Building Complete Communities

Original date: March 5th, 2018

Click here to access this webinar

Links and resources

Presenter: Kathleen Watt

Description: Join us as we discuss sustainable development and environmental protection, and how to bring these ideas into the classroom. To accommodate a growing population while protecting the environment, it is important that cities and towns are built in a sustainable way. In this webinar, we will talk about how building complete communities and using greenbelts (areas of protected greenspace) can be effective methods to protect the environment and how your students can learn about these initiatives. We will chat about how sustainable development, environmental protection, and reducing climate change can be integrated into classrooms to help students become more aware of sustainable growth. We will provide many classroom ideas and free educational resources. Join us to hear more about how your students can learn to build complete communities for the future!

Kathleen Watt is an education consultant with EcoSpark in Toronto, Ontario. EcoSpark is an environmental non-profit whose mission is educating teachers and students to become stewards of the environment. Kathleen has completed her Bachelor of Education and Master’s in Geography and is passionate about environmental protection and land use policy.

Important links from the webinar presentation:

Ideas and Initiatives:

Imagine a Garden in Every School www.agardenineveryschool.ca

Depave Paradise www.depaveparadise.ca

Green Wall – Maker Space, Making Space – Milliken Mills High School  https://wimeo.com/24385942

Green Infrastructure Ontario www.greeninfrastructureontario.org

Resources and Lesson Plans:

Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF) lsf-lst.ca/en/projects/teacher-resources/additional-resources

Young People’s Trust for the Environment (YPTE) ypte.org.uk/lesson-plans/sustainable-development

Ontario EcoSchools www.ontarioecoschools.org

ESRI ArcGIS www.arcgis.com/home/index.html

Neptis Geoweb www.neptisgeoweb.org

To download a free digital copy of EcoSpark’s Growing in the Greater Golden Horseshoe teacher resource guide and free lesson plans visit www.ecospark.ca/complete-communities.

To receive a print copy of EcoSpark’s Growing in the Greater Golden Horseshoe teacher resource guide in the mail, please email your mailing address to kathleen@ecospark.ca. Copies will only be mailed to participants who attended the live webinar, 2018 while quantities last.

Resources Suggested by Participants

“for classrooms with teachers that are into Minecraft, students can build a complete community within the game!”

 (Maps) Here is the public-facing map for Los Angeles as an example. http://zimas.lacity.org/

In Niagara, it is Niagara Navigator

Foe Vancouver – Vanmap – http://vanmapp.vancouver.ca/pubvanmap_net/default.aspx

Interactive Map City of Toronto http://map.toronto.ca/maps/map.jsp?app=TorontoMaps_v2

And http://www.neptisgeoweb.org/

(Energy) In Arkansas, I use  EnergySmart to teach about energy efficiency and WindWise for wind energy education. NEED.org also has great resource education lessons, all of which are free!

Ontario has a new Green Fund – https://www.greenon.ca/

Green Teacher’s Resources (on the topic)

https://greenteacher.com/search-for-articles/land-use-and-natural-resources/  – 34 K-12 teaching articles and activities, some of which are free

https://greenteacher.com/search-for-articles/climate-changeweather/  – 26 K-12 teaching articles and activities, some of which are free

https://greenteacher.com/search-for-articles/energy/  –  – 15 K-12 teaching articles and activities, some of which are free

And our newest books both have teaching strategies related to complete communities:

https://greenteacher.com/teaching-young-people-about-climate-change/

https://greenteacher.com/teaching-teens-about-climate-change/