Green Streets

The Cause

Environmental fairs represent an engaging learning experience that can help children expand their knowledge, spark their curiosity about the natural world and inspire them to apply what they learn to make the world a better place. However the costs associated with taking young children to an environmental fair are often an obstacle for schools with tight budgets.

Our Green Streets project brings an educational fair on environmental and STEM topics to local schools and offers grade 4 to 8 students an engaging and fun learning experience right in their own gymnasium. Our exhibits are hands-on and inquiry based to help students deepen their knowledge by taking an active role in their learning journey. Green Streets also empowers young Calgarians to take practical environmental action in their everyday lives and inspire others to lead a more sustainable life for a healthier community and a healthier environment.

Each Green Streets fair starts with a brief assembly and an overview of the importance of taking care of the environment through everyday actions like reducing waste and conserving water. Students then explore six hands-on stations on environmental and STEM topics that range from the natural cycle to energy production and conservation. At each station students are empowered to take action at home, at school and in the community.

From our more than 10 years of experience in environmental education for youth, we know that the likelihood of students taking action will increase if they see their whole school being involved. The environmental fair format helps create a sense of communal effort and accountability among students and teachers to become responsible stewards of our beautiful planet and its resources.

You can help subsidize the cost of our environmental fairs to 300 young Calgarians so they can get access to an engaging and community building learning experience regardless of their school’s ability to pay.

Who Will it Benefit?

Our project will benefit over 300 Calgary and area children, Grade 4 to 8, who are living in an urban environment and attend a school that can’t afford to take them to an environmental fair. The children who participate in our Green Street fairs will get information, resources and support to take positive action in their everyday lives and contribute to the communal efforts to protect the environment.

Local schools and teachers that are limited by stringent budgets will benefit from having this engaging learning opportunity available to them for free. The educational content of our fair is designed to align directly with Alberta Education’s cross-curricular competencies, so teachers can easily incorporate a Green Streets fair into their learning plans. Our specially trained instructors provide all the resources and materials to deliver a collaborative and inquiry based learning experience.

The students who attend our fairs will be encouraged to share what they learned with their family and friends. We have found that children that get the opportunity to participate in our programs are some of our most enthusiastic and effective environmental advocates. We believe that their drive to have a positive impact by doing simple acts like reducing waste can inspire their parents to take on more impactful acts like composting or switching to renewable energy.

We will also inspire young Calgarians to get together with their friends, teachers and family to take on practical projects that can have a positive environmental impact in their community. Simple things like organizing a bottle drive to benefit local charities, cleaning-up a local pathway or planting native seedlings in the school yard can help local biodiversity and improve the health of our urban environment.