May Member Feature: Carson Loftsgard & Erryn Turcon

Carson Loftsguard:
Carson is a ten year teacher having spent time teaching in Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories before moving to the Kootenays. He’s led outdoor classes and camps at every school he’s ever taught at, including facilitating kids to plan and execute multi-day paddling trips in the sub-Arctic. He sees so much opportunity for the outdoors as a classroom in our area and as he becomes more familiar with the area, he hopes to continue to develop this area of his teaching.

In the classroom, his lessons are constantly being brought back to nature and our place in it.  Whatever class it is, it’s a priority of his to help kids learn through an environmental lens.

Erryn Turcon:
Erryn has taught part time for the past 5 years in Kimberely and Cranbrook.  Before getting into teaching she worked in a variety of capacities facilitating outdoor leadership programing, mostly canoe and paddling trips in northern Ontario.  She loves to introduce problem solving skills using the outside environment and providing students the opportunity to make connections to the environment that we live in.  It provides a fresh perspective, which she thinks can be incorporated into all areas of curriculum.

Carson & Erryn:

We are a Gr 4-7 school and have noticed a few things about our students: a) Even though there is a relatively small gap in age range, we felt there was a divide between our grade groupings and; b) While our teachers do a great job of trying to value all types of intelligence, our naturalist learners were not seeing their skills and talents valued in our classrooms often enough.

Our solution was to have a Buddy Camp in the Fall where mixed grade groups participated in team building and outdoor themed activities outside of the school at Wycliffe Regional Park.  For five days, two classes would bus out to the park for the day.  Erryn and I facilitated the days with support from Dave Quinn and Mcim’s Aboriginal Ed support worker, Heather Beavis.  The feedback we received from the camp week was overwhelmingly positive and the suggestion was to try and do a similar camp in the winter.

Our Winter Buddy Camp was held in much the same format in and around the Kimberley Nordic Trails.  Stations included snowshoeing, nature scavenger hunt, and shelter building.  Again, we were supported by Dave Quinn, who took advantage of every opportunity to help the kids become more environmentally aware, even giving the kids recycling/composting lessons over lunch.  Again, the feedback on the camps was very positive.

We feel like these outdoor learning opportunities help create a more collaborative environment at our school.  Interactions between kids of different ages, skills, and interests are more likely to be positive given the value these camps put on teamwork.  These experiences reinforce that leaders in our school are not necessarily the oldest, nor are they always the most academic in the classroom.  An eight year old who struggles with reading and doesn’t always see their worth indoors, can take the lead on a challenge guiding a group of older kids to solve a real life outdoor problem.  Our kids now recognize the values and benefits of the outdoor classroom.

WVFK Launches Spring Programs!

CBEEN Growing Wild!

After succeeding in reaching its $25,000.00 fundraising target, CBEEN is excited to announce it is launching it’s Wild Voices for Kids program on April 22 - Earth Day!  CBEEN would like to recognize all of the funders that came on board, including major donors Canadian Pacific and the Regional District of East Kootenay.

CBEEN currently offers 133 different programs by 79 community educators.  Field trips include snowshoeing, avalanche safety training, pond explorations and opportunities to see Kokanee Salmon spawning.  In-class presentations cover a wide range of natural and cultural heritage topics.  Last year over 10,000 students took part in 441 presentations and field trips across the 6 school districts in the Columbia Basin.  So far this year 4,700 students have been able to take part. To book your WVFK presentation click here!

After two major federal funding sources dried up in 2012, CBEEN has been looking for more local and regional support for its popular programs.  CBEEN has the goal of being able to offer at least one presentation to every student in the Columbia Basin region every year (~20,000 students in total!).  CBEEN will continue its fundraising efforts to allow it to continue to expand the number of programs it offers.

On average it only costs $10/student for CBEEN to offer a Wild Voices for Kids program.  CBEEN is hosting two wine & cheese events in the East Kootenay this Spring to offer prospective funders the opportunity to have an up close and personal look at CBEEN.  For more information please contact Whittick at 250-341-6141 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).  CBEEN has also just been listed as a registered charity, and charitable donations can be made at http://www.cbeen.org.

CBEEN AGM: May 8

CBEEN 2012 AGM
5:30pm - May 8th
Pynelogs Cultural Centre - Invermere

Following the AGM, CBEEN’s own Juliet Craig will conduct a presentation titled “All about Bats”.  Tickets for her presentation can be purchased at the door ($15). 

Hope to see you there!