Outdoor Learning Conference 2025

Outdoor Learning Conference 2025

Welcome to the 2025 Outdoor Learning Conference

201

3:15pm • Land as Our Teacher: Learning From and With the Land, Guided by 4Rs of Indigenous Land-Based Education FULL
8:30pm • 60 min Gentle Movement & Mindfulness Session FULL

203

Banff Centre - room TBD

9:00am • Beading is Medicine FULL

Banff Centre Amphitheatre

9:00am • Learn to Carve Soapstone FULL

Bear

3:15pm • Land as Teacher-a settler perspective on incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing and being on the land LIMITED

Beaver

3:15pm • Taking The Lorax Outside as a Literacy Dramatic Activity to Highlight the Urgency in Environmental & Climate Change Education LIMITED

Bus to go to Yamnuska Trailhead

8:00am • Connecting to the Land - A hike at Iya Mnathka FULL

Butterfly

3:15pm • Challenging Social Constructs through Outdoor Learning LIMITED

Cascade Ponds 51°12'42.4"N 115°32'02.2"W - Google Maps

9:00am • Wetland Field Trip for Educators LIMITED

Central Park parking lot -- We will walk along the trail to a safe spot along the Bow River!

9:00am • Connecting Classrooms to Climate: Water Quality Testing at Bow River* LIMITED

Chickadee

3:15pm • Relationship & ReconciliACTION: Weaving Reconciliation, Community & Land-Based Learning LIMITED

Cougar

3:15pm • Embrace This Place! Cultivate Your Own Place-Based Teaching Practice at the Banff Centre LIMITED

Deer

3:15pm • Everyday Curriculum in the School Garden LIMITED

Huron

3:15pm • Climate Change 101 LIMITED

In a meeting room at the Banff Centre though we will move outside as well.

9:00am • Juggling Connections – Building Community through Play and Focus LIMITED

Kinnear Centre

Kinnear Patio Firepit 1

8:30pm • Indigenous Fireside Storytime

Kinnear Patio Firepit 2

8:30pm • Fireside Songs and Smores

McLab Bistro

8:30pm • Mingle at McLab

Moose

3:15pm • Empathy, Immunity and Nature: The Symbiotic Relationship Forged Through Play LIMITED

Otter

3:15pm • Relations and Resilience: Intra-connecting with Land and Place through Hands-on Metaphor LIMITED

Owl

3:15pm • Dramatized Animal Hikes - Stories, Movement and Activities to help children connect to local animals. FILLING

PDC (professional development centre)

9:00am • Forest Play FULL

Porcupine

3:15pm • Playing Outside the Box: Building Boardgames with Found Objects in Nature FILLING

Raccoon

3:15pm • Sitting With Nature: Weaving Together Curriculum, Nature, and Emergent Learning LIMITED

Raven

3:15pm • Building Readers and Writers Through Engaging with Place-based Sustainability Issues LIMITED

Snail

3:15pm • Outdoor learning for students with complex needs: all you need is an open mind! L’apprentissage en plein air pour élèves ayant des besoins complexes: tout ce qu’il faut, c'est l'esprit ouvert! LIMITED

Toad

3:15pm • Whispers of the Earth LIMITED

trail head near a creek or somewhere that we can set up a mini blow up pool

9:00am • Who's at the bottom of the creek? The River Institute's Aquatic Invertebrate Ecology Program LIMITED

Turtle

3:15pm • Nature through our senses FILLING

Vistas Dining Room

5:30pm • Dinner (included with registration)

201

201 (Indoor Space)

2:00pm • Branching Out: Exploring Forestry Education LIMITED

203

203 (Indoor Space)

2:00pm • School Ground Solutions at The Intersection of Health, Education and Nature LIMITED

Bear

Beaver

Butterfly

Chickadee

2:00pm • Unlocking the Power of Song for Environmental Learning LIMITED

Chickdee

11:00am • Indinawemaaganidog: Roots of Connection Honouring all our Relations LIMITED

Choose your own adventure

5:30pm • Dinner (NOT included with registration)

Cougar

Deer

Eagle

Great Blue Heron

Kingfisher

Kinnear Centre

Kinnear Patio Firepit 1

8:00pm • Live Music and Dancing on the Patio

Moose

Otter

Owl

Porcupine

Racoon

Raven

Snail

Squirrel

Toad

Tunnel Mountain Trailhead (Lower Parking Area)

6:00am • Sacred Buffalo (Tunnel) Mountain Hike *Unguided*

Turtle

Vistas Dining Room

Wolf

201

7:30am • 60 min Gentle Movement & Mindfulness Session FULL

Banff Centre

2:00pm • Connecting Classrooms to Climate: Water Quality Testing at Bow River* FILLING

Banff Centre Accommodation

8:30am • Check Out (Accommodation) and Free Time!

Banff Centre Amphitheatre

12:00pm • Closing Ceremony

Beaver

9:45am • The Blanket Exercise LIMITED

Bee

9:45am • Overcoming Barriers to Outdoor Learning: Building Solutions Together LIMITED

Butterfly

9:45am • Design Thinking for Environmental Education LIMITED

Chickadee

9:45am • Deepening the Connection to Nature Through Music and the Arts (French) LIMITED

Cougar

9:45am • Exploring, Engaging, Journaling: Outdoor Learning to Cultivate Well-Being LIMITED

Deer

9:45am • The Power of Play: Games in the Garden LIMITED

Eagle

9:45am • Terra Divina: A Practice of Mindful Wonder, Spirituality and Gratitude for an Era of Environmental Crisis LIMITED

Great Blue Heron

9:45am • Reconciliation resources for French language educators LIMITED

Kingfisher

9:45am • How to teach about Climate Change: Guiding Principles LIMITED

Kinnear Centre

Moose

9:45am • Traditional Games in the Classroom FILLING

Otter

9:45am • From Fear to Fact: A Balanced View on Microplastics and Chemicals LIMITED

Owl

9:45am • Introduction to Nature Journaling and incorporating it as a Cross Curricular Tool LIMITED

PDC (professional development centre)

2:00pm • Forest Play FULL

Porcupine

9:45am • “Indigenous ways of BEING” LIMITED

Racoon

9:45am • Building Connection and Resiliency Through Loose-Parts Play FULL

Raven

9:45am • Don't Stop Be-leafing: Games for Every Outdoor Enthusiast! FULL

Snail

9:45am • It Starts With Us: The Role Settler Teachers Must Play in Meaningful Reconciliation LIMITED

Start at Banff Centre & Walk Together down to River

2:00pm • Reflection Through Nature Journaling FULL

Toad

9:45am • Nature for All: Connecting Adaptive Learners Through Sensory Science LIMITED

Turtle

9:45am • Leaning into grief together LIMITED

Outdoor Learning Conference 2025

Register to attend