Vancouver

Salmon undergo a laborious journey to return home to their natal stream. In this outreach program, students will become familiar with salmon migration in the Lower Mainland. They will be introduced to the challenges of salmon during their journey home and how their physical structures are adapted to overcome such obstacles. One of the main challenges addressed is the blockages of the river, which prevent salmon from completing their migration. As such, tools known as fish passes are created to support salmon survival and are monitored through PIT tagging procedures.

Grades: 4-7                          Length: 1 hour                Maximum group size: 30 students

Program Components:

• Learn how salmon migrate up the river and the obstacles they face along the way.
• Discover new technologies and how the design of fishways must be adapted to fish behaviour. 
• Learn about existing fish passages infrastructure and use this to design their own models. 
• Perform biological tests on a model salmon, such as taking measurements and determining characteristics.

For more information, visit our website or email us. 

Online booking form here. 

A class tour, led by a Metro Vancouver wastewater operations team member, to discover the complex story of wastewater collection and treatment in our region.

Lulu Island Wastewater Treatment Plant treats 26 billion litres of wastewater annually. The plant provides secondary treatment to wastewater from about 172,000 residents in the western part of Richmond.

Lions Gate Wastewater Treatment Plant treats 32 billion liters ​​of wastewater annually. The plant provides primary treatment to wastewater from about 180,000 residents in the District of West Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver, and the District of North Vancouver.​

Wastewater Treatment Plant Facility Tour for Schools | Metro Vancouver

On this engaging tour, students discover how technology and a skilled team combine to operate the Vancouver Landfill – where 70% of Metro Vancouver’s waste is received annually. Students will get to know the Zero Waste Centre, the Composting Facility, the ‘active face’ of the landfill, and how landfill gas is captured and upgraded to renewable natural gas quality​.

Vancouver Landfill Facility Tour for Schools | Metro Vancouver

September 15, 2025-June 25, 2026

Explore community, local identity, and common ground through the lens of city park planning. This program uses works from the City of Burnaby Permanent Art Collection, encouraging students to collaboratively design and construct their own mini urban green space. 

Curriculum Tie-ins: Art Education, Social Studies, Geography, Math, Design, STEAM

Learn about the nutrient cycle, soil composition, and compost food webs, and see how they all come together to make delicious, nutritious food!

How have Indigenous people used public events to claim agency over their representation during times of colonial oppression? How do our experiences, knowledge, and identities shape the way we interpret archival photographs?

In this program, students will visit To Be Seen, To Be Heard: First Nations in Public Spaces, 1900–1965, MOA’s feature exhibition exploring how First Nations people represented themselves as Indigenous in urban public spaces during the period of the potlatch prohibition and other forms of erasure in Canada. After visiting this multimedia exhibition, students will visit a selection of works in MOA’s core galleries to expand on the ideas of To Be Seen, To Be Heard. Finally, students will participate in a reflective art making activity using mixed media self-portraiture to explore themes of representation, agency, and futurity. 

To book this program, please submit a booking request.

Visit the Laboratory of Archaeology (LOA) and be an archaeologist for a day! Discover the rich, 9,000-year history of the First Nations people who live along the lower Fraser River by learning about their ways of life, tools, and technologies. This program was designed in collaboration with archaeologists from the Laboratory of Archaeology at UBC. We also recognize with appreciation the Musqueam people whose knowledge guides the ongoing evolution of the program.

This program includes a hands-on introduction to cultural materials used long ago for hunting, fishing, wood-working and home life. Students will engage with real and replica belongings to determine how they were made, how they might have been used, and why they survived for thousands of years. After a brief introduction to First Nations’ use of the cedar tree and a rope-making demonstration, the program will conclude with each student making a cedar bracelet.

This program is part of an overall unit plan with prerequisite lessons that show the techniques used by archaeologists to find and identify belongings. The complete unit plan will be sent by email along with a booking confirmation. 

To book this program, please submit a booking request.