All eyes were glued to the windows as 27 students from Toronto rolled into Jasper National Park, June 6.
For many of the students it was their first time visiting the Canadian Rockies, while for others it was their first time getting on a plane and leaving their urban environment.
鈥淭his place is amazing,鈥� said Houzayfa Mahamat, a grade 8 student from Duke of Connaught Junior and Senior Public School, in Toronto.聽
鈥淚t鈥檚 my first time leaving the city.鈥�
Mahamat and his classmates were the winners of Canada鈥檚 Coolest School Trip contest, a contest designed to help students across the country explore and learn about Canada鈥檚 natural and cultural heritage.
鈥淭he whole purpose of the program is to get youth engaged and interested in Parks Canada and to make that connection with our natural and cultural places,鈥� said Alex Trotter Clare, a learning and educational program officer with Parks.聽
The contest is part of the My Parks Pass program, a program offered in collaboration between Parks Canada, the Canadian Wildlife Federation, Canadian Geographic Education, Historica Canada and Nature Canada.
To win the all-expenses paid trip, classrooms across the country were encouraged to chose from a list of 215 Parks Canada places and submit an informative one-minute video that demonstrated why it is significant to Canadians.
Grade 7 and 8 students from the Duke of Connaught Junior and Senior Public School, decided to showcase Rouge National Urban Park, Canada鈥檚 first national park, located in an urban centre.
鈥淭wenty per cent of Canada鈥檚 population lives in the Toronto area, so it鈥檚 the first time that Canada has something this big and magnificent, that鈥檚 this wild and green, that people can really explore in their own backyard,鈥� said Megan Ramsay, the class鈥檚 grade 7 and 8 teacher.
鈥淣ot only is it the first urban national park, but we wanted our kids to be able to come and see what you can access by public transit.鈥�
When the class initially decided to enter the contest in the fall, Rouge National Park wasn鈥檛 even on the list, but after a few phone calls they got the go ahead from Parks Canada to make a video about the park.
鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 listed because it鈥檚 so new,鈥� said Ramsay, explaining the park was officially establish in May 2015.
After visiting the park and creating the short video, the students then turned their attention to marketing and promoting the video in order to get the public to vote for it.
To do that, each student chose 10 people they could depend on that would vote for the video every day. From there they branched out using social media and tablets at recess to get the entire school involved.聽
鈥淲hen it came to the marketing I thought there鈥檚 no way we鈥檙e going to get people in Toronto to care,鈥� said Lisa McDonald, a teacher and librarian on the trip.
鈥淓verybody is so inundated with marketing and people harassing them that I thought people would just say bug off, and yet the kids pulled it off.鈥�
To drum up support the class broke up into five different committees to get as many votes as possible over the course of three weeks in March.
鈥淥ur classroom was basically a marketing department for two weeks,鈥� explained Ramsay, 鈥淲e had all these different committees and they had their own little campaign going.鈥�
After earning a spot in the top 10, it was then up to a panel of judges to select the best video.
鈥淲e literally had to stop doing work in general just to do this project,鈥� said Jaiden Fairclough, a grade 8 student.
In the end the students beat 69 other schools from across the country, earning themselves a five-day trip to Jasper National Park. It鈥檚 the first time the park has hosted a winning school.
For the next week the students will stay at the Palisades Stewardship Education Centre and try a variety of activities including, mountain biking, canoeing, rafting and a trip to the Athabasca Glacier.
Paul Clarke [email protected]
