Evergreen Brickworks
July 27th, 2017
As a class we visited Evergreen Brickworks, a sustainable environment where a brick factory for the city of Toronto once was. It is Canada’s first large scale community environment centre (Evergreen Brickworks, 2017). This is a fantastic location to bring children where they are outside to build their ecological literacy and engage with the natural world. Students can take an active role in their own learning and be able to experience and make connections to real world concepts they have been learning in the classroom. Being outside is where students can connect theory to practise and “enhance their appreciation for the natural world (Skoutajan, 2004, p. 34; Sobel, 2004, p.63).”
During the tour, we visited multiple areas that are key places to visit at Evergreen. The first place we visited was a water shed wall. The tour guide explained that there are three rivers that flow through the city of Toronto; the Humber River, the Don River and the Rouge River. This map included a steel creation of the map of Toronto with plants growing to symbolize the rivers. This is evidence of environmental sustainability because there was a hidden water tube built underneath to water the plants and help them to grow.
Another area we explored was the Medicine Garden. This is an Aboriginal inspired garden that was used as a space where medicinal herbs were grown. This garden was originally created with the Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre, however now it has been replanted for the local community. There are four sacred medicines that are planted in this garden which contain cedar, sage, sweetgrass and tobacco (Evergreen Brickworks, 2017) . An interesting fact about this medicine garden is that there are fish bones and charcoal that are planted to amend the soil. With the students, we could physically look and smell the medicines in the garden. This is a great way to tie in the Aboriginal culture; specifically the medicine garden to the physical plants children see in front of them (Sobel, 2004).
The most impactful spot that we visited was the children’s garden. This is a gated area located outdoors for the children to explore different aspects of the environment. There is large tipi with Aboriginal markings for the children to enter as they please. There is a vegetable garden in a greenhouse that students can seed and water the different plants. There is a bonfire area with benches where the educators can cook food and share traditions and stories. There is also a pizza fire pit where the facility holds pizza nights and invites the parents to join. Children are completely immersed in the outdoors are able to engage in the natural resources they have in front of them (Sobel, 2004). This is a creation that could be transferred into our own schools. One could start with a vegetable garden and branch off from there (Sobel, 2004). Even using more natural materials in the school playground can dramatically change the environment and expose children to a more sustainable world(Skoutajan, 2012).
Evergreen Brickworks is a great location to bring students as it encompasses so many great resources, heritage and sustainable resources. Bringing the students to this location aligns with the curriculum, especially in Grade 2 in the People and Environments strand. The curriculum expectation B2: Inquiry states “use the social studies inquiry process to investigate aspects of the interrelationship between the natural environment, including the climate, of selected communities and the ways in which those communities live (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2013, p.79).” In this location, we have the history of when there were workers creating bricks for the city of Toronto, we have current day living and we have future living (Skoutajan, 2012). Being sustainable is the goal for the future, so we can compare the past, present and future to these resources. We can connect the medicine garden to the Aboriginals and the vegetable gardens to the farmers that started building the land. There are so many connections that can be made with Social Studies curriculum especially when making cross curricular links as well.
I would recommend Evergreen Brickworks to both educators and parents as it engages children in so many aspects and teaches them to be environmental stewards and care for the world around them.
References
Evergreen Brickworks. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.evergreen.ca
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2013). The ontario curriculum: Social studies, Grades 1 to 6; History and geography, Grades 7 and 8. Queen’s Printer for Ontario, 79- 81
Skoutajan, S. (2012). Defending place- based education. Green Teacher, (97), 34 -36
Sobel, D. (2004). Place- based education: Connecting classroom and community. Nature Literacy Series 4 (2), 52-70
