St. Helen’s school takes ecology lessons from classroom to coastline
BURNABY
Tiny invertebrates squirming in buckets are giving Grade 7 students from Burnaby a big lesson in caring for the environment.
“It completely changed the way I looked at marine biology,” said Christian Cavasin.
Cavasin and classmates from St. Helen’s Elementary recently took a field trip to Bamfield, a community on the west coast of Vancouver Island and home to the world-class Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre.
The students explored tidal pools, interacted with sea slugs and urchins, inspected plankton under microscopes, hiked part of the West Coast Trail, and collected trash from the beach.
For Casavin, one of the highlights was getting a chance to hold a sea cucumber. “People don’t really see them because they’re usually deep in the ocean,” he said.
Touching invertebrates and learning about their lives “made me really want to study marine biology.”
It also inspired him to “care for our common home,” following the lead of Laudato Si,’ Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment and St. Helen’s theme for the school year.
“Before this trip, occasionally I would pick up a wrapper on the beach or a can,” Cavasin said. “Now that I’ve been to Bamfield and seen what it can do to creatures, how it hurts how they live and how it can kill them, I think I will grab my friends and pick up as much garbage as I can.”
For Ryan Meira, the experience put a practical perspective on classroom lessons about environmental consciousness. “It’s different to do something in theory and do something in real life.”
Meira thinks he’d like to work for the Vancouver Aquarium one day. “It seems like it would be a really cool job because you learn how to protect our oceans.”
Principal Waldemar Sambor, who has been sending Grade 7 students to Bamfield for the last 10 years, is delighted by their enthusiasm.
“Over 10 years, we accommodated 550 students. Some of them went into sciences and some of them went into the marine centre as college students,” he said.
“Learning from a book is important and learning the basics in the classroom is huge, but students need to be exposed to hands-on activities.”
Sambor’s annual Bamfield program falls within the guidelines of the B.C. Ministry of Education’s new mandatory curriculum, which encourages teachers to explore new, innovative means of instruction.
“I like biology and learning about cells,” said Sophia Di Fluri, who enjoyed collecting plankton and peering at it under a microscope. “I’m really grateful that I got this opportunity.”
For Sambor, the field trip does much more than fulfill curriculum requirements. He also hopes hundreds of St. Helen’s Elementary grads will be inspired to be respectful and thankful when it comes to the environment.
“We pray on the beach. We thank God for the beautiful creation that he provided.”
Sambor observed some students collecting garbage from Bamfield beaches and walking trails without being asked to, confirming his belief that students have untapped potential. “They are capable of way more,” he said. “They can be leaders in environmental issues.”
