Developing environmental expertise at the Alberta Wilderness Association

Last fall marked the ninth year that Alberta Wilderness Association has served as a Community Placement organization in the Masters of Teaching (MT) program. Since 1999, close to 20,000 school children have benefited from environmental presentations delivered by MT students; over the years, 149 student teachers have been through AWA's doors.

The 19 first-year MT student teachers hosted by AWA in this year's program had a wide variety of educational backgrounds, from kinesiology to music to drama. But for their time with AWA, they became environmental experts. They spent the first two days of their 10-day placements (two days a week for five weeks) immersed in a course on the environmental theme for the year, "Alberta's Watersheds: The Source of our Water." For the remainder of the time, they formed into groups and traveled to schools throughout Calgary and the surrounding area to deliver classroom presentations based on this theme.

"I got the opportunity to practice teaching in a variety of different classroom settings, from kindergarten to grade 9," says MT student Jennifer Foisy. The students' challenge was to adapt their teaching techniques to these different audiences while keeping things informative and fun.

"The enthusiasm and imagination of the MT students has been truly inspiring," says Nigel Douglas, AWA conservation specialist. "I am continually amazed at the novel approaches that they take to get their message across. This program has allowed AWA to contact more children than our limited resources would ever allow in any other way."

At the same time, it provides a valuable opportunity for student teachers to test out and fine-tune their teaching techniques to children of different ages in a variety of school settings. "By allowing me to plan and implement a lesson, AWA has given me the opportunity to become a more confident teacher," says Foisy.

The program is also popular with the classroom teachers who host the presentations.
"I found the Masters of Teaching students to be knowledgeable and well prepared for the Grade 1 students," says Heather Hadden, teacher at Foundations for the Future Charter Academy. "They had interesting and unique ways of conveying the information about watersheds that captured the students' interest. We enjoyed having them come present to us and will have them back in the future."

AWA hopes that school children, student teachers, and classroom teachers will benefit from these presentations for many years to come.

Founded in 1965, Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) is the oldest wilderness conservation group in Alberta dedicated to the completion of a protected areas network and the conservation of wilderness throughout the province. The AWA staff includes professionals and specialists in management, conservation biology, economics, education, outreach, communications and accounting. AWA's outreach work is achieved through communication, education, conservation and advocacy and is supported through volunteers, member and donor programs and other events and activites. Learn more about the AWA .