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BILL MASON AND MACSKIMMING OUTDOOR

EDUCATION CENTRE

Fall 2020

The Field Guide to the

OCDSB Outdoor Education Centres

OCDSB Outdoor Education Centres’ Virtual Field Trips Series!

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This Fall, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board’s (OCDSB) Outdoor Education Centres are working on a new exciting project!!

Because we can’t be with you and your students in person, we are creating Virtual Field Trip experiences for you to use with your classes. These opportunities will be available soon on the Staff Portal of the OCDSB Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) OCDSBXL and Google Classrooms. The Centres’ educational staff will be providing a variety of interactive experiences for students to learn about the natural environment.

Each experience will provide educational resources and will include components for outdoor learning. Written by Juwain St.John

As you probably already know, the natural world is an incredibly engaging, wise & encouraging teacher who inspires lifelong learning in people of any age. This past spring, in order to help connect children and families to the countless benefits that nature can provide, the Centres launched a school board-wide project through the iNaturalist platform called “Ottawa-Carleton District School Board Biodiversity”. Through this new and ongoing project, we hope that students, families and members of the OCDSB will get outside and connect with nature by getting to know the species in their “neighborwoods”. By documenting your observations in this project, you have the incredible opportunity to see just how biodiverse our 2,760 square kilometer school board region is while adding valuable information for scientists in this citizen science project. To date there have been 930+ different species observed through this project across the OCDSB region! Join us in trying to discover 1200 different species by the end of the year! Both the centres have had ongoing projects through the iNaturalist platform for years now. To date, we have documented 830+ species at MacSkimming and 423+ species at the Bill Mason Centre. Written by Instructor Lindsey Behnke

Cecropia moth at MacSkimming by Bill McMullen

OCDSB iNaturalist Biodiversity Project for Everyone to Explore!

The Grade 7 Virtual Field Trip on VLE & OCDSBXL

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OCDSB Plants collected for the National Collection of Vascular Plants!

During the Summer of 2020, Jean-Francois Beaulnes visited MacSkimming Outdoor Education Centre every two weeks to hike the outdoor classroom to collect samples of plants to be added to the Canadian National

Collection of Vascular Plants.

Jean-François Beaulnes works with Dr. Tyler Smith at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada maintains the National Collection of Vascular Plants which started in 1886. Located on Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa, it is the largest collection of its kind in Canada.

Properly called “A herbarium”, it includes 1.5 million irreplaceable plant specimens protected in a climate-controlled environment. When adequately protected from moisture and pests, dried specimens can last for hundreds of years in the herbarium. This is a tremendous resource allows identification of plants from anywhere in Canada, monitors biodiversity, determine economic uses of indigenous plants and supports research.

Here are some of the many plants collected at MacSkimming Centre to be added to the herbarium: Pink lady slipper, mountain sorrel, dwarf ginseng, wild ginger, American water-pennywort, white, red and painted trilliums

All of the samples needed to contain some reproductive parts (Flowers, seeds, spores or fruit) to be added to this extensive collection.

With increasing global environmental concerns such as invasive plants, biodiversity, habitat loss and climate change, it is comforting that this collection & these Centre samples will last and be used for generations to study.

This spring, Ducks Unlimited Canada and the Ottawa Field Naturalist Club, both generously donated funds to expand the exploring docks in the constructed wetland at MacSkimming Centre’s Waterfront Field Centre (Near the Ottawa River).

Since 2016, the Ottawa Field Naturalist Club have donated annually to the Centres to ensure OCDSB students have financial support to attend.

Since 2008, Ducks Unlimited Canada has partnered with the Centres & local OCDSB secondary schools to operated the Wetland Centre of Excellence program.

Because of the extensive flooding in 2017 & 2019 on the Ottawa River, the primary wetland teaching area on the river will be moved to the constructed wetland and the river docks will be decreased by 50%.

This constructed wetland at the Waterfront Centre was created in 2012, through the expertise from Ducks Unlimited Canada & donations from TD Friends of the Environment Foundation.

Donation for Expanding the Wetland Docks !

The Outhouse, Ottawa Technical Secondary School Built!

This past school year, the Ottawa Technical Secondary School’s (OTSS) Grade 11 construction class designed and built two outhouses to be

installed at the OCDSB Outdoor Education Centres.

. Thank you to the OTSS students, Mike Mitchell and lead organizer, OTSS

woodworking/construction teacher Michael Nesbitt and his dog Bonnie.

