The Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre is unveiling a new educational tool for students across Bruce County.
Director of Museum and Cultural Services Cathy McGirr says they introduced the Climate Change in a Box – Eni-aanjii-zhiweback – the changing weather resource to grade eight students for both the Bluewater and Catholic District School Boards on Friday.
The boxes were made available to 60 different schools and classrooms across the county.
“Over the course of 2023, we took a deep dive and reviewed our educational programming and we tried to connect always the educational programs to the curriculum, but also connecting to different exhibits that we may have at the museum. In particular, the climate change in a box contains materials to support the grade eight science unit, particularly water systems,” says McGirr.
The new educational tool kit was developed with the Saugeen Ojibway Nation Coastal Waters Monitoring Program and the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. It contains curriculum-based materials for hands-on learning.
“Especially around collecting historical data on water use, how climate change is demonstrated in this data collection, soil systems and water quality, watershed conservation and management, as well as samples of technology used today to conserve and monitor water use,” says McGirr.
Additionally, the boxes also contain resources for teachers to use for lesson plans, experiments and materials to expand on Indigenous contributions to water conservation as well as modern technology use.
She says this box also coincides with the museum’s Earth’s Climate in the Balance exhibition.
“Inside the box, there is a QR code, we are asking the teachers for their feedback on this product and we hope that through the feedback that we get, we will have a great understanding of how the box was used, what they liked, what they didn’t like, and potentially we could do more boxes like this, if this is something that is helping in assisting with education,” says McGirr.
Teachers interested in the box are invited to reach out to the museum for more information.
