Programs

Planting for Change (P4C)

P4C is a project that allows a school to create a planting site on its schoolyard. The growing network of sites with mini-climate change outdoor classrooms enables teachers to complement their curriculum and to track climate change effects on new tree plantings.

We help your class create a schoolyard planting site that acts as a mini-climate change outdoor classroom/lab – an easily accessible teaching tool to complement curriculum relating to climate change. Students will collect data on the health and yearly growth of their tree plantings as they explore issues surrounding climate change locally and globally. Hands-on involvement with the planting site throughout the process engages them and helps make the issues of climate change relevant to them at a level of complexity they can understand.

Teachers who want to address climate change and plant trees on their schoolyards, which are often wide open lawns and sports fields with little tree cover, can engage their students in this practical way. The outdoor classroom/lab supports geography, math, science, world studies and next year’s curriculum focus on climate change.

Measuring Our Resources

This is a project in which the students measure trees in their schoolyard as well as monitor the local effects of a globally changing climate. ACER developed a set the field activities and assessments as a second cross curriculum program in which teachers are helped to map their own school property using GPS coordinates to create a QGIS digitized maps. Our School Yard enhances curriculum in mathematics, literacy, science and
geography by involving core learning in grades 7-12. It builds interpersonal communication skills as the project requires extensive teamwork by the students.
Students participate in a field study to collect and manage authentic data which enhances knowledge of climate change.
This program can be incorporated into lesson plans and meets the academic standards in the Ontario Curriculum. For example:
✓ Develop map making skills.
✓ Use GPS technology to locate trees.
✓ Measure perimeters and diameters; understand graphs and tables.
✓ Plant growth and adaptations, ecosystem functions, weather and climate.
✓ This program is adaptable to small green spaces such as boulevards, parks, churches and naturalized areas.

Let’s Plant, Measure and Mulch

Is a project that offers teachers and community groups a chance to relate science to technology, society and the environment at an ‘Outdoor Climate Change Laboratory’ located at the Humber Arboretum. The project  includes planting new trees in restoration areas, maintain the existing forests, monitor their progress, record and report data. Over 3000 students have been involved in planting, measuring and mulching in ACER’s urban Climate Change Laboratory in the Humber Arboretum below Humber College North Campus in the northwest corner of Toronto. Beginning in 2002, trees representing 76 species and 2100 specimens were chosen to be measured annually during May and October. These trees were planted by students and volunteers in scientific biodiversity-sensitive designs to study the success rate over the long term in a warming global climate.
Students from Grade 7 to Grade 12, environmental club members, new Canadian professionals and recent university graduates work with ACER to collect data for analysis. Data is provided to students, scientists, foresters and the public.
Let’s Plant, Measure and Mulch provides a unique opportunity for students beginning with grade 7 to broaden their understanding of scientific investigation.
Students are encouraged to participate and relate their experience to the fields of Biology, Geography, Mathematics, Science and Technology, Environmental Studies or World Issues.

Go Global

This program is a network of one-hectare plots, which demonstrate the effectiveness of local monitoring and reporting of environmental change in long-term forest biodiversity monitoring programs. Community groups are helped to establish their own one-hectare forest plot and taught to measure locally and report globally. This is an international program that uses standardized methods to better understand global ecology.
Since 1996, ACER has helped school groups and communities set up permanent forest monitoring plots in Ontario with a variety of partners.
Monitoring what is changing, and how fast it is changing in our forests puts climate change in context.
ACER is currently establishing 2 hectares with the Niagara Parks Commission as part of “Yes, We CAN” project.

The Gateway Project

The Gateway Project is the development of an access tool for decision-makers to implement adaptation measures and to assess risks related to climate change in watersheds. ACER expert scientists in climate change and water management are working with MNR to provide the tools required to begin adaptation for water related issues within Conservation Authorities.

Youth Stewardship Project

This is a project created to hire and train local youth under supervision to maintain and enhance natural areas by learning the protocols to remove invasive species, inventory the remaining native species and their regeneration followed by a fall event of community planting of native species to restore the area. Data collected tracks the growth and health of the trees.