Blog

June 15, 2016

The Forest –The Predator/Prey Game 

 You will find out how hard it is to find all the food, water, and shelter you need to live while trying to find a mate at the same time

Color a Life Cycle diagram. Play a game with a partner to find out how hard it is for salmon to complete their life cycle. Watch and participate in a drama about adult salmon returning to their spawning ground!

February 17, 2016
Salmon Lives

Learn about the life history of salmon. Color pictures of their spawning and juvenile habitat. Watch a video showing some of the dangers they face as they migrate from river or lake to the sea and return.

Wednesday, March 4th, 2015
Killer Whales (Nisga’a Gisgaast clan)
Learn about this marine top predator. Residents, Transients; what they eat, their communication and society (Matriarchal, Matrilineal). How toxins accumulate at the top of the food chain. Learn a Nisga’a legend about origins of the Gisgaast clan. Watch a CD, meet a giant killer whale puppet!


Wednesday, February 11th, 2015
TOP PREDATORS
Learn about apex predators and the food pyramid. Make your own wolf prints using your hands, paint, and paper. Watch a video about wolves, draw a picture of bears or wolves. Review what you have learned about these animals through a fun fact or fiction activity. Listen to Raven (a puppet) explain their lives; hear a story about growing wolf pups.

Wednesday, December 10th, 2014
7:00 – 8:30 PM
Meet at portable room 214 Nisga’a Elem Sec School in Aiyansh 
BEARS and Flying Squirrrels
BEARS
and Flying Squirrrels The main emphasis will be on bears.
Personal stories of local encounters with bears will be shared. How can
we live safely with bears? How can we share the environment with them?
How do bears “help” plants and other animals? What do they eat? We may
watch a short video. We’ll talk about signs bears leave. There will be
an Art activity.

Flying squirrels are amazing. Imagine
stretching your skin out between “hands” and feet to make “wings’! What
is their main food? Where do they live? When and where can you see one?

Wednesday, November 26th, 2014
3:30 – 5:00 PM
Meet at the portable room 214 at Nisga’a Elem – Sec School in Aiyansh WOLVES and Swans Wolves 
WOLVES and Swans Wolves will be the main topic. We will discuss the role wolves play in the ecosystem; their importance as a selection force in the lives of their herbivore prey. The “Bad” rap they have been given by fairy tales will be put under the microscope. We may watch a short video; we’ll listen to recorded calls. Stories of personal encounters with wolves will be shared.

Trumpeter Swans, their near extinction and recovery, will also be discussed, with emphasis on their occurrence in our valley. We’ll talk about what they eat, where they go (local migration), where and when to see them. An Art activity will be included in this event.

Sunday, October 26, 2014 
2 pm 
Aiyansh baseball field
MUSHROOMS 
We
will take an exploratory hike a short way up the mushroom trail. We
will find out many things about the importance of mushrooms and fungi.
We will learn about symbiotic relationships of many fungi and tree
species, fungi as recyclers/waste managers in the forest, and the
biomass of mycorhizae in the forest soil. We’ll identify some mushroom
species and learn a little about edibile vs poisonous species.

Friday, September 18th & 19th, 2014
7:00 PM
Church Basement in Aiyansh. 
Bat Presentation 
Cori Clausen will do a slide show
with explanation about bats of the province and describe her research. She also
plans to bring her pet injured hoary bat to the presentation. 

On Sept 18 and 19 Cori will be setting up a couple of bat monitoring stations in the valley, one
at the Belton’s house and the other at the McKay bridge near Lakalzap
(Greenville), because there are bat colonies in both of those locations. From
the monitoring, she can identify species and migration/hibernation patterns.