There is actually a program in the Foothills School Division that encourages students to Go Wild.

It is an outdoor education class that is run during the FSD summer school program.

Teacher Mike Horembala says students that are dedicated to the program can earn 7 to 11 credits.

"There are a lot of wildlife credits available through Alberta Educations," said Horembala. "We take them and sandwich them into a three week program."

Last year they did two weeks but this year they wanted to take the kids to a higher level of learning.

With topics like navigation, food prep, how to camp, how to set up ecosystem studies there is a lot to learn.

The students decided they wanted to give something back to the environment and decided to do a river cleanup.

"Our last day of school we went down and filled up many garbage bags of stuff by the campsite. It was so much fun but also the kids realized they could do things to mitigate the impact that people have on the wild."

They did a lot of leave no trace practices with a day hike and a three day camping trip in the Kananaskis up to Three Mile Lake.

Plans are already underway for the program to run next summer.

"We are already starting to plan ahead."

The goal he added is to give the kids a great program and trick them into learning more than they realized.

 

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