Just as the United Church teaches about water, so too do many of our partners. Hear how Saint Columba House in Montreal, Quebec, has helped youth learn about this precious resource.

 

 

In 2011, staff at Saint Columba House ran a program to introduce youth to environmental issues affecting their communities, including water cycles and their local watersheds. Interactive activities went above and beyond traditional nature-based programming. First, creative games and crafts helped youth identify the central environmental concepts and the relationships between them. Second, hands-on experiments got them involved in the science behind the natural processes and how people transform them. Finally, the youth went out into the community to see how the issues shape every aspect of the world around them.

 

 

In one game, the children organized picture cards showing how cloud formation, rain, and rivers are part of the water cycle. Next, everyone collaborated on a large painting of a water cycle, including filling in the components necessary to make it fully functional. Outside, the youth saw the geography that makes up their watershed.

 

 

The three-tiered approach of ideas, experiments, and experiences stimulates curiosity, maintaining children’s active engagement and reinforcing the material covered. Saint Columba House continues to teach about the issues of water use and conservation and the social and ecological concerns of the local watershed.

 

 

Every gift to the church’s mission and service is used wisely and helps transform lives. Please continue to give generously.

 

 

[Available in French (online only)/disponible en français (en ligne seulement).  Visit www.UCRDstore.ca and search for “minutes for mission 2013.”  Visitez le site www.UCRDstore.ca et recherchez “minutes for mission 2013.”]