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NatureKids BC is a nature discovery and environmental action organization that helps children form meaningful and enduring connections with nature alongside their families. Organized by our local nature club leaders, Explorer Days are packed with fun and learning for the whole family! We offer over 200 Explorer Days annually to our members through our province-wide network of nature clubs. At these events, your family will explore nearby nature, learn about BC ecosystems, and meet other families enthusiastic about the natural world. You might go pond dipping for aquatic insects, learn about plants in the forest, or explore local tide pools. The expertise and guidance of our Nature Mentors means that the range of activities is endless! Parental involvement is required on Explorer Days.

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The Wilder Institute Calgary Zoo's programs serve students in-person from Calgary and surrounding areas. Our programs are curriculum connected based on the current Learn Alberta Program of Studies for Kindergarten - Grade 12. We also offer custom programming by request. Virtual programs are available seasonally, December - February, and are great for students from anywhere across the country.

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Fireside Adventures – Who We Are & What We Do

Fireside Adventures was founded in 1991 by Jeff “Willy” Willis. What began as a personal vision — to connect people via nature, learning, and leadership — has blossomed into a global community of passionate educators, youth, families, and partners. Today, Fireside delivers immersive outdoor and educational experiences grounded in adventure, social awareness, and personal growth.  

Our mission, captured in three guiding words — Challenge. Strive. Learn. — shapes every program. We believe life’s challenges can spark growth, striving fosters transformation, and learning — both inner and outer — builds resilience, empathy, confidence, and connection. Fireside Adventures

We run adventures across British Columbia and the Yukon — and beyond our borders to destinations such as Japan, Fiji, Ecuador, Colombia, Scotland, and more.

Core Program Streams

Kids & Youth Camps

From day-camps on the coast to overnight wilderness camps, Fireside offers a welcoming, adventurous summer for children and teens. Programs include gourmet outdoor cooking, parkour and filmmaking camps, wilderness introduction, leadership training, environmental education, and more. Whether ages 5 or 17, young participants are encouraged to explore, grow, and discover confidence in nature. 

World Bound — Climate, Culture & Leadership

In response to the critical urgency of climate change, Fireside created the “World Bound” series — experiential climate-leadership and cultural immersion courses for youth, young adults, and educators. These expeditions blend outdoor adventure with deep learning, cultural exchange, climate-change education, and direct engagement with nature and communities. Locations span from Yukon and Canada to Fiji, South America, Japan, and beyond. 

These courses are designed to give participants both knowledge and empowerment: they learn to navigate wilderness, understand environmental and social issues, build leadership skills, and return home equipped to contribute meaningfully to their communities.

Educator Courses & Adult/Educational Adventures

Recognizing the need for professional development rooted in real-world context, Fireside offers programs for educators and adults seeking meaningful, hands-on outdoor education and climate leadership training. These courses allow educators to grow personally and professionally, and to return to their communities with fresh insights, tools, and a deeper connection to environmental education. 

Family & Group Adventures

Fireside also welcomes families, friends, and community groups who want to explore together. From Yukon canoe trips to coastal getaways, these group adventures foster bonding, shared learning, and unforgettable experiences in nature. 

Why It Matters

Fireside Adventures is more than just travel or camps — it’s a commitment to fostering positive identity, leadership, social responsibility, and connection to nature and community. Through carefully designed outdoor education and experiential learning, Fireside helps participants of all ages grow into thoughtful, courageous, engaged individuals.

In a world facing environmental and social challenges, Fireside believes that education, adventure, and community can inspire real transformation — for individuals and for society.

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Ocean Design Lab is an innovative program that will inspire curiosity and passion for future ocean heroes. This program will educate students about the environmental damage caused by overfishing.

This two-hour workshop begins with an informative lesson highlighting the environmental consequences of bottom trawling. Students will then collaborate in teams to redesign fishing nets to minimize environmental impact. The teams will build and test their prototypes in a friendly competition.

Students will use provided materials and a pretend budget to build their nets while learning important skills like problem-solving and teamwork. Ocean Design Lab helps students understand how different fields work together to address environmental challenges for a sustainable future. 

Available for Grades 3-12, this program connects with Core and Curricular Competencies. Ocean Design Lab can be taught in schools across Metro Vancouver and the Lower Mainland and can be delivered in schools, community/ youth groups, and other educational settings.

