GETCA 2025

Creativity and innovative thinking are extraordinary skills that reflect successful learning in your classroom. Students that learn and possess these skills demonstrate better retention of information and, confidence in their application of knowledge beyond the curriculum and your classroom. This session will focus on how to ignite student curiosity and the innate human desire to learn. Fun, engaging and proven classroom examples will be shared throughout the session. Participants will receive multiple lesson examples, assessment rubrics and online (AI) resources ready to use in the classroom.

How do we teach the next generation to reclaim disturbed land, to heal the Earth? With increasing environmental pressures, everyone must understand the importance of land reclamation. Join Valerie Miller, PhD, and Julie Arsenault, science teacher, to explore “Become An Earth Doctor”. This game allows participants to become land reclamation practitioners, walking them through key steps and decisions. Participants will be introduced to land reclamation, explore gameplay, learn how to connect to real life examples including those experienced on Indigenous lands, and gain access to free resources.

Energy. Climate change. The environment. The future. All important and of concern for many students. We’re here to help bring them into the classroom! Join Valerie Miller, PhD, of Future Energy Systems to learn about the University of Alberta’s world-leading research that will help Canada transition to a low net carbon economy, and explore educational resources produced by the program, available for free and ranging from kindergarten to high school content. Try some of our demos, explore classroom activities, games, and videos, find connections with our free children’s book series, and more.

Join Inside Education for an introduction to agriculture in Alberta's Grasslands region, exploring ecosystem health, impacts on wildlife and agriculture practices addressing climate change. This session covers biodiversity, climate change, and conservation agriculture, aligning with grade 5-6 Earth Systems, grade 6 Living Systems, grade 7 Interactions and Ecosystems, and grade 9 Biological Diversity. In addition, we’ll highlight our full suite of additional support through classroom programming, field trips, youth summits, learning resources and teacher PD. We will showcase 3 interactive low-equipment Monday-morning ready classroom activities, adaptable by grade: -An active reflection game that explores students' connections to agriculture and the food system. -An immersive group game on habitat in the grasslands -A high-energy game show about native grasslands species, innovation in the region, and more!

Design a new environmental sustainable tourist destination, that engages public involvement, considers water and energy consumption, land use, and waste production, while covering content from grade 5-9 science curriculum. This is just one example of how to create new and engaging lessons that cross multiple concepts within your grade 5 - 9 science and social studies classes. that reinforce skill, knowledge and abilities through practical, meaningful projects. The projects are designed to draw from past experiences and knowledge, and ignite creative and practical approaches to connecting the science curriculum between grade levels and curricular topics.