Kitchener - On Thursday May 7, local event partners: Evergreen, Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario – Environment Committee, TD-Friends of the Environment, Waterloo Stewardship Network, Waterloo Catholic District School Board and Waterloo Region District School Board are presenting a conference for teachers to gain motivation, ideas and support for teaching outside.

Outdoor Learning is more important than ever: at a time of “nature-deficit” and pressing ecological issues, our students need to “think outside” and teachers and the community need to foster thoughts of nature. Richard Louv, of the Children and Nature Network in the United States, was the first to coin the phrase, ‘nature-deficit disorder’ and the notion that our societal fears for youth are ‘criminalizing play’ in his book, Last Child in the Woods. The ramifications of this are unknown but reduced ability to make decisions, equate cause and consequence and deal with risk as adults is proposed. Scott Harper in his documentary, Lost Adventures of Childhood, which just aired on CTV this March, suggests, “our vanished tradition of play – free of Wii, minivan chauffeuring, GPS tracking and most importantly, parents-is irreversibly – devastatingly – lost.” Conclusions running through research from numerous disciplines support the notion that simple natural settings in our community:

- provide psychological benefits to youth

- soothe ADD symptoms,

- nurture self-discipline

- reduce stress in children and

- boost children’s cognitive functioning

Over the last seven years the partnership between Evergreen and the two local school districts has facilitated school committees in making over one million dollars worth of simple changes to local school grounds. “A few simple items like rocks, trees, paths, berms, sand and mulch in the right place and in the right arrangement makes the world of difference for students, teachers and the community on an otherwise typical sterile school ground”, says Dennis Wendland, the local Evergreen School Ground Greening Consultant. Now that we have a few changes in place on school grounds the focus of evenings like this, Leave No Child Indoors teacher conference, is to provide a venue for teachers to share with each other, pick up tips and tricks of how to motivate and engage students on their own schoolyard. Sessions look at enhancing curriculum delivery through Eco-art, methods of exploration outside, science with literacy connections as well as patterning and symmetry in mathematics. How can the study of the Fibonacci Sequence in math or reading Dr. Frank Glew’s new book, “Eggbert’s Dragon Dream” get kids outside? The sessions at this conference will explain and enlighten.

Location: St. Anne Catholic School 250 East Avenue, Kitchener, N2H1Z4

For more information please contact: Dennis Wendland, Evergreen School Ground Greening Consultant for Waterloo Region Schools 519-570-0003 ext. 4508 dennis_wendland@wrdsb.on.ca