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BC AdventureSmart delivers free outdoor-safety education across British Columbia—urban, rural, coastal, and mountain communities, year-round. Open to all ages (youth groups require a supervising adult). Format: 45–60-minute sessions or ~60-minute webinars with Q&A. Hosts: provide indoor space with screen/AV; we also deliver onsite or online. Programs include Hug-a-Tree & Survive, Survive Outside, Snow Safety, PaddleSmart, and Snowmobile Safety. Custom collaborations with SAR, schools, parks, and tourism partners available.

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Students follow each step of the scientific method to conduct a water quality investigation. During this 1.5 hour workshop students observe and become curious about the Fraser River, do background research, construct hypotheses, test their hypotheses by doing experiments, analyze their data, draw a conclusion, and report their results.

Grades: 6-9                          Length: 1.5 hours                   Maximum group size: 30 students

Program Components:

Take a sample of the Fraser River and make observations.

Conduct background research, using the exhibits as sources, and share with the other groups.

Construct a hypothesis about salmon survivability in the Fraser based on turbidity and pH levels.

Follow scientific protocol and test the turbidity and the pH level of the Fraser River sample.

Compare results to the hypothesis.

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Our Mission

To nourish young minds and support local agriculture by delivering fresh, high-quality BC products to schools across the province. Through FRESH for KIDS, we create lasting connections between students, schools, and local farmers while promoting healthy eating habits.

Program Benefits

Direct delivery of fresh BC produce to schools

Support for local farmers and agriculture

Competitive bulk pricing

Flexible delivery schedules

Quality assurance and food safety standards

Professional distribution network reaching all corners of BC

How It Works

Schools or districts choose their preferred program length

FRESH for KIDS coordinates with local farmers and suppliers

Products are delivered directly to schools on a regular schedule

Students enjoy fresh, nutritious BC products

Schools track program success through our online platform

Supporting BC Agriculture

When you participate in FRESH for KIDS, you are not just feeding students – you are supporting an entire ecosystem of local farmers, distributors, and agricultural workers. Our program creates sustainable market opportunities for BC farmers while ensuring that students receive the freshest possible produce.

The program is supported by schools who choose to use their Feeding Futures Grant, support of school PAC or other funds from the community.

Support FRESH for KIDS

We believe every student deserves access to fresh, nutritious food. Visit our fundraising platform at freshforkids.ca to:

Support local schools in your community

Help expand our program reach

Contribute to student nutrition initiatives

Make a difference in BC’s food security

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Whether participants are passionate about climate change, conservation, eco-justice, or advocacy, YCC provides the knowledge, skills, and connections they need to turn that passion into action. Students work alongside a community of eco-action youth and mentors to launch projects that matter, build leadership and teamwork skills, and gain hands-on experience tackling real-world environmental challenges.

YCC is more than just a program, it’s a community of young changemakers ready to take action for a sustainable future in their schools, workplaces, and beyond. Are you ready to join the movement?

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Worms Love Leftovers gives children a peek into the amazing world of worms and how they help recycle organic waste, turning it into healthy living soil. This is an inquiry-based opportunity that fully engages participants in hands-on learning and incorporates several cross-curricular competencies.

Available for schools in Calgary. Subsidies are available so cost is not a barrier to participation.

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Get to Galiano Island easily with BC Ferries! We're a short 1-1.5 hour trip from the Tsawwassen ferry terminal in Vancouver or the Swartz Bay ferry terminal in Victoria. Our hands-on, nature-based programs have proudly been developed over 20+ years. Programs serve to introduce youth to nature in a fun, safe and meaningful way. Our activities are designed to reflect the BC K-12 curriculum, resonate local Indigenous voices and foster youth environmental leadership.

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Project WET Canada offers professional development certification workshops for educators, available both in-person and virtually. Our water education program features complete, engaging, inquiry-based lesson plans and activities. Guides include Foundations in Water Education, Water in Earth Systems, Projet WET Module 1 (French), Climate, Water and Resilience (Grades 6–12), and Getting Little Feet Wet (ECE). Workshops are led by fully trained Project WET Facilitators. Length and fees vary by guide(s), format, and location. Contact Maxine Koskie or Billie Jo Reid for more information.

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With 55-acres of beautiful green space in the middle of Vancouver, VanDusen Botanical Garden represents a safe and interactive learning experience for school and community groups looking for local field trip opportunities!

Guided programs are available to students in grades K through 12. 45 minute programs are bookable year round and 90 minute programs are bookable October, November, April, May, and June. Take a look at the selections listed below to find the perfect option for your class! 

