A naturalist is a type of biologist who studies the impacts of living species on each other and the environments in which they live in. Another way of describing a naturalist is “someone who enjoys being outdoors and learning about nature.”
Who are Nellie's Naturalists?
We are a group of passionate students at Nellie McClung School in Calgary, Alberta, who have a deep connection to the Earth and want to learn about and work toward preserving and protecting our environment. We are committed to helping our environment and are the leaders in this school! We are encouraging people to help the environment in many ways for the world to be a safer and better place to live in. “We are busy being stewards of the Earth!”
Recycling/Organics Programs
We have been working on many different programs to help make our school become more eco-friendly. Our programs include: Refundables, recycling, and organics/paper towel. Three lunch times each week, some of us run a job in one of these programs. These may seem like little things we are doing, however, they are making a big difference in the environment. Every little bit helps! As Nellie’s Naturalists, we thrive to inspire young students from grades K-6 to help us and continue the journey to success in the future years at Nellie McClung school. UPDATE: 2019-2020 - We are piloting a new school wide program this year to welcome ALL students in the school to become stewards of the Earth. We will not be having a student-run club for recycling/organics. Large bins have been set up in our grades 5/6 lunchroom. Students from all classes are asked to empty their classroom bins accordingly as needed. After this pilot year, we will collect data to determine the effectiveness of this new program or whether a recycling leadership program needs to be reinstated.
Urban Farmers
Urban Farmers is a club of passionate grade 4 students who share a love for gardening and nature. We meet each Tuesday during lunch recess to learn about plants, gardening and how we grow our own food.
Students will be planting from seed starting Mid-March in small pods that will be placed on our mobile greenhouse. After caring for these plants and seeing them grow, we will then transplant into larger pots to place on our living wall. It is our hope that we grow a beautiful garden of vegetables, herbs and flowers that will then be sold in mid-June at a plant sale for community members to plant in their own home gardens.
Why should we all care?
As David Suzuki says,“The human brain now holds the key to our future. We have to recall the image of the planet from outer space: a single entity in which air, water, and continents are interconnected. That is our home.” Our responsibilities are a great impact to the environment. We can change our ways.
“Now there are some things in the world we can’t change – gravity, entropy, the speed of light, the first and second Laws of Thermodynamics, and our biological nature that requires clean air, clean water, clean soil, clean energy and biodiversity for our health and well being. Protecting the biosphere should be our highest priority or else we sicken and die. Other things, like capitalism, free enterprise, the economy, currency, the market, are not forces of nature, we invented them. They are not immutable and we can change them. It makes no sense to elevate economics above the biosphere, for example.” ~ David Suzuki
For a better future, we need to respect how things work on this planet. If someone asked you why we need plants, what would you think?
Projects: 1) Living Lab (2016-2017)
The Living lab (living wall, Investigation station and mobile greenhouse) expands our knowledge with plants and animals to connect with nature. For example, how our indigenous peoples used tools from the Earth and how they work with the Earth, not against it. Our indigenous People of Canada never wasted even a little bit of the earth or took anything they knew they wouldn’t use. If we do the same, we can make a big difference in the environment! **For further details on this project, please see the Living Lab section.
2) Naturalization Area
We are moving forward toward creating a naturalization area on our school grounds. Let us know what you would love to see! **For further details on this project, please see the Naturalization section.
UPDATE: 2018-2019 We have paused moving forward with our Naturalization Area school wide project. We are waiting for a group of highly interested and enthusiastic parents who will bring their passion and time to commit to helping with grant writing and fundraising efforts.
Eco Leaders 2016-2017
As Eco Leaders (a dedicated group presenting at the Mayor’s Environment Expo), we will contribute to environmental solutions that have a positive impact in our community while gaining eco-literacy and eco-leadership skills. Students develop lifelong, transferable skills in leadership, innovation, teamwork and critical thinking and apply these to projects of our design. Our project this year is the Living lab at our school.