Time for Nature

The Junior Ecology Leaders Program

October 14, 2008

Printable version (70 KB)

Parks Canada Discovery Centre

A Strange New Place

Making contact with young neo-Canadians and partly easing that challenging transition is the central idea behind the Junior Ecology Leaders Program
© Parks Canada

The boy looks around with eyes wide and filled with awe as he steps through a virtual kelp forest into the marine heritage gallery of the Parks Canada Discovery Centre in Hamilton, Ontario. He walks gingerly across a large floor map of Canada to the Arctic Sound Dome and peers through the ice. He imagines himself sliding across a massive sheet of arctic sea ice as he runs to the next exhibit and the next great discovery.

The 10 year old boy has recently moved here from Bangladesh with his family and getting used to the winter cold is not the only adjustment he’s had to make. Adapting to a new home can be a difficult transition for adults and children alike. Imagine spending your entire life in a dry arid desert-like environment or a lush tropical jungle; then suddenly be transported to an urban centre in Canada. Everything is different, from the food to the clothes, from the language to the music and even the natural environment.

Eco Leaders

Making contact with young neo-Canadians and partly easing that challenging transition is the central idea behind the Junior Ecology Leaders Program. “Ecoleaders is an environmental education program for newcomers offered by the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) in partnership with the Settlement and Integration Services Organization (SISO) and the Parks Canada Discovery Centre”.

“The RBG created the program and partnered with SISO on the cultural liaison work”, says Darla Campbell of the Parks Canada Discovery Centre. “Participants are any kids between the ages of 10 and 13 that have been in Canada for two years or less.” Activities through the RBG include hiking and exploration of the local plants and animals along the Bruce Trail or Cootes Paradise. They may go to a pond and skim for frogs, play games, create a project they can show their families and of course, participate in that quintessentially Canadian activity – learn to canoe.

The Ecoleaders program has since expanded the scope of their work with young newcomers and now also includes teen leadership training, as well as family programs and a nature stewardship project.

Partners in Discovery

Activities through the RBG include hiking and exploration of the local plants and animals along the Bruce Trail or Cootes Paradise.
© Parks Canada

“The Discovery Centre has been involved in the program for the last 2 years. We’ve helped with programming along with the Bay Area restoration council. We present Canada’s system of protected heritage areas, and how these places belong to us all” says Campbell.

This year the staff at Parks Canada Discovery Centre will be trying something a little different. Participants will be spending one full day of camp at the Discovery Centre and the HMCS Haida. This one day of programming will include environmental and cultural games, a tour of the centre and perhaps even a visit to the HMCS Haida to be a ‘sailor for a day’.

“Kids come to Hamilton from all over the world and they are unfamiliar with so many things, one being their natural surroundings” says Darla Campbell. The hope of the Eco-Leaders program is to engage children and their families with the natural environment within their community. By learning about the natural habitats in the Hamilton area they come to appreciate the importance of “Canada’s natural environment”.

Feels Like Home

The young boy that explored his new country through the Junior Ecology Program and visited the extensive exhibits of the Discovery Centre can go home to his family and tell them about the natural diversity of this vast and beautiful country. His new home may seem a little less bewildering and a little more wondrous now that he is engaged and feels a part of his new environment, his new community, his new country.

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