Bees & Pollen with the GVPL

October 22, 2021


What’s all the buzz about bees? Join the Compost Education Centre and the Greater Victoria Public Library to learn about the importance of pollinators and discover little known facts about native bees and the integral role they play in our local ecosystem! We’ll chat about how you can help care for bees, and demonstrate a fun and simple way to make your yard and garden more bee friendly!

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Frontiers for Young Minds

August 31, 2021


Hey everyone! This month I wanted to share a new resource with you that we’ve been super into lately at the CEC. Frontiers for Young Minds (https://kids.frontiersin.org/) is an “open access scientific journal written by scientists and reviewed by a board of kids and teens.” 

On their website you can find hundreds of articles on a wide variety of topics from soil health and ecology, sustainability, anatomy, chemistry, biology, human health and more. Peruse articles written specifically for youth that will challenge young learners with new concepts, words and ideas while maintaining accessibly with the option to hover over new concepts for definitions, lots of great images and glossaries.

This website is a cool source for scientific info for school projects, or just exploring and learning new information for kids ages ~12 and up! The accessible yet scientific language and cited content would also benefit highschool learners, or adults who are looking to learn something new!

 

As soil contamination is one of our focuses here at the CEC, this week I was excited to read their article “ How Soil Invertebrates Deal With Microplastic Contamination.” Check it out for a simple introduction to soil invertebrates with detailed images, and a quick breakdown of what they are, what they do, and how they interact with microplastics in our soil! There was lots of info in the article that was new to me, so I hope you can learn something new ? 

 

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BioDiversity Vol.2

August 31, 2021


Volume 2 of our Biodiversity Zine is now published! This new volume is focused on Indigenous Ecological Stewardship and explores stories of 6 Indigenous folks, and the relationship and connection they have with land. 

The Biodiversity zine is written and created for youth by CEC staff member Zoe-Blue! It’s a great resource to explore Indigenous Ecological Stewardship with your children, or as a self guided resource for older youth. The current volume looks at invasive and native plants, remediation, Indigenous plant knowledge and how we can better care for the land we are living on. Click here to view the PDF version of the zine. The Zine is also available for pickup at the CEC, or via mail, both by donation. 

Know of other great resources for child and youth education relating to composting, soil health, or ecology/sustainability more broadly? We would love to hear about them and continue to share these resources. Please feel free to share any resources you encounter with our Child & Youth Education Coordinator Elora at [email protected]

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Loving the Land Zine

August 31, 2021


This month we are highlighting another great zine made in the community. The “Loving the Land” zine was made by the Youth Food Justice Group this summer and is a great resource for youth, as well as people of any age! The zine is filled to the brim with ideas for interactive activities, reflection exercises, games and more. It’s a great zine to use for guided exploration. It’s available for download here. I encourage everyone to explore it with your children, or take a look through yourself!

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Worm Poop Centennial Project

August 25, 2021


It is with much gratitude that we launch the Worm Poop Centennial Project! This project is in partnership with the Victoria Horticultural Society who is celebrating 100 years of hands-on gardening education. Through the VHS’ generous donation we are able to give away 100 worm bins to interested non-profit and educational groups when they book a worm composting workshop with us. Get in touch with Elora, to learn more about this initiative at [email protected]

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February 3, 2021


Our Schools Program is now taking youth workshop bookings for Winter and Spring 2021! We have 6 different workshops to choose from for students in Preschool to Grade 12, on topics including composting, worm care, soil ecology, organic gardening and sustainable living. We will be offering our programs in-person with COVID safety protocols in place – such as teaching in outdoor spaces, with smaller groups, and maintaining physical distance from students. Online workshops are also available upon request. See below for full descriptions of all our current youth workshop offerings:

Compost Education Centre – 2021 Schools Program Flyer

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Our 2021 seeds have arrived!

January 29, 2021


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Job Posting: Executive Director

January 13, 2021


We are Hiring and Executive Director! Please click here to view the whole posting and application instructions.

 

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*New* Factsheet #19 Bioremediation for Urban Gardeners

September 23, 2020


We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new factsheet: #19 Bioremediation for Urban Gardeners, written by soil toxicologist and HCS program creator Danielle Stevenson, as part of our Healing City Soils project!
This factsheet is an introduction to beginner-level phyto (plant) remediation in soils that are contaminated with low-to-moderate levels of heavy metals. By working with native and non-native plants phyto-remediation is a process that slowly extracts heavy metal contaminants from soil. The factsheet is available for free online at our website: https://compost.bc.ca/…/09/19-Bioremediation_no-image.pdf
Bioremediation for Urban Gardeners is the third factsheet in the CEC’s factsheet series all about soil health and best practices if higher-than-normal levels of heavy metals are detected in your soil. If you’re interested in diving in, we recommend that you start with Factsheets #11 and #12, which introduce you to soil contamination and best practices for growing food in urban spaces.
The beautiful image pictured is snip of our ‘Hyperaccumulator’ poster created by local artist Natassia Davies (@ natassiaashley on Instagram), which will soon be available for sale at the CEC- stay tuned!
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Member Notice: AGM, Wednesday, September 16th at 6pm

August 27, 2020


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