Grade 7 Programs
Note: Proper footwear, rubber boots or closed toed shoes, is essential for students, teachers and parent volunteers to maximize the learning potential and related enjoyment of these programs.
PARENT VOLUNTEERS ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL PROGRAMS (1 adult for every 5 students).
Bus Tour to Walker Aggregates Quarry (Natural Resources)
After an introduction on ‘how humans acquire, manage, and use natural resources’, students will visit a working rock quarry (mining), Walker Aggregates Quarry (3 minutes away). During this tour, students will see firsthand, a mining operation and the ways in ‘which technology has affected our use of natural resources with respect to their management, extraction, processing and marketing’. Your School bus transportation is required to stay with your group for the whole day in order to transport the students to the Quarry. On site, a guide from Walker Aggregates will join us on the bus to give an informed account of the operations and to answer any questions.
Cross Country Skiing
Please see Winter Programs for more details. Meets Health and Physical Education curriculum strands.
Disc Golf
Students will learn how to play on a course set on forest trails on the side of the Niagara Escarpment. This program is well suited for beginners, novice, and advanced skill levels. The program offers access to 6 holes, a driving range, and a putting course for student use.
Pond and Forest (Interactions in the Environment)
Using a hands-on approach, students will explore a variety of ecosystems, including an active Beaver Pond and a forest floor. Students will study the interactions between living organisms and their environment including links between biotic and abiotic elements. Students will also explore sustainability, limiting factors and human influence.
Wildlife Walk
While on a walk through the woods, concepts such as predator/prey, wildlife adaptations, wildlife populations, and human influence on wildlife are explored through a series of games. This is a fun, active, engaging program. This activity requires fewer adult leaders to be effective.
Snowshoeing
Please see Winter Programs for more details. Meets Health and Physical Education curriculum strands.
Survival on the Niagara Escarpment (Interactions in the Environment)
Students will play a role in the food chain as it may occur on the Niagara Escarpment. Our version of the survival game shows the interdependence of all organisms within a local forest community. It examines food chains, food webs, and shows the concept of energy flow within an ecosystem. Students will experience both the struggle all organisms on the escarpment must go through, and the impact humans can have on wildlife populations, food chains, and ecosystems.
Team Dynamics
This program consists of co-operative games that promote leadership, trust, verbal/non-verbal communication, problem solving and team skills.
Trappers and Traders (Full Day Program)
This program combines wayfaring (mapping), problem solving, and team work skills while role playing the life of a fur trader during the 1700’s. Students will be required to work together to find “furs” on our wayfaring course, trade their furs for “beaver” money at our fur exchange, then buy items (from the trading post) they will need to survive the winter.
Wayfaring (Map Work – no Compass)
Students will participate in a wayfaring program building on team and map work skills as they venture through three progressively challenging levels of maps. Students will only advance after successful completion of each stage.
General Information
- All Programs must be reserved in advance and are designed as half-day sessions for a minimum of 15 students per program. Two half-day programs make an exciting full-day program.
- Program runs rain or shine (unless extreme weather conditions are forecasted).
- Supervisors are expected to remain with their group throughout the visit (program/lunch) and are responsible for discipline.