In this community you will find the activities, resources, and dialogues between youth across Canada and around the world - who have collaborated to make a difference in their communities, their schools and their countries. With the guidance of expert mentors as well as communicating with each others, youth around the world are taking up the challenge of conservation and impacting the world around them.
Explore through the different initiatives and see how much these incredible young leaders care about their world, their oceans and their communities.
Continuing the Closing the Loop on Plastics Youth Dialogue
Last fall, Ocean Wise and Return-It partnered to create the Closing the Loop on Plastics Youth Dialogue. This dialogue encouraged participants to engage their communities - both locally and provincially – towards the creation of a vision for the future of zero waste in BC.
The objective of this program was to foster conversations about how BC's youth envision the future of environmental health and sustainability in their province - with the objective of inspiring change throughout their local schools, communities, and cities with a specific focus on the complex and constantly developing subject of Plastics.
Although the synchronous component of the dialogue has ended, a version of the course tailored for independent use by educators is now available for open access and can be found in the assignments section on the left-hand side of this page. We encourage educators to utilize all the available activities, resources, and video recordings and help us continue this dialogue by sharing your class’s projects, reflections and ideas on the blog and discussion sections of the course!
Our Education Team will continue to engage with students in the online classroom and provide feedback on their submissions. We will also be available to support teachers and answer any questions they may have about the course or material.
This course is designed to run over six weeks, with each week exploring a different aspect of our plastics conundrum. The course encourages student inquiries that will deepen their understanding of this multi-sided environmental issue, complimented by the testimony of regional experts and stakeholders who discuss their roles and experiences in the plastics sector. By collaboratively contributing to this online classroom, you will further a dialogue that will continue to foster direct action inspired by youth.
We look forward to adding your class’s ideas to this evolving dialogue!
“This new program is acknowledging that there’s a larger issue at play and so it’s really important to provide an opportunity for dialogue, especially for young people because the impacts of plastics and the challenges for our marine environment are things we’ll have to live with,” says Allen Langdon, presidents and CEO of Return-It.
