This BIG IDEAS project took place at École Qayqayt Elementary in New Westminster for students in grades 3, 4, and 5, and involved learning in science, geography, history, and visual arts. The project was entitled “An Intercultural Examination of Environmental Stewardship: Building Enduring Understandings with Brazil and BC’s Human Impact on Physical Geography.” Students explored their own physical environments and local cultures, and then used the same themes to find connections with the landscapes and cultures of Brazil.
Guided by their teachers and artist collaborator Stephen Booth, students focused on the theme of environmental stewardship: what it is, its purpose and importance, and its role in their own lives. Responding to inquiry questions allowed students to define and express their visions of environmental stewardship, and the ways in which humans influence and are influenced by their physical environments.
With the guidance of their artist collaborator and teachers, students used wood- and tree-based materials to create collaborative visual artworks, furthering their experiences as participants in a collaborative project with a common goal and reminding them of the connection between human production and the physical origins of materials.