Education

Intake for GO Grant applications is now open.
The deadline to apply is September 1, 2024, at 5:00pm (PDT).

GO or Get Outdoor Grants support outdoor biodiversity field studies or projects for K-12 classes in British Columbia. GO Grants cover transportation, project materials and or program fees to help teachers take their students outdoors to learn about and experience some of BC’s biodiversity.

GO Grants are for field studies:

• Happening outdoors in a nature setting.
• Focusing on learning about BC’s biodiversity of fish, wildlife, and their habitats.
• Supporting curricular big ideas or competencies.
• Involving students actively participating in outdoor experiential/hands-on activities.
• Including pre and post learning extensions.
• Applying care and consideration for the environment.

GO Grants funding covers:

• Transportation to field study location (e.g. bus, train, boat or mileage). Please try to reduce your class carbon footprint as much as possible and consider carbon offsetting.
• Outdoor field equipment.
• Outdoor field study program fees or leaders including teacher-on-call costs (middle and high school only) and honorariums.

Deadline: September 1st and February 1st
Level: K-12 classes in BC
Amount: Up to $800

Overview
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Intake for LEAP Grants is now closed.
The next opportunity to apply will be spring 2025. 

Leadership Environmental Action Project (LEAP) grants for BC High Schools support student learning and experiences in conservation and stewardship of British Columbia’s biodiversity.

LEAP into conservation with your high school science students through place-based learning projects that focus on monitoring, restoring and or conserving BC’s biodiversity.

Deadline: May 15th
Level: High schools in BC
Amount: Up to $5,000

Overview
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Your next opportunity to apply for this program will be Spring 2025.

The Wild Schools program is a free, whole-school, three year initiative for K-8 schools supporting outdoor and place-based learning.

An interdisciplinary, curriculum linked program, Wild Schools supports school communities to increase ecological literacy, outdoor field experiences and to build connections to conservation in the community. The Wild Schools program uses hands-on environmental teaching learning strategies to engage learners through a process of Wondering, Inquiring, Learning and Doing—being WILD with BC’s biodiversity.

Goals of the program are to:

• Provide schools with professional development and resources to support environmental teaching and learning.
• Engage schools in outdoor place-based learning to help connect students with nature.
• Foster schools participation in stewardship of BC’s biodiversity.

Deadline: May 1st
Level: Elementary and middle schools in BC
Benefits (per year):

• 10 hours of professional development.
• Free resource and/or funding options.
• Up to 45 hours of WildBC facilitator support.

Overview
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The Environmental Exchange Box program pairs up classes from around BC to share and exchange about biodiversity in their local places. Students prepare items (photos, art, collections, stories, etc.) to be included in an exchange box of their learning of the local environment and then share with another class in another school from around the province.

Objectives

• Students will gain an appreciation and connection with their local place through creating “exchange boxes” of their local region to share with another class from a different region.
• Students will gain a deeper understanding about their own place as well as learning about another region in BC.
• Students will learn about BC Parks and other special places in their local area or ecoregion and share with students from other regions.

Deadline: October 1st
Level: K-9 classes in BC
Benefits:

• Free educational resources upon participation, more free resources with each exchange.
• Up to 5 hours of WildBC facilitator support.
• Free shipping for exchanges.

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HCTF Education’s WildBC Network has over 60 professional facilitators across the province to deliver our programs. Our team is made up of folks with a wide variety of expertise and experience in education, ecology, biology, natural history, interpretation, pedagogy, leadership, communication among other areas.

Facilitator Listing

HCTF Education also offers a variety of environmental education workshops that are hands-on, interdisciplinary and fun! Our WildBC Facilitators will provide you with ideas, resources and connections to engage you in environmental and place-based learning. Workshops support a wide range of audiences including early years, K-12, post secondary and community groups.

• Project WET
• Project WILD
• Project Learning Tree
• Growing up WILD
• Get Outdoors!
• LEAP Into Action
• Below Zero Workshop

If you want to know what other workshops are offered or if you have any further questions, please email education@hctf.ca.

HCTF Education has an online resource centre that provides access to over 500 environmental education resources such as books, lessons, curriculum support, teaching kits, field guides and more. There are many items available for free download, and there is also an online store that sells educator guides, activity kits, field guides and cards and more. The HCTF Education website has a search portal that provides access to all of these resources.

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Scholarship Program

HCTF believes in nurturing and growing conservation leaders of the future. The HCTF Scholarship Grant Program supports students of solid academic standing to pursue a higher education leading to a career in wildlife or fish conservation.  This will be accomplished through the awarding of undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships and scholarships.

To learn more about the scholarship program, please visit our scholarship program page.

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