Windsor School is a small K-9 community school located in Winnipeg, Manitoba. For some years the school has run a project known as "Windsor Green" that is designed to enhance the environmental surroundings of the school as well as to provide a resource for taking the curriculum outdoors. In 1998, Windsor School embraced the principles and goals of the international Healthy School movement, including a commitment to student-led decision-making.1 These twin initiatives provided the foundation and guiding principles for a community mapping project that became known as the eco-count.

The eco-count was conceived of as a simple, innovative and enjoyable way for students to learn more about the place in which they live by looking closely at their local environment. We wanted to create a tangible connection to the urban ecology through a dynamic and participatory process. We did this by having students explore and create representations of their neighborhood in a two-phase process carried out over the course of a school year. In the first phase, students worked together to develop inventories and maps of environmental features in the local neighborhood. This data was subsequently used as a basis for the creation of a large community map and educational game painted directly onto the school playground. The project involved the entire student body, as well as teachers, parents and other volunteers, and engaged curriculum topics from math to language arts, social studies and art. [Note: Only the Phase 1-The eco-count is featured here.]

Why did we do it?

The main goals of the project were to promote learning about the local environment and urban ecology and to engage students and teachers in outdoor curriculum-related activities. In designing the project we also wanted to accomplish several other objectives, the first of which was involvement of the total school community. Students of different grade levels often have limited opportunities to interact within the school setting, especially in schools with an elementary-junior high split. Having all students working together on a project is a way of enhancing the feeling of unity and connectedness within the school. Secondly, we wanted to enhance local community interest in school activities. Building strong school-community linkages has many positive implications for the school. Both the eco-count and map-painting phases of the project were highly visible and provided opportunities for talking to community residents. Thirdly, we felt it was important to have a tangible product at the end of the project which would visually demonstrate students' accomplishments and serve as an ongoing reminder of the work. The nature and form of this product - a durable 'green map' of the neighborhood - emerged as the project evolved.

Phase 1 - The eco-count

Participation and student-led decision-making were key principles of the eco-count project. Windsor School has an ad hoc Healthy School Action Group comprising student representatives of grades one to six, teachers, and parent-volunteers who help to plan and implement projects. The concept of the eco-count was first discussed with members of this group who then took the ideas to each class. Classroom discussions generated further suggestions that were brought back to the Action Group by student representatives. Through this process, decisions were made to use small-scale maps of the neighborhood to develop a series of eco-inventories that focused on five categories chosen and defined by the students. These were:

* Green environment: parks, trees, bush, riverbank, gardens, playgrounds
* Built environment: dwellings, businesses, churches
* Transport environment: cars and bicycles, parked and moving through
* Living environment: wildlife and pets
* Litter and recycling

We obtained neighborhood maps from the municipal planning department. Choosing as small a scale as possible, we cut and pasted so that each city block fit onto a legal-sized sheet of paper. Although a variety of features could have been preprinted on the maps, our maps showed simply the streets and lot outlines. To provide some consistency in mapping techniques we looked to the international Green Map System (GMS)2 which was developed in 1995 as a flexible approach to creating local community maps with an environmental focus. GMS has developed an internationally standardized set of 125 ecological and cultural symbols, or map icons, that represent a wide range of environmental features such as recycling sites, special trees and marine habitats. Our students selected a subset of map icons relevant to their neighborhood and purpose. These were printed from the GMS website and subsequently produced by a student and teacher as small peel-off stickers.

Approximately 150 students from grades one through six participated in the eco-count. Students were assigned to mixed-grade groups to encourage class interaction, and went out twice into the community to collect information 'on the ground'. Each group was led by a teacher or parent volunteer. On the first outing each student was given a legal-sized clipboard, pencil and small-scale map of a designated area of the neighborhood, including main streets, back alleys and parks. As the group moved through the neighborhood they filled in their maps with appropriate map icons and other written and graphic notations as needed. On the second outing, students had eco-inventory checklists for recording systematic counts of features such as trees, animals and cars. Each group had an official student photographer who was given the mandate of documenting the group's activities. Some groups chose to share this function between members. One group made a video recording of the event. The sight of students busy in the community aroused the curiosity and interest of many local residents, creating spontaneous opportunities for conversations and explanations. Most residents were pleased and impressed to hear what the children were doing.

Once the inventories were complete, junior high students got involved in the project by taking on the task of sifting through and collating the wealth of information collected in the eco-count to produce a wall map of the community to be displayed in the school. This activity was incorporated into social studies.

Extending project opportunities

There are many ways in which the eco-count concept could be modified or extended. For example, school-community links could be emphasized by following the school eco-count week with a weekend community eco-count and barbeque, held perhaps in association with a local community club. The local historical society could be invited to work with students to place historic markers throughout the neighborhood during the eco-count week. Older students might be challenged to produce audio-maps of the neighborhood, documenting on tape the sounds of various community locations.

Paul Fieldhouse is a health promotion specialist with Manitoba Health, and a parent volunteer at Windsor School in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Lisa Bunkowsky taught grades 2-3 at Windsor School at the time of the project and is currently teaching at Victor Wyatt School in Winnipeg.

Notes

1 Healthy Schools is also sometimes known as Health-promoting schools and is similar in concept to Comprehensive School Health. Information and resources can be found at: http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/hps/index.htm; http://www.hps.org.nz/hps/index.html; http://www.safehealthyschools.org/
2 The Green Map System is a non-profit organization which promotes the creation of community maps featuring local culture and ecology. Tips on getting started, along with many examples of completed green maps, can be found at their website, www.greenmap.org.

Reprinted with permission from Green Teacher #67, Spring 2002. Subscriptions cost $26 from Green Teacher, PO 452, Niagara Falls, NY 14304, (416) 960-1244, www.greenteacher.com