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Expanding Our Roots

UBC Hosts Teacher Professional Development Day Workshops

UBC Forestry conducted two free professional development day workshops for teachers last month. The first of the workshops, titled “Forestry: Science Made Practical”, was delivered to thirteen high school teachers on UBC Campus. Morning workshops focused on offering teachers examples from forests and forestry of concepts taught in senior high school sciences such as biology, physics and math. The workshops were delivered by professors Sally Aitken and Dennis Bendickson. Following an interactive lunch with the teachers and workshop leaders, the group left for a guided tour of the forest in Pacific Spirit Park (PSP), south of campus. Professors Steve Mitchell and Sally Aitken shared the forest’s interesting history of fire, logging and regeneration, and what these events have meant to the ecology of the forest and its future as a park. Feedback from teachers at the end of the day was predominantly positive: several of them felt they would be able to incorporate the examples from the morning workshops into portions of their curriculum, while others thought that they could use the workshop content as a resource from which to create something more suitable for their grade level and course content. The concept of combining focused class time and a forest tour was also well-received.

In early May, Forest Educators Gail Wallin and Maureen Lebourdais also organized “Skogdag”, Swedish for “forest day”, for 15 Kindergarten to Grade 7 teachers in the Cariboo-Chilcotin. The event was delivered by the staff of the Alex Fraser UBC Research Forest at Knife Creek, south of 150 Mile House. Manager Ken Day and Research Coordinator Cathy Koot wove the group up and down a series of trails through the forest, making stops to illustrate the ecology of the Interior Douglas fir zone and explaining how forest management is adapting to meet the needs of wildlife like Mule deer, while mitigating the risk of fire and extracting timber value. Similar events are planned for the future with Gail and Maureen, and the UBC Research Forest is interested in hosting groups again in the future.

For those interested in being kept informed of upcoming events in the Lower Mainland or if anyone is interested in help with creating and /or running forest-related events, you can contact Neil Davis or Steve Baumber at forest.info@ubc.ca, or toll free at 1-888 933-9663, and we will keep their contact info on hand. For the Cariboo region, contact manager Ken Day at the Alex Fraser Research Forest : Tel: (250)392-2207.

New from UBC’s Forestry Faculty:
This fall, the Forest Operations degree program will be offering students the option to do a minor in commerce. This is an exciting opportunity for students, giving them more flexibility in their degree to meet some of the changing demands in the workplace.

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