Outdoor Education

http://op.davidspencer.ca

What is Outdoor Paragon? Outdoor Paragon is a free web resource portal for experiential, environmental, outdoor and recreation education hosted on David Spencer's Education Paragon. Resources include green energy sources, astronomy, birding, camping, canoeing, climbing, conservation, dogsledding, environmental issues, geocaching, hiking, indigenous plant species, kayaking, mountain biking, Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, wilderness ethics and wilderness survival. Learn about the history of the Outdoor Paragon Professional Learning Network and the now defunct Outdoor Paragon E-Newsletter. Please consider joining the 385 members of Outdoor Paragon and subscribe to the Ecosource Trailblazers Newsletter and Beyond Our Classroom and COEO: Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario Outdoor Paragon on Facebook Outdoor Paragon on Flickr COEO: Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario on LinkedIn

Outdoor and Environmental Education Centres

1. Outdoor Education Centres for the Peel District School Board

Resources for Outdoor Activities

1. Get Outdoors Knowledge Outfitting (GOKO) offers a wide range of general information about most outdoor activities.

Canoeing

1. Harbourfront Canoe and Kayak Centre By using Ontario and Canada's best certification systems, the Harbourfront Canoe and Kayak Centre offers you the opportunity to develop safe, fun skills that will benefit you for a lifetime. We offer paddling programs, socials, & trips year-round.
2. Mississauga Canoe Club offers the sport of canoeing and kayaking and with it the opportunity for lifelong friendship to all participants. Founded in 1958 the Mississauga Canoe Club was named after the Mississaugas of the New Credit, the tribe of Natives who gathered at the mouth of the Credit each year to trade and catch salmon.
3. Ontario Recreational Canoeing and Kayaking Association (ORCKA) The Ontario provincially recognized provider of recreational canoeing and kayaking programs and instruction. They help the people of Ontario to become safe, competent and knowledgeable recreational paddlers!
4. Paddle Canada Promotes all forms of recreational paddling to Canadians of diverse abilities, culture or age, to advocate for a healthy natural environment, and to develop an appreciation for the canoe and the kayak in our Canadian heritage.
5. PaddlingInstructor.com is modeled after the open source software community. We have developed a community where sea kayak instructors can share teaching resources with each other. If you have developed any type of instructor related resources, we encourage you to submit it to our "Teaching Resources" section so other people can benefit from your knowledge.
6. YCCC - The National Capital Region YMCA-YWCA Canoe Camping Club has been offering low cost volunteer-driven canoe tripping and training since 1952. We run co-operative trips where everyone gets involved. Environmentally friendly camping, car pooling and safety are YCCC hallmarks.

Cycling

1. Cycling Trails of Brampton
2. Bike & Ride is a green initiative designed to encourage riders to combine two modes of environmentally-friendly transportation: cycling and public transit. With a bike rack on every bus, it's never been easier to move around the city! Watch the instructional video showing how to put your bike on the bus.

Hiking

1. The Bruce Trail Conservancy Canada's oldest and longest footpath, the Bruce Trail provides the only continuous public access to the magnificent Niagara Escarpment, a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. It is one of only fifteen such reserves in all of Canada.
2. Caledon Trailway is 36 km long with endpoints at Terra Cotta and Highway 9 just north of Palgrave. Also see the Town of Caledon.
3. Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association The nine member clubs of the Association maintain the 500 kilometre long Ganaraska Hiking Trail from Port Hope on Lake Ontario to the Bruce Trail near Collingwood, with side trails to Wasaga Beach and Midland.
4. Oak Ridges Trail Association (ORTA)
5. Trans Canada Trail
6. The Waterfront Trail has been an instrumental part of Lake Ontario’s regeneration. Along it you will find a 900 km celebration of nature and culture - where peaceful countryside, small towns and big cities are linked in bringing Lake Ontario to this province's residents and visitors, alike.
7. Brampton Trails Map shows all the trails through Brampton and region.

