Incorporating Outdoor Activities: Suggestions Specific to Science 10

I would like to share with you a few suggestions on ways that I have come up with to incorporate topics of sustainability and environmental education into the B.C. grade 10 Science program. The majority of these suggestions are focused on ways to reconnect our students with nature and familiarize themselves with local ecosystems

PLO-A5 Demonstrate ethical, responsible, cooperative behaviour

Any of the below projects and activities will cover this PLO quite well. By encouraging group work and encouraging your students to look at things in terms of systems will force your students to think about ethics and responsibility.

For Example: Visiting a local landfill will allow your students to see how much waste their community is producing. This can be a great opening activity to talk about recycling and composting because it will force them to think about ways they can reduce waste and therefore be more responsible and environmentally ethical. This activity would also be a great introduction to taking about systems and the concept that each action as a consequence and therefore some kind of impact on the system.


PLO-B- Sustainability of Ecosystems


This entire unit lends itself to so many opportunities to talk about systems and sustainably.

Make sure they really understand what that means, why we are studying this and why we should care. Before you jump into the assigned curriculum have the students describe and model systems that they are familiar with in everyday life such as a car, computer or even the human body. Have them come up with the key concepts of a system and see if they can come up with a definition.

Once they have a grasp on this concept relate the idea of systems to ecosystems and sustainability. Be sure they have an understanding of what sustainable really means and why they should care.

From there you can go on any number of outdoor activities and have them find specific examples of systems.

You can also take them to a local stream or forest and have them try and pick out plants and animals specific to their bioregion and ecosystem.

Lastly, when they are studying the different bioregions around the world, have them compare each bioregion to the one they live in so that they can get a better understanding of their local environment.


PLO- D5-Demonstrate evidence that supports plate tectonic theory


Have the students research plants, animals and rock types that are typical to their local environment, than have them go out in a nature walk and see if they can identify these things and make drawings of them. Now ask your students to research typical plants, animals and rocks from an environment across the ocean. Now ask them what it might mean if you found something specific to your area across the ocean? Guide them with ideas such as rock types, animal and plant type and climate evidence. This will allow you students to discover the concept of continental drift just as Alfred Weigner did. You could then follow up with the Pangaea map and present them with the evidence that Weigner found.


PLO C6- Explain Relationship of displacement and time interval to velocity for objects in uniform motion


This learning outcome can be demonstrated easily by having your students go on a Field trip to a near by steam. You could have them calculate the surface velocity of the stream by throwing pine cones into the river and calculating the time it takes for a pine cone to travel a predetermined distance. They could than make a graph and find the average velocity. Rather than doing an experiment indoors you are allowing them to get outside and explore nature.


There are endless possibilities to how we can incorporate different subjects into a field trip or outdoor activity. It just takes a little creativity.

Now I understand with a set curriculum and a set timetable it can be very difficult to get the students out of the classroom, especially at the secondary level, but there are ways to get around it. The best solution I can come up with is to plan a whole day field trip where you cover a lot of different PLOs in one day. You can cover Earth Science, Chemistry, Biology and even physics all in on day.

You can cover: Stream ecosystem, stream restoration, pollution as a point source (incorporating chemistry by talking about terms such as rate, concentration, temperature and catalyst in terms of water and soil pollution. You can also talk about organic versus inorganic compounds such as herbicides and pesticides), forest ecosystems, human interaction (roads, trails, garbage etc), Heat and thermal energy (convection, conduction and radiation) and how they are transferred through the water, air, soil and plants and animals.

The key here is to try and be creative, and remember be sure to talk with other teachers, different schools and even the community for support and ideas!