At Canterbury Environmental Education Centre, we offer a variety of Environmental Education programmes that can be tailor-made to meet your school's requirements. Programmes range from those complimenting specific parts of the National Curriculum, while others are cross-curricular. If you prefer you can 'do your own thing' and make use of the excellent facilities and teaching resources in the safe environment that the Centre offers.

Key Stage Two

• The Ecology of Pond World (Half day)

Links to QCA Science 4B Habitats and 6A
Explore the pond habitat, the organisms that live there and how they are adapted to survive, through pond dipping and a ‘pond bingo’ game.
Following this we can focus on food chains or water quality
Food chains: complete a ‘pond passport’ for a chosen invertebrate and find where it fits into the pond-life ‘restaurant’
Water quality: work out how clean the water is in our lake using a simple numerical biological index.

• Woodland invertebrates (Half day)

Links to QCA science unit 4B and 6A
Explore the woodland habitat, the organisms that live there and how they survive. Have a discovery walk, hunt, identify and record mini-beasts and have fun acting them out. Find out how the invertebrates fit into the woodland food chain.

• Great Stour River Study (Half day)

Links to QCA  geography unit 14
Follow the Great Stour on a riverside walk from the centre of Canterbury to CEEC. Complete a simple experiment and other activities as you go. Investigate the river environment and people’s interaction with it.

• Investigating the Water Cycle (Half day)

Links to QCA geography unit 14
An introduction to the water cycle and the processes involved through a fun water cycle game. Then work through activities relating to the water cycle and its impact on the nature reserve.

• Sebastian Swan’s Eco Challenge (Half day – Years 3 & 4)

Links to sustainability work in science, geography and citizenship. This      programme includes activities that cover recycling, water use, pollution and much more. Follow a trail around the nature reserve and help Sebastian’s friend Rita Rabbit solve some challenges.

•  Art-Naturally (Half day)

       Links to QCA Art and design unit 3c and 9gen
       A good pairing with Woodland Invertebrates or Ecology of the Pond World.
       Get creative and use natural materials collected on a walk around part of
       the Nature Reserve to create a mini-beast, working in small groups.            
       Depending on the weather this may take the form of a relief sculpture 
       constructed outside, or smaller models made indoors using clay.

• Sustainability (Half day or Full day)

Links to science unit 7I, 9I and 9d. Citizenship unit 21
Follow the Sunrise Trail and carry out a number of experiments. Then help us decide where we should site some renewable energy resources including a wind turbine and solar panels.  The full day programme includes activities that cover recycling, composting, water use and more!

• River Walk (Half day)

Links to science Unit 8g and geography units 4 and 7
Follow the River Great Stour from the city centre back to the nature reserve.
Carry out an experiment to find the speed of the river and learn about the physical features and man made aspects as you go.
A variety of skills are involved – teamwork, field sketching and map work.
If you want to do this activity with 2 classes please discuss the logistics when you book – one class will do the walk in reverse.

• The Eco Challenge (Half day)

Links to sustainability work in science, geography and citizenship. This  programme includes activities that cover composting, recycling, water use, pollution and much more.

•     Wayfinding - Old and New

            Use curriculum linked map reading skills and geo-caching to navigate your way    around our Nature Reserve.

We can adapt existing programmes to fit in with any topics you are currently studying including coursework projects for KS4 and KS5.

INSET staff development days

The Centre also offers INSET courses for teachers, including Environmental Art, Wildlife Gardening, Creating a School Pond and using the environment to teach across the curriculum.

The centre is open all year round. Whatever the weather we offer you a warm welcome at CEEC! To find out more, telephone 01227 452447, e-mail canterbury.environmentalcentre@kent.gov.uk, write or drop in to:
Canterbury Environmental Education Centre,
Broad Oak Road,
Canterbury,
Kent,
CT2 7PX.