Photography

1. Nature Photographers Online Magazine

Professional Learning

1. Peel Ecofest is a family day to learn about the environment and get close to living nature.
2. Becoming an Outdoors-Woman is an educational program aimed at making women more comfortable in and more aware of the outdoor world around them. We encourage a supportive environment conducive to learning, making friends, and having fun. More than 80 weekend-long workshops are held all across North America annually. The workshops introduce women to a variety of activities equally balanced between hunting and shooting, fishing, and non-harvest sports like canoeing and camping. Participants choose from a list of over 20 activities. The program began in 1991, offered through the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Transportation Equipment

1. RackAttack.com is an automobile roof rack specialist company with a comprehensive web site for Thule Rack, Yakima Rack and Prorack Wispbar. With locations in Toronto and Mississauga.

Outdoor and Environmental Education

• Camping Guide from the UK
• backpacking Guide from the UK
• Taking Facebook Outdoors an article written by David Spencer for COEO's Pathways Journal
• Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario (COEO)
• The Friends of Bark Lake
• Friends of BarkLake E-Newsletter
• Ecological Footprint Education
• Outdoor Paragon: http://op.davidspencer.ca
• Cool Outdoor Places
• Outdoor Books from Stackpole Books
• Envirothon is an interactive environmental education program available in English and French for youth from grades 9 to 12. Delivered through field trips, resource materials and competitions at the regional, provincial, and international level. Envirothon Subject areas are: Forestry, Soils, Aquatics, Wildlife and a Special Topic which changes annually.
• Dave Brown Outdoor Education Centre The Hamilton Industrial Environmental Association has continued funding for Environmental, Outdoor Education programming for core city schools at the Dave Brown Outdoor Education Centre, located at G. R. Allan Public School, 900 King St. West, Hamilton. Primary teachers of grades Kindergarten, grades 1, 2 & 3 in the identified lower city area clusters are invited to submit their request to attend. Only a specific numbers of days have been allocated and booking will be on a first come, first served basis. Kindergarten, grades 1, 2 & 3 teachers are invited to complete the following request form.
• Christie Outdoor Education Centre is operated by the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board. The centre offers curriculum based programs for students in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board from grades 2-12. Christies is equipped to accommodate up to 72 students. Schools/teachers are invited to bring 1 or 2 classes a day.
• Review the Alberta Education Outdoor Education resources http://education.alberta.ca/apps/lrdb/qlist.asp

Add the following

• Mountain Project aims to take climbing beta beyond the guidebook, and deliver personalization and community features for climbers across the globe.

http://wildeducation.org/

Add the following to Outdoor Paragon.

http://www.outwardbound.ca

http://www.colt.bc.ca/about/history.html

http://www.grandriver.ca/index/document.cfm?Sec=3&Sub1=0&sub2=0

• Ganaraska Forest Centre

http://www.planetfriendly.net/learn.html

http://www.riskmanagementconference.ca/history.htm

http://www.bigoakschool.com/

Bow drill fire making
by Lisa and G.T. Sanford
http://www.natureskills.com/bow_drill_fire_making.html

Edible Wilds
http://www.natureskills.com/edible_wild_plants.html

Herbal Medicine
http://www.learningherbs.com/

http://www.kamana.org/

The Kamana Naturalist Training Program is a four level independent study program that covers the naturalist background needed to engage in the wilderness arts, including tracking, bird language, survival and native living skills, traditional herbalism, and naturalist mentoring.

It is the ultimate blueprint for a student's time spent in the field and in conducting nature-related research. Students become confident naturalists, melding modern field ecology with the skills of a native scout. It was written by naturalist and tracker Jon Young (with author Tom Brown, Jr. as a consulting editor), who uniquely designed it to model the process in which Tom mentored him as a boy. http://www.wildernessawareness.org

NatureTalk.net, the forum site for Wilderness Awareness School. In this site, you can find valuable information on learning nature awareness, ask questions, contribute your wisdom and much more. http://naturetalk.net/index.php

If you would like to watch a pair of Peregrine Falcons preparing to nest, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has provided a web cam at

A pair of Peregrine falcons has called the 15th floor ledge of the Rachel Carson State Office Building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania home since 1997. To date, 24 eggs have been produced, 23 hatched (13 male and 10 female); and seven males and eight females have survived.

This is a live video stream (Broadband or Dial-up, Broadband Only) of the latest pair of these endangered birds to occupy the nest to see if they will again produce offspring.

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/falcon.

Water Issues'
http://www.pbs.org/pov/borders/2004/water/index.html

Enviro Activism
http://www.patagonia.com