Rebecca Seiling is a passionate educator and founder of Nature Connect. Partnering with the City of Kitchener, she leads enriching forest school programs for children, weekly programs for families, and youth leadership training. She is the 2024 Grand Prize Winner of the Edward Burtynsky Award. Here is her story and reflection connecting her pedagogy to the four branches of the Natural Curiosity framework:
Growing up in a rural area surrounded by forests and ponds, I developed a deep appreciation for the land. Using the forest school model, I have created outdoor learning experiences for children, youth and families to connect on a regular basis to the land around them. After teacher’s college in 1999, I taught Kindergarten and Grade 1, and intentionally used the outdoors as my four season classroom. In 2014, I created Nature Connect to offer nature programming in Waterloo Region. Since 2015, I have partnered with the City of Kitchener to offer a range of programs. My teaching philosophy emphasizes relationship building, accessibility and inclusion, fostering curiosity and wonder. I believe that this learning best happens when you engage learners’ hearts, hands and heads. Through Indigenous ceremonies led by partner educators, learners connect to the land. We make time for exploration, wonder, and play. We learn in a circle showing that each voice is important, and that the skill of compassionate listening is sorely needed to tend to each other and the land. These practices forge an emotional connection to the natural world, while developing social skills and empathy. Seeing learners’ eyes light up with discovery and their sense of responsibility grow, reinforces my commitment to this important work. I am motivated by the urgent need to nurture a generation that values and protects the land, and I am passionate about empowering students to become active environmental stewards.
Branch I: Inquiry & Engagement/Lighting the Fire
Igniting curiosity and fostering active engagement in students involves creating an environment where inquiry is encouraged. It is less important to find answers to all of our questions than it is to create a space where inquiries are welcomed, and where children see themselves as capable learners and investigators. Often questions form the basis for what we study in following weeks. We record questions as they come up, and use the Knowledge Building Circle technique of gathering information before diving into an inquiry. This gives us a starting point, and allows for student voice within the group. Students are encouraged to ask questions and explore topics of interest. We model this through our interactions, asking many questions ourselves. This approach places students' questions at the heart of the learning process, making their curiosity the driving force. We use various methods of storytelling, encouraging student voice by retelling our experiences, mapping our journeys and discoveries, and using the gift of imagination. By fostering an environment of inquiry, providing hands-on experiences, and encouraging collaboration and storytelling, educators can foster a lasting curiosity about and love for the natural world. Empowering students to explore their questions and ideas nurtures a lifelong love for learning and a deeper connection to the land. We hope that this love turns into a fierce desire to protect and care for the earth.
Branch II: Experiential Learning/Sending Out Roots
Creek monitoring: Over the past year, several groups of children have been attentive to the flow of the creek water. Through observation and exploration, they know the creatures that depend on the water, and are mindful to clear barriers/bridges that other park patrons create.They consulted with City representatives. This led to water quality monitoring and testing (hands-on), and singing to the water (hearts-on). Months later, those children continue to reflect on that experience when they pass by or play at the creek.
Planting native species: This provides a direct connection to the land. This promotes stewardship and teaches the importance of biodiversity. Gardening is also great for your heart! Tending seeds and plants develops empathy and care. As we tend the garden, we care for ourselves. As we water the soil, we feel refreshed too. Cultivating times of quiet and silence helps children to make a heart connection to the land around them.
Branch III: Integrated Learning/The Flow of Knowledge
An artist from Six Nations, Susan Hill, taught the school groups how to make small drums. Susan told them that everyone around the world has drums as part of their heritage, and about deer hunting to create the hides for their drums - taking only as much as they need, and no more. We sang Susan songs, using our drums to keep the beat. For our land acknowledgement, we showed artifacts uncovered during the park’s trail making process. As we examined these, we told stories of the land, older students adding details. Then we planted native wildflowers. We brought water from the pond, in the way that one Indigenous educator taught us, offering words of thanks. The children sang a water song, drumming as they watered the tiny plants. Singing brings us together, and closer to the water and plants, building a sense of shared community. We have a high adult:child ratio which helps us support the use of tools. Each week we cut up fruit to share. The children learn how to prepare the food, creating easy recipes that they can duplicate. We teach planting, gardening and harvesting skills in order to empower children to grow their own food. These skills help them to be healthy, connected to the land through their food.
