Raising awareness among youth is an important step to preventing the spread of invasives in the region. CSISS in partnership with the Invasive Species Council of BC can provide educational resources and activities that fit well in the prescribed BC Learning Objectives.
Invasive Species in the Classroom
Teacher Training!
CSISS now offers Pro-D Day Teacher Training. Find out what invasive species are threatening your local biodiversity, what you can do to help, and learn how to link invasive species to your classroom and tie into the curriculum. Pro D-Day Training comes complete with power point, hands-on activities and an outdoor plant ID session. Training sessions are suitable for elementary, middle and secondary school classes and sessions run approximately a half day in length. Please contact CSISS to book your Pro-D Day session.
To view our power point presentation click here: School Presentation with Jeopardy
To view our workshop activity sheet click here: Invasive Species Workshop Follow Up Activities
Organize an Invasive Species Field Trip!
Organize a weed pull or restoration event with your class to take action and protect our native biodiversity. Invasive species and native biodiversity are important themes tied to the BC curriculum. Take your class or youth group outside to identify invasive plants/species, and organize a weed pull or restoration event in the Columbia Shuswap region. CSISS staff will help you find a site for your event, provide you with work gloves and some tools, and a staff person to help guide the field trip.
For more information, please CONTACT US.
Do you have a classroom pet?
Ensure your classroom pet isn’t an invasive species and never release your unwanted pets into the wild. Some exotic pets are able to thrive and reproduce in their new environment. Once established, they can take over their new habitat, reducing native populations and changing the structure of the ecosystem.
British Columbia is now home to several introduced invasive pet and plant species, including:
- Red Eared Slider Turtle
- American Bullfrog
- Goldfish
- Eurasian Watermilfoil
- Parrot Feather
- European Rabbit
- Brazilian Elodea
- Koi Carp
You can help! Don’t Let It Loose!
Do you use animals for scientific classes?
American bullfrogs (often used as dissection animals) are one of the world’s 100 worst invaders! The Columbia Shuswap does not have these invaders yet, please do not use them or release them to the wild.
Do you have a pet snake?
Remember Don’t Let it Loose!
For snake re-homing and adoptions please contact Phil’s Noodle Pit in Cranbrook BC.
Educational Resources:
Fun Games for introducing Invasive Species to your classroom
CSISS uses a number of fun games to introduce the concepts of Invasives to students, this document gives easy directions for playing these games with your class.
The Detective Game
Get your class thinking about how to identify invasive plants. The Detective Game is a series of mugshots of invasives, paired with clue sheets for each species. Print the game and have groups of students try to identify each mugshot using the clue sheet. Swap clue sheets around until each group of students has identified each species.
Invasive Species Council Activity Sheets
On the ISCBC Education website there are activity sheets for Primary, Elementary, Intermediate and Secondary grade levels!
Youth Activity Pages
Invasive species are a real threat to BC’s amazing natural environment. With the right education about invasive species early on, we can hope our youth will hit the ground running. These fun games, video and activities for kids help break down the issues around invasive species and their impacts. See the Youth Games and Activities Page for more information.
Bionic Bob-Colouring book
A colouring book with activities and games that outlines biological control that can be found on the BC invasives website.
Royal BC Museum: Aliens Among Us
A fun, alien-themed, interactive website. It contains resources for teachers, online mapping tools and invasive species profiles. See: http://alienspecies.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/
Activity Sheets: Meet the Invaders!
A US-based set of activity sheets
US based on-line teaching resource for teachers who want to integrate the topic of invasive plants into the classroom curriculum. Based out of the US, but easily adaptable to BC Prescribed Learning Outcomes.