Lakehead University is receiving a $1,000 micro-grant from the Invasive Species Centre. The grant will go toward funding Lakehead’s Ontario Youth Naturalist program, which is a new program that introduces high school students to the university's Ontario Master Naturalist Program.
Lakehead University director of community engagement and lifelong learning, Dr. Linda Rodenburg, says the grant has helped kick-start their new program to encourage youth to broaden their knowledge and expertise of the natural world.
So far, 24 students at Nantyr Shores Secondary School (Innisfil) and 40 students from Elmvale Secondary School are participating in the program.
The Ontario Youth Naturalist program is being led by Robert Canning, a conservationist for Parks Canada, and Ontario Master Naturalist Program coordinator and well-known local naturalist Bob Bowles. High school students also have the opportunity to work with a Lakehead University student.
“The high school students not only get to work with a program director at Lakehead University, but they also get to meet a Lakehead University student who’s helping to teach the program, and they get to meet someone who is working in the field, which is especially important,” Rodenburg said.
So far, the feedback from high school teachers and students who are participating in the new program has been positive.
“They’ve really liked it, the teachers feel it really adds something unique to their programs and especially during this pandemic,” Rodenburg said.
“Students want to be doing some hands-on ... and it’s been great because the students have been able to see Parks Canada employees in action, work with a naturalist, and we’ve been able to deliver these experiences in a digital format.”
Nantyr Shores Secondary School teacher Mark Gaynik says the Lakehead program is teaching students things that they couldn’t learn from a textbook.
“These are experiences and real-world connections that students are learning from experts in the field,” Gaynik said.
“It gives students a chance to get into some of the environmental issues that the world is facing, and it gives them an opportunity to challenge these things that are happening and help find some of the solutions to these issues," he explained.
The program is also giving students a taste of what education is like at the post-secondary level, Gaynik says.
“It gives students a reach-ahead opportunity. They are getting a taste of what lectures are like, and it helps heighten the academic ability and opportunity,” he said.
Grade 11 student Grace Barks says she’s learned about real-world problems, the environment, nutrition, and agriculture through the Ontario Youth Naturalist program.
“It’s like nothing I’ve never experienced before, it’s not anything like actual school,” Barks said.
“It’s completely changed my perspective on a lot of things in life in a good way. There is no other program like it.”
