A few School District 57 teachers have been working together to offer their students unique ways to learn while spending time in the outdoors.
The ‘Dead Pine Collective’ class offers students the opportunity to head out into the wilderness once a week and learn outdoor skills such as ice fishing and trapping while getting different class credits.
During the first semester of this school year, students enrolled in Dead Pine Collective learned a variety of skills including how to tie basic fly fishing knots.
Additionally, students would learn the biology behind local ecosystems through mapping out lakes and studying different fish species.
Reid Roberts came up with the idea two years ago, he previously taught Phys Ed and Outdoor Ed at DP Todd Secondary School and is currently signed with the District Indigenous Ed department.
He is also a certified trapper and initially, he came up with the idea to bring some of his outdoor ed students to his trapline as a way to connect with them.
“I asked my administrator if I could bring them out and it was really successful, our Indigenous Ed department and the school were really excited to get these kids back out on the land,” Roberts explained.
After receiving a grant from the School District department, the class turned into a weekly opportunity for students to go out and learn wilderness skills around Prince George.
“At one point my administrator at the time was telling me she had to suspend a kid and I just jokingly said well instead of sending him home for five days, why don’t you send him with me to the trapline for five days? And that just opened up some ideas to see if we could do this full time.”
Roberts then became a full-time Resource teacher at DP Todd and began taking out students that were having a hard time in school, or anyone just interested in hunting and trapping.
Two other DP Todd teachers joined in and now Dead Pine Collective offers a variety of credits including English, Social Studies, and Outdoor Ed for those in grades 10-12.
“A lot of the kids we’re dealing with didn’t have a strong interest in school, some of them were decent academic students, and others were not. But as soon as they were able to pursue something they were a bit more interested in or passionate about, the learning became easier.”
The course is now taking off across SD57 and now offers learning opportunities to students at Spruceland Elementary.
A nonprofit has been started to pay for some of the costs associated with the program, it can be found on the Dead Pine Collective Facebook Page.
“The kids aren’t just learning about something, they’re actually doing what they’re learning about and it just hits home for them and makes it a bit more meaningful,” added Roberts.
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