About CBEEN

CBEEN has been involved in planning and implementing a number of programs to help promote environmental education and provide support to educators. Here are some of our programs to date:

Voices for Sustainability

To date, CBEEN has hosted two Voices for Sustainability (VFS) networking and professional development retreats for environmental educators from around the Columbia Basin. The first was held in October 2007 in the Slocan, and the second at Blue Lake Camp in the East Kootenay in May 2009. VFS is an 'open space' symposium that provides an opportunity to share and celebrate knowledge, resources and inspiration with fellow sustainability educators from throughout our own bioregion. CBEEN plans to host a Voices event every 1-2 years in different parts of the Basin.

Fair Change: Fair Trade & Climate Change in the Kootenays

In October 2008, CBEEN partnered with the College of the Rockies, Wildsight, and several other agencies to present this multi-faceted conference exploring regional solutions to global issues. The conference took place at COTR Cranbrook, and over three days drew several hundred people to a wide variety of workshops on fair trade and climate change issues, and also to a diverse array of keynote speakers. CBEEN looks forward to future work organizing major conferences.

Your Water, Your Future – a Basin-wide Teaching Kit for Water Stewardship in the Columbia Basin

In late 2005, CBEEN proudly launched a teaching kit designed specifically for local educators! Focusing on water stewardship, ”Your Water, Your Future” contains lesson plans for students in k-11 and all the materials required to carry them out, including a large three-dimensional model of the Canadian Columbia Basin, games, videos of local First Nations’ activities, songs, crafts, and other equipment. Lesson plans are carefully designed to fit the BC Sciences and Social Studies curricula, and include teacher backgrounders, black line masters, and evaluation tools. For 2007, kits have been separated into Primary, Intermediate and Senior editions, and free in-class lessons and pro-d workshops are being offered throughout the Columbia Basin. Teachers in School Districts #5, 6, 8, 10, 19, and 20 may access the kits at anytime through their School District Resource Centres. To learn more about the kits and the Fall 2007 promotion program, click on the Basin Water Curriculum link (here or at top left).

“Springing into the Magic of Environmental Education” Workshop

This workshop, held in Kaslo from April 21 – 23, 2004, celebrated environmental educators from throughout the Columbia Basin. The focus this year was old growth forests, and the workshop included guest speakers on grizzly bear biology, old growth forest ecology, and Mountain caribou. As well, the workshop incorporated outdoor and classroom-based forest education activities, nature journaling, and Earth day activities. This workshop was designed to celebrate regional environmental educators, through build capacity, and provide them with an opportunity to network and share ideas. The “Capacity-building” Subcommittee of CBEEN developed this workshop.

Fire Ecology Workshop for Educators and Community Leaders

There has been increased interest in the topic of fire ecology throughout BC as a result of the forest fires of 2003. The Fire Ecology Workshop delivered in the fall of 2004, provided information and teaching materials on fire ecology to educators and community leaders throughout the Columbia Basin. Participants of the workshop learned how fire works, the implications of fire suppression, and how they could best educate others on what they had learned. The workshops were held in Edgewater, Cranbrook, and Nelson. They included a field-trip to a fire site.

The “Capacity-building” Subcommittee of CBEEN initiated this project.