Alberta summer camp aims to host new charter school where learning will come naturally

A summer camp on the shores of Wabamun Lake may become home to a new charter school where students will do much of their learning outside of the classroom.

Plans are in the works to turn the YWCA Camp Yowochas property in Fallis, Alta., located about 60 kilometres west of Edmonton, into a school that will focus on health, recreation and nature. 

If granted approval by the province to operate, the Change Health Charter School will welcome up to 150 K-9 students this fall. 

Change Health Alberta — a charity dedicated to healthy living for kids and families — announced Thursday that it has partnered with University of Alberta's Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and Camp Yowochas on the project.

The groups are working with Alberta Education and are preparing to file a formal application to the Education Minister to begin classes this September. 

The property would host students during the fall and winter months, while the YWCA would continue to welcome campers to the property each summer, as it has done since 1916.

The charter would operate like a "forest school" and use the surrounding landscape as classroom, said Felicia Ochs, the YWCA Yowochas community manager and a member of the charter board. 

Students would do much of their learning outside, away from screens and technology, she said. 

"The health, physical education and arts curriculum, those three areas will be taught in a nature-based way, so on the land, maybe in a canoe," she said.

"We plan to bring in a lot of the best of rural Alberta to help teach from a nature-based perspective." 

After morning lessons in the classroom, students would move outside for afternoons focused experiential learning.

These outdoor classes will be filled with nature-based lessons, field study assignments and group recreation like paddling or zip-lining, Ochs said. 

Lessons could include field trips to nearby nature preserves or wetlands, lessons in plant identification, and Indigenous teachings on nature and art from local elders, she said.

"We have the opportunity to take all of these 65 acres — and the ecosystem that exists out here — and to turn it into science, math, and language arts."