Photos by: Craig Cerhit

Welcome to the Environmental School Project in Maple Ridge

Since August 2008, the project has been working to bring together the community of Maple Ridge to establish a public K-7 school and learning centre. The theory and practice of the project is supported by Place-Based, Imaginative and Ecological Education. Learning and teaching will be experiential, in context, and through activities that engage the mind, body, and heart. The project is based in principles of inquiry and inclusion. Teaching and learning will involve reconnecting the natural and human worlds. The project is a partnership between several community groups, School District 42 Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows, and Simon Fraser University. The university-based research is funded through an environmental Community-University Research Alliance grant (eCURA) from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

School Video

School News

Lessons outside and recess in the rain, outdoor schools help kids’ physical literacy

Five school-age children are hopping across tree stumps and thick branches as part of an obstacle course — but it’s not a phys ed class. Another group of children have built a teeter-totter out of a wide board and a log — but it’s not recess. They’re all wearing running shoes, their jeans mud-streaked and hair […]

Aboriginal Education Research Forum 2015

Aboriginal Education Research Forum 2015 Winnipeg, Manitoba May 19 and 20, 2015 Learning to Indigenize: Kwantlen First Nation and the Maple Ridge Environmental School Project ( es.sd42.ca ) Imagine “schooling” without walls, a “community of learners” who participate in a variety of settings and activities, engage in hands-on, real lived experiences. The land, its histories […]

Transformation Through Drum Building

Drums are an instrument that are used daily at the Environmental School and the students therefore already have a strong connection and relationship with them. Having them build their own drums was the next step in creating a deeper more meaningful, personal connection. This paper will document the full circle of learning that takes place […]