Evergreen - Plan

Friday, November 12
8:30-8:45am	Arrivals and Registration
8:45-9:00am	Forum Launch
9:00-10:00am	Keynote Address: Sue Humphries
10:00-10:15am	BREAK
10:15-10:55am	Children's Health in an Age of Nature: Daniel Rainham Positive socio-economic change, public health initiatives and improvements in medical care have collaborated to improve the basic indices of health, but there is still much to be done. This session will examine the connections linking children’s health to the environment, and celebrate the potential to realign human development in a way that acknowledges the limits of nature.
10:55-11:10am	BREAK
11:10-11:55am	CHOOSE BETWEEN Interpreting Sustainable Landscapes: A Journey Towards Understanding: Melanie Sifton The Sustainable Sites Initiative is an interdisciplinary effort to quantitatively describe the attributes of a sustainable site so that designers, engineers, landscapers and site managers can measure their success (or failure) in achieving the goals to maintain or improve the ability of the site to provide ecosystem services. The Humber Arboretum Centre for Urban Ecology site has pledged to test the SITES protocol for landscape sustainability, addressing design issues associated with soils, hydrology, vegetation, material selection and human health. OR If This is Your Land, then Where are Your Stories? Creating Geography of Somewhere: Paul Gifford This session will explore the possibilities of combining place-based landscape design with integrated, experiential program design. By integrating physical education, language arts, social studies and art, teachers can create a powerful medium for environmental education, and landscape designers can literally and metaphorically chart pathways to somewhere.
11:55-12:00pm	Move to Next Session
12:00-12:45pm	CHOOSE BETWEEN: Bridging the Gap Between Designing and Programming Children's Outdoor Spaces: Kim Sanderson (This session runs both days) There are increasing societal demands to support children's growth and development through the provision of designed outdoor spaces. Sophisticated views of these outdoor spaces are required for success, both from design and ongoing programming perspectives. Using case studies and specific examples, this session will look at frameworks and options for how we can better bridge the design/program gap. OR Eco-art as Environment Action in Schoolyards: Hilary Inwood This session will explore eco- art as a means of engaging students with environmental issues and age-appropriate strategies for eco-activism. School-based projects will be described and discussed—come and get inspired by students’ innovative approaches to eco-art installations in schoolyards!
12:45-1:45pm	LUNCH
1:45-2:30pm	Tour of Evergreen Brick Works
2:30-3:30pm	Redefining the Culture of Play: Heidi Campbell The Chimney Court Children’s Garden at Evergreen Brick Works will be a place of enchantment and discovery. This session will reveal the defining elements of Evergreen’s plan to create a child-focused play and learning environment that integrates three primary themes: food, water and handwork. Following Ministry of Education guidelines, Chimney Court will provide education in, about and for the urban environment. A focus for discussion will be placed on the creative journey, inspiring case studies, images and the role of detailed design in creating this natural oasis for children. There will also be a hands-on component to the session.
3:30-4:00pm	BREAK
4:00-5:00pm	Schoolyards Re-imagined – An Inspiring Look at School Ground Innovation Around the World: Sharon Danks Schools around the world are using their grounds to enhance hands-on teaching and learning, enrich outdoor play, and improve the ecology of their neighborhoods. Sharon Danks will present a vibrant slideshow that takes us on a journey from traditional, grassy fields and pavement, to explore the growing movement toward "green" school grounds. Along the way, we will “visit” some of the world's most innovative green schoolyards including schools with: edible gardens with fruit trees, vegetables, chickens, honeybees, and outdoor cooking facilities; wildlife habitats with prairie grasses and ponds, or forest and desert ecosystems; schoolyard watershed models, rainwater catchment systems, and waste-water treatment wetlands; renewable energy systems that power landscape features or the whole school; waste-as-a-resource projects that give new life to old materials in beautiful ways; curriculum connections for a wide range of disciplines from science and math to art and social studies; and creative play opportunities that diversify school ground recreational options and encourage children to explore the natural world while they run, hop, skip, jump, balance, slide, and twirl. The talk will also ground these examples in a practical framework that schools can use to make their schoolyards more comfortable, enjoyable, and sustainable, and describe a participatory design process to engage school communities as stewards of their own public spaces.
5:00-7:30pm	Reception Stick around for snacks, music and mingling.

Saturday, November 13
8:30-9:00am	Coffee and Breakfast
9:00-9:15am	Reflecting and Looking Ahead: Cam Collyer Description TBA.
9:15-10:00am	CHOOSE BETWEEN: Bridging the Gap Between Designing and Programming Children's Outdoor Spaces: Kim Sanderson (Repeat Session) There are increasing societal demands to support children's growth and development through the provision of designed outdoor spaces. Sophisticated views of these outdoor spaces are required for success, both from design and ongoing programming perspectives. Using case studies and specific examples, this session will look at frameworks and options for how we can better bridge the design/program gap. OR Green Schoolyard Transformations – Using Participatory Design Processes to Engage School Communities as Stewards of their Grounds: Sharon Danks A green schoolyard seems like a great idea… but how do you get from here to there? Participatory design processes can be used to engage the whole school community in imagining their school grounds in a new light, drawing their dream master plan collaboratively, and then dividing that plan into manageable parts that can be achieved over time, harnessing the skills of capable, creative parents, teachers, and students along the way. Sharon Danks will use describe various types of participatory design processes used in her firm’s projects, and illustrate how school communities can work together to become stewards of their own shared environments.
10:00-10:05am	Move to Next Session
10:05-10:50am	CHOOSE BETWEEN: Kids Growing Food!: Heidi Campbell & Rebekka Hutton Join us and discover how you can start your own food growing projects and foster children’s healthy eating habits by growing fruits and veggies on school grounds and in childcare environments. We will discuss the design and programming of food gardens and provide you with specific tools to go back and start your own food growing projects with your students. Topics to be covered include: what you need to get started, what to grow and when, sprout growing, bean keeping, and growing food in containers. Also, find out what a ‘Fedge’ is and how to plant one outside your classroom door. OR Spiral Garden: An Integrated Art, Garden and Play Program at a Pediatric Rehabilitation Hospital: Shannon Crossman & Robert Vine At Spiral Garden collective memory is housed in a cycle of song, story, feast and ceremony. Traditional cultures and contemporary civic, social and spiritual best practices act as a rudder for this innovative program that brings together children ages 6 to 12 with and without disabilities from the community and Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital. The self-generated culture is one of sustainability of self, site and community through a co-created art process and a thoughtful caring for the land and one another. It is staffed by artists, gardeners, musicians, child care workers and volunteers. This session will discuss the design and program development, history and current practices of this integrated nature and place-based program within a pediatric rehabilitation hospital. We will share examples and strategies for maintaining sustainability in this setting and the implementation of this model in cross-curricular school and community programming.
10:50-11:05am	BREAK
11:05-12:35pm	Evergreen's Participatory Design Process: Learning Grounds Associates Discover the value of Evergreen’s participatory design process by experiencing unique and replicable techniques used by Evergreen consultants nationally.
12:35-1:35pm	LUNCH
1:35-4:30pm	Birdland: Design and Education Inspired by Nature: Sue Humphries and Learning Grounds Staff Description TBA.
4:30-5:00pm	Closing
5:00-6:00pm	Closing Reception