Great Canoe Adventure Day! CURRENTLY FULL

Each Adventure Day will be at or near your local library, giving us a chance to explore your neighbourhood’s ecosystems from the water. The schedule features three “stations”: the canoe tour, building a birdhouse, and a wild survival workshop, along with many team-building games and citizen science activities. During the canoe tour, we will revisit key concepts like wetlands, watersheds, food webs, biodiversity, invasive species, plant and animal identification, the water cycle, and the history of  indigenous peoples’ relationship with land and water. We will also collect water samples for testing later. Participants, both children and adults, must sign the waiver as part of registration to go in the canoes. Parents are welcome to join us. While on the water, there’s a target ratio of one adult for every three younger children (aged 5-7). One adult will be present for every five children who are eight years of age or older. Eva Moons, an outdoor education teacher from Ottawa, will lead the Wild Survival session. Recent news stories have highlighted frightening situations of kids alone outside. This workshop aims to empower and educate kids on how to cope and solve problems if they find themselves in such situations. It will cover navigation, map reading, and other fun skills. To ‘build’ on our bird research, we will construct wooden birdhouses for common backyard species. This activity involves basic math, geometry, carpentry, and a touch of artistry. To give the canoe guides time to prepare for their final trip, after our second break, we’ll hold a physics lesson, game, and contest with renowned science teacher Peter Au. We will end the day with water testing of our collected samples, benthic examining (squirmy things we find in the water), and a closing circle.