EDUCATION
Community Outreach
Our volunteers are active in the Community, our local schools and with our partner group, BC Nature. We strive to develop and deliver a wide variety of quality educational outreach programs and materials and participate in local conservation initiatives including:
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Georgia Basin Habitat Atlas: Boundary Bay
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Habitat Restoration Projects - native plantings, cleanups and invasive removals.
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Shoreline CleanUps
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Interpretive Signage
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School programs (see below),
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Training programs (see below)
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World Migratory Bird Day
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World River's Day
School Programs
Thanks to support from our sponsors and a dedicated group of volunteers, we have been pleased to offer quality educational programming by donation to schools in the White Rock, Delta, Surrey and Langley areas over the past two decades!
Our School Programs are conservation-minded and provide a rich complement to classroom inquiry and study and are linked to BC Science curriculum (particularly grades 2 through 7 but open to all grade levels).
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Birds in Focus (bird watching with binoculars and scopes)
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Wetland / Pond Discovery (pond peeking)
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Be a Beach Hero Marine Discovery (intertidal walk)
How it works:
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The Teacher requests a program (using the Booking Request Online Form) by providing some basic information and preferred date(s) for the field experience.
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Our Volunteer Education Coordinator will organize naturalist volunteers and confirm date/time with you by email.
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A Volunteer will deliver a Program Resource Kit to your school approximately 2 to 3 weeks prior to the field trip.
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The teacher will sign for this kit and promise to return it on the day of the field trip in good condition (should anything be lost or damaged, please let us know by leaving a sticky note on/in the kit).
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The teacher facilitates learning in their classroom using the narrated video/slide show, program materials/teacher resource kit* and their own resources.
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Teacher and Class meet volunteer naturalists at the agreed upon field trip location on the date/time confirmed by email in advance. The teacher is responsible for class management and organizing their students while the volunteer naturalists help facilitate the experience and introduce students to local flora and fauna.
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The teacher will bring the resource kit with them and return it to the volunteer naturalist on the day of the field trip. (Please let us know if anything was lost or damaged)
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*Teacher Resource Kit includes teaching materials, student reading materials, storybooks, posters and field guides. In the case of the marine program, we also include some hands-on intertidal artifacts.
IMPORTANT: We ask that teachers take the time to engage their students in some deep learning about the local environment they will be visiting prior to the field trip. Research and practice has shown that deeper learning and a stronger connection to the environment occurs when the learning 'book-ends' the experience as opposed to the field trip being a 'one off' activity.
Our programs traditionally began with a local area naturalist visiting the school to introduce the students to the area of study. Since 2020, we have had a more difficult time finding volunteers for the in-school programs and so are putting our efforts into designing online resources that teachers can download for use in their classes: "Invasive Green Crabs" (intermediate through high school audience) and "Be a Beach Hero: a walk in the intertidal zone" (for elementary school classrooms) are available now! (free of charge). The audio narrated presentations are easily adapted to meet the needs of students of varying ages and is full of high quality photos and videos of local animal and plant life.
Please select the 'Request a program' button at right for more information, to book a resource kit and confirm if we have volunteers available to assist. Please provide your name, school, grade level, number of students, preferred program and 'time period'.
Marine Discovery Events
Join us at special events throughout the summer beginning with World Oceans Day! Visit our Calendar of Events for key dates and locations. Learn about the small –scale world that is right under your feet on the beach. Watch hermit and shore crabs scurry as their rock roof is carefully moved. Whole colonies of periwinkles, snails, and maybe a sea star, hide under there when the tide is out. Hear about how we can walk gently on our neighbors on the shore.
In years when we have had sufficient funding, you may also see Beach Hero Marine Interpreters out on the beach scanning assisting with conservation efforts, providing on the beach educational information related to conservation, crabbing, fishing and shellfish poaching, Currently the Beach Hero program is on hold so that we can focus our efforts and funding on the Invasive European Green Crab removal project.
Please note that FoSBS is a volunteer-based and not for profit organization. Our administration and coordination efforts are also fully volunteer - we truly do operate on 'a shoestring'! We welcome any and all donations.
Training Workshops
Invasive European Green Crab Training
Learn more about the IEGC and our partnerships to help locate and eradicate the highly invasive species by visiting our Marine Projects Page. A short online training program is offered by the Invasive species council (ISC) and is required before members of the public are permitted to participate in IEGC trapping events. Visit the ISC online training, Getting to Know the Green Crab. Once you've completed the course, email us your certificate and let us know you'd like to help out. Contact us for more information. Educators, families and kids might also enjoy playing the "Crabtivating Quiz Show" shared by the ISC.
Forage Fish Surveys
Forage fish, also called prey fish or bait fish, are small pelagic fish that feed on planktons and other small aquatic organisms. FoSBS is involved in spawn and habitat monitoring of these important keystone species. Survey dates can be found on our Calendar of Events. For further information, visit our Marine Projects Page.
Invasive Spartina Removal/Training
Spartina anglica (English cordgrass) is an introduced, aggressive, aquatic grass that invades mudflats, beaches, eelgrass meadows, algae beds and salt marshes.
The plant takes over to form monotypic “Spartina meadows” resulting in loss of important habitat for fish and wildlife. The large root masses of Spartina trap sediment, raising the elevation and thus changing the entire ecosystem. Friends of Semiahmoo Bay Society is an active member of the British Columbia Spartina Working Group (BCSWG).
Shorekeepers & Eelgrass Training
Currently, these projects are on hold due to the urgent needs of our IEGC Invasive European Green Crab monitoring and trapping program. Visit the Marine Projects Page for links and information about these valuable community science program. Data, including historical data from our past involvement, can be found on the Community Mapping Network Website.
