2022
Conservation Crates
Project Objective
This project will allow students across Ontario to learn about and participate in conservation programming through borrowed crates with conservation-focused resources and lesson plans sent direct to schools.
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the hiatus of in-person field trips, we pivoted to a virtual delivery model by producing wildlife lesson plans and activities for parents and teachers to access for their students. As it became clear that educators and students were exhausted from virtual-only instruction, we introduced a hybrid delivery model: Conservation Crates.
We assembled 20 themed crates filled with hands-on, conservation-focused resources and lesson plans – to send the Heritage Centre experience to schools. Crates are free to borrow for two weeks at a time including shipping costs! A follow up virtual lesson is offered to the class from our qualified educators to answer any questions the students have after learning from the crate contents.
Each of these grade-specific themes currently have four identical crates:
- Grade 1 – Birding
- Grade 2 – Wildlife
- Grade 4 – Fishing
- Grade 6 – Tracking & Trapping
- Grade 7 – Hunting
Despite a soft launch during the 2021-22 school year, the demand from teachers surpassed our supply of kits – particularly the Birding, Wildlife, and Fishing themes. Our Conservation Crates reached a total of 785 students this school year. In order to reach more students with quality hand-on conservation lessons, we are in need of additional funding to add more crate capacity and the corresponding shipping costs to send them to schools.
