Kids connect curriculum to their community
by: Cathy Vaughan
[Reprinted with permission from Chebucto News, July 2024]
Exploring your neighborhood and its natural habitats is all part of the science curriculum for grade 4 students in the Halifax Regional Centre for Education. Learners are encouraged to have a “hands-on minds-on” approach to learning about the characteristics of different habitats and their interconnectedness in their own neighbourhoods. Cunard Pond, on Williams Lake in Spryfield was a lively community classroom for students from local John W. Macleod school to learn about fish habitats in their community.
“We’ve been coming to the Learn2Fish program here on Cunard Pond year after year. The pond is really important to us. It’s part of our community and we can walk here. The kids can see how they can use their community to be together and celebrate their environment. It also helps to reinforce our curriculum as part of grade 4 science on habitats and protecting our environment. We really appreciate it.” said Ms. Steeves, grade 3 – 4 teacher at John W. Macleod school on the Purcell’s Cove Road.
The “Learn2Fish” program offered by NS Fisheries and Aquaculture hooks into kids’ natural curiosity about fish and their watery habitats. Sportfish Development Officer, Sabrina Wolthers, explained to newbie anglers and junior naturalists about the environmental issues that impact our lakes and ponds. She showed the eager anglers photographs of invasive fish species that threaten the native fish populations in our lakes. She also outlined good fishing attitudes and environmental protection practices that all anglers should follow so that natural habitats can survive and thrive with our conservation practices.
[Photos: Cathy Vaughan]
The “hands on” component of the lesson got noisy and very interactive as students scrambled to help carry dip-nets full of flapping speckled trout from the Trout Truck to release into Cunard Pond. The McGowan Lake Fish Hatchery supervisor Marielle Turner provided over 300 trout for the ‘Learn2Fish’ program as well as the Trout-a-Rama derby scheduled for the Cunard Pond on the June 1 weekend.
“There is huge public demand for trout stocking,” said Turner, “and we are trying to keep up with stocking over 200 lakes. Today we are stocking 10 lakes for the many ‘Fish-Free’ derbies this weekend. June first is a free fishing weekend as you don’t need an angling licence to catch fish.”
Fishing is an outdoor classroom that connects kids to nature’s many and varied habitats in their own community. Time spent in nature helps kids social, emotional, physical and intellectual development. Fishing is fun. Get hooked!