Outdoor Learning Conference 2026

Registration for this field trip has now closed. 

Join in conversation with fellow educators and colleagues around the intersections of land-based learning, art and community, while you work with your hands to learn the basics of beading. This 2.5-hour introductory workshop will be led by Theresa Westhaver - an Indigenous artist, educator, Director of Land-Based Learning/BC Program Manager and co-founder of The Howl Experience.

All levels of beading experience are welcome! Please note that there is a $15 materials fee (cash preferred).  

Graphic facilitation offers powerful ways for students to observe, make meaning, and reflect – inside or outside of classroom walls. This hands-on workshop invites educators to experience how simple graphic facilitation approaches and tools can deepen learning, support diverse learners, and make thinking visible across grade levels and subject areas.
Participants will engage in short outdoor observation activities and explore usage of icons, symbols, graphic frames, and low-stakes sketching to support inquiry, reflection, and sense-making.
Educators will leave with practical graphic facilitation strategies and ready-to-use outdoor learning activities they can adapt for their students.

Join Director and Producer Ching Yu and Course Designer Isobel Phoebus as she shares two short films on learning and working in the outdoors. The first film, 'She Measures the Earth' is a poetic documentary featuring four women scientists from Girls On Ice Canada, a program that brings youth into the mountains to learn science through direct experience. The film explores how science can be a form of intimacy with the natural world, a way of feeling and measuring the Earth through movement, art, and observation. Participants will also receive a Lesson Plan for High School students. The second film follows diverse youth as they connect to the outdoors in different ways - Diudiu and Leo, both Mandarin-speaking immigrants’ children, navigate the slopes of the Canadian Rockies as they ski. Celeste, deeply rooted in her Indigenous horse culture, showcases the beauty of riding Indian Horse Relay in the Alberta Prairie. Anika, born into a family of Indian and Austrian climbers, climbs the rocks in her neighbourhood of Squamish, BC. Jade and Ryan, adventurous coldwater surfing girls from Ucluelet, Vancouver Island, ride the waves with enthusiasm.

Outdoor educators often navigate the tension between what they know fosters meaningful
learning and the risk-averse, liability-focused expectations of their institutions. Policies, consent
processes, and cultural perspectives on risk and safety can limit play, challenge, and
exploration, creating hidden costs for both educators and participants, including diminished
curiosity, resilience, and connection. This workshop invites participants to examine “the waiver
we are not signing,” the silent agreements we make each time we avoid uncertainty. Through
discussion, reflection, and experiential exercises, participants will explore the risks of action and
inaction. Together we will consider how risk management practices can be reimagined to
include diverse cultural perspectives and to support more reciprocal, relational, and
decolonizing approaches to outdoor learning.

Experience the perfect blend of indoor and outdoor learning in this hands-on workshop introducing Project Learning Tree Canada’s Explore Your Environment: K-8 Activity Guide. Participants will sample engaging, inquiry-based activities that foster critical thinking, STEM skills, and environmental literacy while connecting students to nature. Topics include forests, wildlife, water, energy, climate change, and community planning, with lessons adaptable for all grade levels and learning environments. Educators will explore strategies for differentiation, inclusive teaching, and outdoor engagement, leaving inspired and ready to bring fun, meaningful, and ready-to-use activities back to their classrooms. Every participant receives a copy of the guide to implement immediately in their educational setting.

Grant will tell (not read) stories from his well-received book, Outdoor Magic: The Power of Nature Connection in order to illustrate his thesis that spending time outdoors — regularly and repeatedly — is essential to developing the heart connection that will power a desire to fight climate change. His stories will touch on the following themes: loose parts, serendipity, up close and personal, and live-streaming. Participants will also be asked to share their stories as well as being encouraged to comment and ask questions.