Offers you free

environmental workshops!

Hello,

Would you like to offer your students the opportunity to participate in environmental activities and workshops all year long? Do you need help developing environmental initiatives in your school?

Your Éco-quartier is here to help you reach your students on varied environmental themes and suggest concrete actions to promote more environment-sensitive behavior!

The Éco-quartier NDG is the environmental program of the City of Montreal, managed by Prevention CDN/NDG in NDG. Our mission is to inform and bring awareness about environmental issues to local citizens to encourage them to improve their quality of life and their environment.

Our goal is to develop and strengthen our links with schools from the borough. We offer two ways for integrating environmental strategies in your school: environmental workshops and/or the follow up of “green” initiatives in your school (green committees, for example). Through the workshops, we will reinforce the environmental consciousness and stimulate the students’ reflections on environmental issues.

The attached document presents the free, adapted and interactive workshops available for your students. The “follow-up” part of the document suggests ways to support your team in facilitating the creation of structures promoting green initiatives or to help you with the existing structures already in place.

To register for one or more of our workshops, please fill out the registration form. To ensure our availability, we suggest you to send us your registration form as soon as possible, or at least 2 or 3 weeks before the desired date of the workshop. We hope to enhance the environmental awareness of your students by having the opportunity to run one or a series of activities in your school this year.

I invite you to spread the word by sending the attached activity listing to your teaching team. If you wish to receive more information, do not hesitate to contact us at Éco-quartier NDG.

Looking forward to collaborating with you. I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Nouha Dhahri

Environmental Animator

Presentation workshops

Generally, the workshops last 45 minutes to 1 hour. They are flexible and adaptable as needed for up to 30 students. The majority of the workshops can be easily adapted to different age groups / audiences. Please inform us so that we can adjust ourselves!

Themes / Workshops
1. Representations of the environment / 1a) What is the environment for you?
2. The 3Rs / 2a) The 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle)
2b) Discovering composting and vermicomposting
2c) “Eco” Arts N’ Crafts Workshops
3. Cleanliness / 3a) The Garbage Great Hunt
4. Environment et Consumption / 4a) The Impact of out Clothing Choices
4b) The Ecological Lunch Box (Waste Free)
5. Biodiversity
and
conservation / 5a) The Tree, Nature’s Symbol of The City
5c) The Insects and the Environment
6. Human Activity and the Global Environment / 6a) The Climate Changes
6b) The Ecological Footprint
6c) Responsible Water Consumption

1.Representations of the environment

1a) What is the environment for you?

What is the environment? Why is it important? What can we do to preserve it? With this workshop, we question the different representations of the environment. Children are invited to draw what the environment means to them.

Additional possibility:if your school has a video-projector / television screen,

and you’d like to watch a short film with your students, we can bring one along.

The 3Rs : Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

2a) The 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle)

What do you know about the 3Rs? This workshop will tell you more about this crucial environmental concept. Concrete examples and a quiz to test your group’s knowledge! This workshop can be given as an introduction or to revise your group’s knowledge; it can be adapted to all ages. A sorting relay game can also be presented at the end of the workshop to see how the students understood the workshop.The best waste is that which is not produced!

Ideal location:A classroom or large open area (lots of space).

2b) Discovering composting and vermicomposting
In this workshop we focus on the basic principles of composting as well as the reasons and advantages of this form of waste reduction, applicable to a large amount of our daily garbage. We will look at the implementation of composting projects in schools, as well as cases where composting is done on a large scale (commercial, municipal and even regional). In addition, everyone will meet and greet our friendly red worms. The participants will learn the process of vermicomposting as well as how to build a vermicomposter. It’s a hands-on workshop to help participants understand what they themselves can do to help the environment.

You would like to have a worm bin in your classroom? It is possible, easy and very educational for kids! Contact us for more information.

2c) “Eco” Arts N’ Crafts Workshops

Both creative and educational, this practical workshop aims to sensitize students to 3Rs, especially the concept of Reuse. The students’creativity is used to make artwork from unusual materials! In doing so, students discover the potential alternatives to waste and overconsumption, while expressing their creativity! This workshop can be thematic (Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, etc.), as part of a mobilization for a thematic environment day (eg, Earth Day) or as part of a school event: theater sets, fashion shows, parties, etc.

Material:Some of the material may be provided by the Éco-quartier. We promote reuse and discourage the purchase of equipment for this kind of activity!

