Vancouver

Bring the joy of discovery into your classroom with one of our brand new Education Kits! It’s all the hands-on learning you expect from the Fraser River Discovery Centre, conveniently packed into one easily transportable package. Our Kits include all the materials you’ll need, as well as detailed lesson plans, for inquiry-based learning about life right here in the Fraser River Basin. The Kits are fully sanitized between uses.

We currently have one on offer, but check-back soon, as more are in development!

138 Reasons We all know that salmon are important for people, both culturally and economically, but did you know that there are 138 other species that rely on salmon for their survival? Learn all about them through hands-on or eyes-on materials, interactive lessons, as well as a scientific experiment!

• Kit includes:
  • Detailed lesson plans
  • Salmon life-cycle refresher (video or narrated storybook available, based on age)
  • Salmon-arch building sets
  • Replica skulls of some of the 138 species
  • Water quality testing kits, including a Fraser River water sample

For more information, visit our website or email us. 

Online booking form here. 

Want something different in an outreach kit? Please fill in our educator survey to tell us what you need from an outreach kit, or email us your comments to programs@fraserriverdiscovery.org. 

Team Builds are a chance for students (and teachers and chaperones!) to really get their hands dirty helping our farmers grow Good Food for All. This program includes an introduction to Fresh Roots and the many things we do, and plenty of time to work on projects around the farm, from weeding to building. Exact projects will vary depending on the group and the needs of the farm.

Flowers are more than just pretty decorations. Work together to solve our Flower Power Puzzle, learn why flowers are important to plants, pollinators, and our food, and maybe even get to taste some!

In this 60-minute program, students are introduced to contemporary and historical Northwest Coast First Nations art. The tour of a select group of artworks emphasizes the importance of multi-generational teachings, the role of art in activism and resistance, and the diversity of issues and expressions in Northwest Coast First Nations. Students are introduced to a variety of stories and perspective of Northwest Coast First Nations artists, Elders and knowledge holders. The goal of the tour and discussion is to understand the importance of shared histories and to seek meaningful ways to understand others through art. The program will conclude with a framing activity where students choose a work and frame it in ways that prompt the question – what is included, and what is excluded?

To book this program, please submit a booking request.

https://moa.ubc.ca/school-programs/types/framing-stories-northwest-coast-art/

In this one-hour program, students develop an awareness and respect for the central role that the cedar tree has played and continues to play, in Northwest Coast First Nations cultures. Students take part in a hands-on tree-building activity to learn about the distinct elements of the cedar tree. Students hear stories and handle objects made of cedar bark and cedar wood in order to understand their value and ongoing cultural importance. Students create paper weavings inspired by traditional Haida cedar hat. By the end of the program, they will be able to identify the cedar tree, its distinct components and how cedar is transformed into cultural objects.

To book this program, please submit a booking request.

https://moa.ubc.ca/school-programs/types/cedar-stories/

Vancouver’s Davie Street is home to one of North America’s most vibrant gay villages. The city’s annual PRIDE parade draws crowds in the tens of thousands. Our city has openly gay politicians and monuments to gay activists. But it wasn’t always this way…

Before decriminalization queer people lived in fear of being “outed” and risked losing their jobs, families, and even freedom. Canada routinely imprisoned people for homosexuality. Many of the leaders in the struggle for queer liberation in Canada were from here in Vancouver. People like ted northe, who had the bravery to campaign for queer rights back in the 1950s.

Vancouver has played a larger-than-life role internationally in the struggle for equality. We had the world’s first openly gay church minister, St Paul’s hospital opened one of the first dedicated care units during the AIDS crisis, and we had Canada’s first chapter of the Imperial Court System. We also had bookstore bombings, some of the country’s first PRIDE marches, and a transgender campaigner who blew the whistle on the biggest crime in the city’s history.

The experience was researched, designed, and is guided by Forbidden Vancouver storyteller Glenn Tkach. It’s perfect for any secondary or post-secondary social justice, gender studies and civics courses, student groups, GSA groups and more.

• Duration – 2 hours
• Start Point – Trees Organic Coffee at 930 Burrard Street
• End Point – Davie & Bute streets at Jim Deva Plaza, by the rainbow crosswalk 

Tuesdays | October 17, 2023-June 18, 2024

Referencing works from the City's Permanent Collection, participants explore the progression of themes and techniques in contemporary Coast Salish art. Discussions on appropriation and use of copyrighted work will be discussed within this program. Students will finish the workshop by creating their own collograph print.

Curriculum Tie-ins: Indigenous Art, Ecology/Environment, Art Education