On Saturday July 4th MacSkimming Centre’s Chief Custodian Yves Seguin and

Colonel By Secondary School’s Lead Hand Julie Hutt got married!

They got married twice!

On July 4th, the ceremony took place at Julie's parents house and again on August 22nd at the historical Watson’s Mill in Manotick. Both days, the weather was beautiful and they were so happy and proud that both of their families could attend both weddings! They met each other in 2015 at the Pets Smart!

Yves and Julie get married!

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Project Fisher Rescue!

This spring, a male fisher was captured by trail camera at MacSkimming Centre with a large section of hair missing on its tail, caused by the early stages of mange.

Mange is a skin disease which is caused by parasitic mites which live in the hair follicles of mammals. They cause intense skin irritation and because of scratching and biting, the host losses it’s hair or fur.

Upon seeing the video of the fisher forwarded from her parents, Jeanne Vachon at the Lafontaine Veterinary Clinic in Rockland, offered to donate a free edible vaccine for the fisher with mange!

Jeanne grew up next to MacSkimming Centre with her parents Raymond and Dorina Vachon. As a child, she spent many a days playing in the forest at Centre with her brother and sister and learned to love the place.

Volunteer Bill McMullen got the vaccine from Jeanne and placed experimental baits with no vaccine in the forest. He suspended the bait (bacon) on wires in front of trail cameras to see if the fisher could get it. The bacon payloads were visited by crows, ravens, dancing raccoons and weirdly white-tailed deer.

After 2 months, the baits were pulled and fisher with mange has not been seen since. Two other fishers were spotted on trail cameras during this time and all were healthy.

Thank to Jeanne Vachon, Bill McMullen and the Vachon Family for helping local wildlife and your support of the Centre!

For the second year, West Carleton Secondary School (WCSS) science teacher Sherry Lee has signed up to be part of the Bees@Schools project. This school-based project is funded by the National Science & Engineering Research Council of Canada & the School Malaise Trap Program (A program which introduces secondary students to arthropod diversity & the science of DNA barcoding.

The project involves installing wild bee nesting boxes at schools across Canada, to track the distribution of cavity-nesting bees,. Last September, the box was sent to the Centre of Biodiversity Genomics at the University of Guelph for DNA analysis. In May, a new cavity nest was installed on the trails of Bill Mason Centre. During the 2019 pilot year, the project had 42 successful nest boxes & 2020, they had 202 boxes installed throughout Canada.

On June 5th, Sage Handler hosted Sherry’s science class in a Google Meet presentation to discuss Bees@Schools, native bees of Ontario, their importance and genetic research. Sage is a Master’s student at the University of Guelph coordinating the Bees@Schoolls program with Dr. Dirk Steiner.

The results from last year showed that mainly leaf-cutter bees used the nesting box at the Centre.

Bees @Schools Project at Bill Mason Centre

Fisher with mange caught on trail camera at MacSkimming.Centre

After 14 years with the Bill Mason Centre, Instructor Brenda Davies has decided to retire!

In 2006, Brenda started at the Bill Mason Centre as the Program Site Administrator. Because of her love of teaching and job cuts, later she moved to her instructor position.

In 2008, Brenda implemented a tree planting grant with the Toyota Evergreen Foundation to have 500 native tree and shrub planted around West Carleton Secondary School. The trees still stand and are now over 2 meters tall.

During her retirement, Brenda plans to work on her family business ‘Farmgate Cider” & to spend time with her husband, three sons & two grandchildren.

BMC Instructor Brenda Davies has Retired!

Brenda at the

Bill Mason Centre Brenda, You will be greatly missed and thank you for everything!

Wild cavity bee nesting

box installed at

Bill Mason Centre

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Look Who is inside the Classroom!

This spring and summer, photographer Bill McMullen took some great pictures at MacSkimming while the students were out of the classroom.

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The Field Guide to the OCDSB Outdoor Education Centres

OCDSB Summer Institute Workshops for Outside Learning!

The Outdoor Education Centres offer Virtual Professional Development to Introduce OCDSB Teachers to Outdoor Learning.

