A New Camosun Bog Display

Zavi (age 9) has been busy publicizing Camosun Bog. He had a display at a science fair at Queen Mary School and this was so well received that he was asked to show it at a city-wide fair at Science World.  This went very well and he was continuously busy answering questions and showing off his meat-eating sundews. As you can see the display looks very attractive. Congratulations Zavi!

Storytelling and getting dirty

Biology students finished some amazing stories.  This is a sample and a fraction of what was produced for the Camosun Bog Buddy project.

Place Based Education and Complexity

Whatever you

can do…begin it

First and Most Important Question: Why should we change?

What is purpose for rejecting the status quo?

High School Biology in British Columbia is a survey course. Students are encouraged to systematically study life cycles, and the gross anatomy of protazoa, bacteria, fungi, plants and invertebrate animals. Major themes include evolution and ecology. Biology courses tend to be reductionist. Every phylum is dissected in both lecture and lab, in form of a (preserved) specimen sectioned, pinned and labeled.

Blueberry or Huckleberry?

“Blueberry or Huckleberry?”

Prince of Wales students are poring over a fine textured bush with thin, oval leaves. Sunlight filters through a stand of Hemlock and the air is deliciously fresh.

“Feel the stems, if they are round, it’s blueberry, squared, then it’s huckleberry”. Students strain to see carnivorous sundews nestled amongst the sphagnum moss. Some are examining Bog Laurel, and Labrador Tea, and that fine high arctic plant, Arctic Starflower. But they are nowhere near the arctic. They are doing a species inventory in biology class, in the middle of the city in a tiny bog rescued by the Camosun Bog Restoration Group.