90-Minute Programs (available October, November, April, May, and June)

A Sense of Nature (K-Gr.2)        

Ecosystem Explorers (3-Gr.6)

Fantastic Flowers (Gr.1-Gr.4)

Pond Peering (Gr.1-Gr.4) May and June only

Seed Secrets (K-Gr.4) October and November only

45-Minute Programs (available year round)

Glimpse of the Garden (K-Gr.7)

Natural Heritage Walk (Gr.8-Gr.10)

Strategizing Sustainability (Gr.8-Gr.12)

Self-Directed Program 

Self-Directed programs are available year round. 

Pollinator Days (late May annually)

Please choose from 1 of 3 available dates. Pollinator Days runs from 10am-2pm. Classes from preschool to grade 6 are encouraged to attend one of the three event days.

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Flexible outdoor education programming available for kindergarten through grade 12 taking place in Weaselhead Park in SW Calgary. All students will learn about the Weaselhead Special Protected Area in Calgary while making Alberta curricular connections in science and social studies. All classes are guided through the park by our trained Naturalists with activities ranging from identifying tracks and signs to invertebrate pond dips, plant identification, removing invasive plants and conducting water quality and human impact studies. Each grade level has targeted learning outcomes and suggested activities but there is flexibility to focus on topics of interest to specific classes in the park. Kindergarten through grade 2 classes are typically scheduled for a half day (2 1/2 hours) from 9:30am-12pm while grade 3-12 can be either a half day or a full day (5 hours). Programs run from September-November and April-June.

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Evans Lake has been operating as a camp and outdoor education facility since 1960. The Centre is located 15 kilometres North of Squamish, BC on a picturesque mountain lake. Surrounded by forest, the Centre offers a feeling of wilderness seclusion while featuring all your basic amenities, accommodations and full catering.

The Centre is also open year-round and available for school field trips, family events, weddings, corporate retreats and private bookings. Rentals over 41 people offer exclusive use of the facility including full catering, use of all activity equipment and accommodations for 120.

We believe Outdoor Education is an experience every child should have. By taking the classroom to the great outdoors kids have an opportunity to get their hands dirty, learn in an interactive and fun environment, and develop personally.

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UBC Farm field trips immerse children in a working certified organic farm through dynamic, themed experiences. Students engage their senses while planting, harvesting, and cooking with fresh produce (Food & Farming); learning about pollinators, food webs, and ecological connections (Nature & Ecosystems); or building forts and practicing wilderness skills (Exploration & Skills). These two-hour guided visits involve walking across varied farm features, with tailored programming by age group and flexible timing.

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Waste in Our World offers children the chance to work cooperatively build a model landfill and use it to look at ways to divert waste and make our landfills safer for the environment. This is an inquiry-based opportunity that fully engages participants in hands-on learning and incorporates several cross-curricular competencies.

Available for schools in Calgary. Subsidies available so cost is not a barrier to participation.

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LunchLAB is an innovative school meal program that serves students accessible, nourishing, culturally relevant lunches prepared by students with the mentorship of a team of chefs-in-residence. LunchLAB empowers youth to cook food for themselves and their peers providing opportunities for kids to find delight, dignity, and belonging in their interactions with food. 

Lunches change each day and menus are inspired by the communities we serve. Each meal includes a fresh salad bar and a hot item, whether that’s tacos, chickpea curry, palak paneer, ramen soup, or lasagna, it’s sure to be packed with delicious flavours and fresh veggies.

We offer a sliding scale pay-what-you-can model to balance affordability for families and the long-term sustainability of LunchLAB. As part of the registration process, families decide what they can afford with opportunities to receive a subsidy or subsidize families in their community.

Watch our CBC mini doc to get a flavour of LunchLAB and find out more on our website!

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The Wormshop uses the indoor, appropriate vermiculture system as a vehicle to teach kids about composting and waste reduction. The students can also take what they learn in the Wormshop and apply it at home, creating their own wormbin composting system, regardless of whether they live in a house or an apartment.

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The SPEC School Gardens Program is a well established environmental education program (started in 2008) and is aligned with BC Curriculum. We offer in person grade specific curricular resources, personalized workshops and seasonal lessons. Our goal is to connect every one to nature and we often collaborate with ECE, K-12 schools, for profit and not for profit organizations to provide programming. We help K-12 schools or not for profits establish new gardens or improve existing ones with climate friendly and organic gardening practices.

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At Cheakamus Centre, learners of all ages connect with nature, community, and Indigenous culture on a 165-hectare ecological reserve. Field School programs feature outdoor studies, recreation, and team building in day or overnight formats, all tied to the BC curriculum. Indigenous Cultural Programs, led by Skwxwú7mesh educators, immerse participants in Coast Salish traditions through hands-on, interactive learning in the longhouse and rainforest, fostering curiosity, understanding, and respect.