Surge Narrows students work with community to create nature trail and guide

Surge Narrows students of multiple ages joined forces with the adults of their community to combine their learning with a community project to create a nature trail and accompanying trail guide.

Surge Narrows is the district's most remote school. Located on Read Island, the school has 17 students from kindergarten to grade 9 who all learn together in one classroom and under the direction of one teacher, Susanne Hrybko.

Three years ago, a family on the island was selling a portion of land and the community mobilized when they heard that a logging company was interested in purchasing the property. Community members decided to fundraise to try to purchase the land with the long-term vision of turning it into a shared community space.

Students have worked alongside the adults in the community on this shared project. First in designing, producing, and selling screen printed tea towels as a fundraiser through to designing and helping to build the finished trail.

Over the course of three years, students measured distances and tree circumference, researched First Nations languages of the area, made trail markers, flagged and researched the most interesting parts of the trail, as well as wrote, edited, designed and produced an accompanying trail guide, and much more. By being hands-on with this community project, students applied aspects of the Ministry of Education's applied design skills and technologies curriculum and core competencies.

To share more about this community initiative and their involvement, the students produced this short video available on the district's YouTube channel.

Media Contact

Jennifer Patrick, Manager of Communications
Phone: (250) 830.2333
Email: jennifer.patrick@sd72.bc.ca