Join us on Tuesday, February 9th, 7 pm to 8 pm to experience Natural Curiosity – JICS’ homegrown environmental education program dedicated to connecting children’s learning to the land in the spirit of Truth and Reconciliation. Learn more about the reciprocal relationship between the Lab School and the NC program, and how it is influencing learning within the Lab School and in public schools across Canada and beyond.

This session will be facilitated by Haley Higdon, Program Director at Natural Curiosity.

More about Haley: Haley Higdon is a guest on Turtle Island and is the Director for Natural Curiosity. She has her BEd and MA in Child Study and Education from the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study at UofT. She has spent the last four years working as the managing editor for the development and creation of Natural Curiosity 2nd Edition: The Importance of Indigenous Perspectives in Children’s Environmental Inquiry. Haley has extensive experience in supporting educators with incorporating environmental inquiry into their practice.

What is Natural Curiosity anyway?

As Indigenous education becomes increasingly prioritized across Canadian curricula, more educators are seeking ways to pursue an authentic process of Truth and Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and history in collaboration with their students. In 2018, the NC team at the JICS Lab School published Natural Curiosity 2nd Edition – a four branch framework of environmental inquiry that presents tangible entry points, rooted in reconciliation and stewardship of the land. These branches dynamically combine the processes of inquiry-based learning, student engagement, and experiential and integrated learning – processes that are central to the JICS philosophy – with concepts of sustainability and reciprocity, deepened through an Indigenous lens, articulated by Doug Anderson.

The NC team has distributed 27,000+ copies of their educator resources to date. NC has been cited in 12+ academic journals, is used in 14+ colleges and universities and 27+ school boards, and has been shared 53+ times at conferences and other presentations. In their 11th year, the NC team is working diligently to deliver Natural Curiosity across Turtle Island, connecting with thousands of educators online and disseminating exemplary practices from the Lab School to improve and support public education.

“Natural Curiosity takes the important step of highlighting broader societal obligations such as those laid out by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”

— Deborah McGregor, Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law, School & Faculty of Environmental Studies, Canada Research Chair, Indigenous Environmental Justice, York University