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Sustainability course grows green minds

High school program combines science, social studies and leadership

A course University of B.C. arts student Rosemary Chen took in Grade 12 helped her see the big picture of sustainability.

“To understand the economic side of things, the social side of things, the political side of things as well as the environmental side of things,” the former Sir Winston Churchill student said.

The Vancouver School Board’s global sustainability course includes field visits to sustainability initiatives and companies that have improved their operations, and Chen said those experiences helped her recognize that sustainability isn’t a “far away in the future idea.”

Andrew Humphries, head teacher at Prince of Wales Mini School, started the course, which is heading into its third year in 2015-2016.

“Sustainability is the topic, is the issue of our time,” he said. “It is affecting and will affect virtually everything.”

The global sustainability course welcomes 30 Grade 11 and 12 students from across the district to examine sustainability through field studies, discussion and debate, film analysis, case studies and a six-month-long self-directed action project. It’s a cross-curricular course that combines aspects of science, social studies and leadership.

“Young people are really aware that these issues are rising around them, and they want some factual information about, really, what is going on and then an ability to respond to that,” Humphries said.

“The content and delivery methods help students move from a narrative of doom and gloom to one of adventure and hope,” he told the Courier. “Because if you don’t look at it that way, it just becomes too depressing.”

Students toured the Village at False Creek with principal landscape architect Margot Long to learn about the sustainable design there. They’ve heard from Rashid Sumaila of the UBC Fisheries Centre about global oceans and fisheries economics, and from Daniel McLeod, immigration and citizenship lawyer, about human migration and refugees.

Students of the global sustainability course started and continued Kids for Climate Action, have worked to conserve a species of frog in the Fraser Valley and have shared what they’ve learned with elementary school students. They can receive course credit for independent learning that includes attending a film, participating in a conference or reading a book related to sustainability.

Global sustainability is an off-timetable course that runs from 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursdays at Prince of Wales, in Kerrisdale, with field trips some Saturdays and Sundays. It is a full-year elective course that Humphries would like to see roll out at every school.

“But having said that, part of the fun of the course is that we get kids from different schools rubbing shoulders, sharing ideas and then going back to their schools to do some initiatives and such,” he said.

“They key for me is drawing together students that have similar interests and then sending them back to their schools to do great things,” Humphries said. “And drawing together experts from around Vancouver to rub shoulders with these kids, as well.”

The application deadline for the global sustainability course is Feb. 27.

crossi@vancourier.com
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