3. Cleanliness

3a) the Great Garbage Hunt!

This activity consists of a “garbage hunt” where participants will be sensitized to the cleanlinessof their yard, their neighbouring park or other areas. Emphasis is placed on the general nature of the garbage that we find in these areas, but especially on the fact that most of these materials are not really garbage and that there are several simple ways of reducing the quantity of these materials. This activity ideally takes place during spring (April-May).

The Éco-quartier can help to register your clean-up so that students will receive free gloves, bags and possibly t-shirts!

Location: The area will be determined with your help if you wish for the activity to take place somewhere else than the backyard.

4. Environment and Consumption

4a) The Impact of Our Clothing Choices

This workshop focuses on making participants of all ages aware that the clothing they hold dear can actually be hazardous for the environment. This workshop will show participants some alternatives so that they can be part of the solution. We will therefore talk about the life cycle of a piece of clothing, and then explore ways of reducing, reusing, or recycling these materials. This workshop will also offer an opportunity for participants to learn about the impacts of their consumption choices, impacts that are felt here but also, and more so, in other areas of the world.

4b) The Ecological Lunch Box (waste-free)

What activity does each of us do daily that generates an enormous amount of waste? Eating! In fact, the simple act of feeding oneself can have a major impact on the environment. We’ll explore, through concrete examples, how to reduce our impacts and apply the principle of the 3Ns (nude, near, natural & ethical). Tips on how to create an environmental and zero waste lunch will be covered.

5. Biodiversityand conservation

5a) TREES: Nature’s Symbol in the City!

The objective of this workshop is to help participants grasp the importance of trees in an urban setting, and how here in Montreal, trees are sometimes the only link they will have to nature. We’ll discuss the importance of trees in parks, on city streets as well as in one’s yard. We give the participants a little scenario to help them understand what it would be like to have a day without trees. All this to help the participants realize the importance of trees in of lived, in our city, and therefore the importance of the need to protect them.

5b) Insects and the Environment

Insects are an important part of our environment, some of which are pests but others are extremely important in our everyday lives! Discover the links between insects and the environment, and how they are essential to biodiversity and to our daily lives. Learn more about the vital role of bees in food production and understand some of the reasons for their current decline.

6. Human Activity and the Global Environment

6a) Climate Change

The objective of this workshop is to help participants grasp the importance of climate change. Some of this warming is due to human activity, and another part is of natural origin. Participants will learn about greenhouse gas emissions and the connection between climate change and natural disasters. They will learn how their actions affect climate change and ways for them to help prevent it.

6b) The Ecological Footprint

The ecological footprint is a simplified way to represent the impact of human activity on the planet. It calculates the number of Earths it would be necessary to have if everyone would adopt the same habits you have. During this workshop, the students will understand how the ecological footprint is calculated, what are the impacts of our lifestyle and the consequences for the generations to come. The purpose of the workshop is to bring awareness on how individuals can reduce their ecological footprints by changing their lifestyles. The workshop includes hands-on mini-experiments and real ways to help participants reduce their impact on the planet.

* You must have access to a computer if you want to test interactive (otherwise a test paper is available).

*** The Climate Change and the Ecological Footprint workshops can be given together or separately.

6c) Responsible Water Consumption

This workshop will certainly open the eyes of the participants to the importance of conserving, and properly managing, their drinking water! Participants will also learn about the amount of water used, and wasted, in all of our daily activities. We will also discuss the imbalanced distribution of this precious resource at a worldwide scale. We will share ideas and discuss the necessity of reducing our water consumption and finding ways to do so in our everyday lives.

Registration form

Please fill out the form below and send it back by email par email () orby fax(514.486.2771) as soon as possible.

Please fill out one form per group/ activity!

Organization’s/school name: ______

Address: ______

Contact person/teacher: ______

Phone number: ______

Other phone number: ______

Email address:______

Fax number: ______

Preferred activity (more than one activity can be chosen):______

Preferred date and time: ______

Length of class (in minutes): ______

Age of participants: ______

Number of participants: ______

Other relevant information (participants with disabilities, etc.):______

Comments/Questions: ______

Feel free to contact me if you have questions or special requests.

Thank you for your cooperation. I look forward to meeting you!

Nouha Dhahri, environmental animator

514.486.2727

This document has been produced by Prévention CDN/NDG under the Éco-quartier program of the district. Éco-quartier NDG – 6575 Somerled, suite 206, Montréal, QC H4V 1T1