As a part of the 2020 OCDSB Summer Institute, Outdoor Education Centres (OEC) education staff Juwain St. John and David Deyette supported OCDSB teachers as we prepared for a return to school in September. Given the nature of outdoor learning, all of our past professional development workshops for educators have been in a natural setting at the OECs or nearby nature sites. With COVID19 restrictions, our programming has gone virtual since March and this was no exception. One of the benefits of a virtual program was our ability to reach a larger audience. More than 200 teachers attended the two part workshop. One goal of the workshops was to get teachers thinking about ways to incorporate more outdoor learning into their school days. In the workshops we explored using school yards and/or other nearby natural areas to extend our practice beyond the confines of the classroom and take advantage of the benefits of outdoor learning spaces with special emphasis on how this could play a vital role during a pandemic. Over the course of two sessions, we discussed building an outdoor learning practice from the ground up and addressed:

What we mean when we say “Outdoor Learning”?

Who benefits when we incorporate outdoor learning into our teaching practice?

Why do so many researchers and health professionals urge us to incorporate outdoor learning into our teaching practice?

When can we build outdoor learning into our daily schedule?

Where can we go for outdoor learning?

How do we prepare for outdoor learning with students at our school?

Connecting outdoor learning to the Ontario curriculum.

Resources to support outdoor learning. It was a lot of information squeezed into a very short time and not as much opportunity for interaction as an “in person/in nature” workshop. We’re grateful to all of the OCDSB participating staff who attended with positive attitudes, excellent questions, and a willingness to share. We created several word clouds together over the course of the workshop (see below). As we return to school this fall, the Outdoor Education Centres welcome your Outdoor Learning Questions, whether you attended our sessions or not. Please forward your questions to juwain.st.john@ocdsb.ca . We are happy to support you by answering questions, providing suggestions, pointing you in the direction of resources, or linking you to a virtual classroom or field trip we are creating. Also follow us on social media for more videos and resources to support you and your classroom! By David Deyette

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“To catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the story here.”

The OCDSB’s 502 Acre Classroom

OCDSB Outdoor Education Centres- Bill Mason and MacSkimming Centres Phone: 613-833-2080, Fax: 613-833-0770 Email: outdooredcentres@ocdsb.ca Website; www.ocdsboutdooreducationcentres.ca Twitter: @OCDSBoed Youtube: @OCDSBOutdoorEducationCentres

Liam McMullen (student of Trillium Elementary School) has been nominated to be a Wetland Hero by

Ducks Unlimited Canada for his work with maintaining the wood duck nesting boxes at MacSkimming.

Wetland Heroes are young people (under 25 years of age) who make a difference by taking action to conserve & protect Canada’s wetlands. They can be individuals, classes, schools or community youth clubs

For more information on Ducks Unlimited Canada and Liam’s story: https://www.ducks.ca/stories/education/father-and-son-team-up-to-clean-up-ottawa-wetland-centre-of-excellence/

Ducks Unlimited Canada’s Wetland Hero!

On June 25th & Sept16th, University of Ottawa professor Michael Harrison took some water from the pond at MacSkimming to take some pictures with his microscope of the aquatic microscopic life. The pictures were taken

through a 10X eyepiece and one of a 10X, 20X, or 40X objective. The pictures will be displayed inside the Centres’

Crustacean Closterium Protozoa Nauplius-larva of a cyclopidae

Nature-based Learning Program for Kindergartens to Grade 6 Classes!

Are you looking to getting your students outside more, wanting them to spend more time connecting with nature and providing positive opportunities for them to be active while still following the Ontario Curriculum?

Well, the Centres have a program for you!

This new active outdoor and nature learning opportunity for kindergarten to Grade 6 classes, involves inquiry-based education which uses the beautiful natural setting of the 502 acre classroom, to teach numerous curriculum connections by exploring, learning by doing and child-led free play.

The Nature-based Learning Program follows Forest School concepts and consists of 4 full day individual weekly visits to MacSkimming or Bill Mason Centre (Maximum 2 classes per day).

Over the past five years, the Centres have offered this unique program through donations from the TD Friends of

Environment Foundation to several OCDSB schools with great success.

Weekly visits to the Centres will be determined during registration. Additional Centres’ visits and in-school sessions can be added to the program, for the Centre educators to professionally support outdoor play and learning in a local green space or in the schoolyard. This unique outdoor opportunity has limited dates available. Early registration may be required. Please email the Centres for costs and availability. If you want your students to have the experience of feeding chickadees, holding a wood frog, building shelters, exploring under logs, discovering wintergreen or running in the woods? Well this is for you!