Branch IV: Moving Towards Sustainability/Breathing with the World
Through the projects mentioned above, students learn to see the land as an interconnected system. We often connect what we are doing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (#4, 6, 11, 15). We strive to make a difference in the world. By engaging with real-world problems, students develop critical thinking, empathy, collaboration, and problem-solving skills, preparing them to be active global citizens. They have a voice, and they use it. Through journaling and mindfulness activities, students develop a personal connection to the land. This helps students appreciate the value of each plant and creature and its role in the ecosystem. In sit spot practices, we emphasize the reciprocal relationship of breathing with the trees - a give and take between the species. Through teachings from local Indigenous educators and Knowledge Keepers, students learn the importance of reciprocal relationships, where humans give back to the land in a give and take relationship. We use the honourable harvest principles of asking permission, waiting for the answer, noticing with our senses, having a purpose in mind, and then offering thanks. We try to think from the land’s perspective, and not just our own. It is a joy to give thanks to the land! We give back to the land by saying thank you in various ways. Hands-on examples include planting, offering water, bird seed, and tobacco (led by Indigenous educators). Hearts-on examples also include offering water, tobacco, plants, and singing, drumming and speaking our thanks to the land for what we have been given.
Here’s how I work with students, colleagues, and the wider community to create an impactful land-based program:
Inquiry-Based Learning: I encourage students to pursue their own environmental questions and research. By providing guidance and resources, I help them design and conduct their investigations, enhancing their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Nature Clubs: I facilitate after-school nature clubs where a wider range of children and families can access nature-based programming. We ensure that children who need 1:1 support have that available.
Collaborative Facilitation: All of our forest school programs have at least 2 trained educators, working side by side. This helps us to notice more within the group, and to plan based on interests and needs that arise.
Professional Development: We offer monthly educator workshops, which have been a great way to collaborate with educators. We offered a 5-part Indigenous-Led Learning Circles series, and I collaborated with a local teacher to lead a Kindergarten outdoor learning workshop, among other topics.
Resource Sharing: I develop and share nature-related teaching materials and lesson plans.
Community Partnerships: I have established partnerships with the City of Kitchener, Crow Shield Lodge, White Owl Native Ancestry, Two Row Team, Wesahk, House of Friendship, WRDSB, and WCDSB. Working together amplifies our shared vision of healthy communities connected to each other and the land around us.
Public Events: I organize family nature walks, nature art activities, pond studies, and land history walks. These events raise awareness and attract many newcomers to Canada who are keen to learn about the land.
Parent Involvement: In our family program, parents tell us that they learn so much alongside their children. Engaging parents helps with retention and repetition of key land-connected teachings.
Putting it all together
To fully illustrate the four branches, I will describe a project that emerged from the new Grade 11 Land-Based Leadership course I taught at a local high school.
Branch 1: At the beginning of the school year, the Grade 11 class was encouraged to think with the land in mind. We asked: What species share this land? What percentage of this land is managed for human pursuits? How could we create spaces that prioritize others? Students worked in small groups to tour the land, research, and plan.
Branch 2: One significant project that came out of these discussions was the creation of a pollinator garden on the school grounds. This was a hands-on experience that took everyone’s participation to bring to fruition - digging up sod, adding soil, collecting native pollinator plants, transplanting, and lots of watering. It involved carrying water, tools and wheelbarrows up and down a steep hill to the garden area. A Knowledge Keeper led them in laying down tobacco in the garden, offering it as a gift to the land, a prayer for growth. We had several guest speakers over the months who the group proudly took to the space to show off their work.
Branch 3: Interdisciplinary connections abounded. Environmental science was an obvious connection. The group led an assembly about the importance of the garden and created a class podcast to educate other students about topics we were discussing (oral communication/writing). We dug into history, examining the local treaty obligations.
Branch 4: Students learned about sustainable practices, biodiversity, and the importance of local food systems and pollinators. They no longer saw JUST a tree - but a being with agency and purpose. There were changed minds, hearts and bodies through the process of land connection and stewardship.
For 25 years, I have worked to learn about Indigenous histories and traditions. This work is important to me; it’s hard for me to remember a time when it wasn’t. My commitment is guided by continuous personal learning, collaboration with Indigenous educators, and a respectful approach to Indigenous knowledge. I work toward several Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action in my teaching: specifically, #62 and #63. I learn by attending workshops, online webinars, and celebrations led by Indigenous organizations. This ongoing learning ensures that I approach Indigenous knowledge with respect. I engage with Indigenous knowledge and perspectives by offering creative, heart-felt land acknowledgments at the beginning of lessons and events; harvesting in an honourable way; making decisions with the land in mind; and greeting, asking permission of, and thanking the land with our groups. I see myself as a bridge, collaborating with local Indigenous educators and Knowledge Keepers to cocreate educational content and activities. This ensures that the knowledge shared is accurate, authentic, and presented in a way that respects Indigenous cultural practices. Educators have taught us the Seven Sacred/Grandfather Teachings, and we work to reinforce these teachings. Teaching from a Two-Eyed Seeing perspective, conceptualized by Mi'kmaq Elder Albert Marshall, we emphasize the importance of viewing knowledge through the strengths of both Indigenous and Western knowledge systems.
— By Myah Birrell
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