Education - School Programs
There are never enough hours in a day when you’ve got a classroom full of curious young minds.
In the Discovery Lab, our curriculum-linked school programs help you achieve your science outcomes, while giving students a chance to practice reading, writing and math. Plus, at Manuels River there’s always an opportunity to get outdoors for some fresh air and exercise. It’s a day they won’t soon forget!
From outdoor activities to fascinating science experiments, our curriculum-linked programming is a great way to get students thinking outside the box, learning and having fun. We have on site school programs developed for students at all grade levels for school groups that can travel to Manuels River. Please see below for our list of full-day (5 hour) and half-day (2.5 hour) programs.
Full-day programs cost $10 per student and half-day programs cost $7 per student up to a maximum of 60 students per day.
For groups that cannot visit Manuels River, we also offer our Grade 2 Weather program and our Grade 3 Soils program virtually. A 2-hour virtual program costs $60 per class. We can facilitate an interactive workshop using Zoom or Google Meet for schools across Newfoundland and Labrador.
Programs are offered Monday through Friday, from the start of the school year in September to June.
To book your group for a school visit, please contact us at education@manuelsriver.ca or call us at (709) 834-2099, ext. 203.
Virtual Discovery Lab programs:
Grade 2: Exploring the Weather
Join us online for an engaging and interactive session to learn about weather. We’ll practice using numbers, we’ll learn new weather words and we’ll explore air and water in our environment.
Grade 3: Soil and Erosion
Join us online for a session on the dirt under our feet, how it moves around and where it comes from. We’ll practice measuring, subtracting and making predictions. Plus we’ll practice new words as we learn about compost critters.
In-Person Discovery Lab programs:
Spring/Fall (Full-day: 5 hours)
Kindergarten: Life Cycles
Spend time outdoors along the trail and explore the life cycles of local plants and animals with activities, crafts, and games.
Grade 1: Plants
Learn about the parts of plants and what they need to survive while playing games and exploring their habitats.
Grade 2: Fossils
Through hands-on activities, games and experiments, learn about how fossils form and what they can tell us about ancient life.
Grade 3: Soils
Learn about soil profiles, composition, porosity and settling rates. Examine how plants help prevent erosion and then venture onto the trail to see real-life examples of soils and soil erosion.
Grade 4: Rocks
Join us at Worsley Beach to learn about glaciers, volcanoes and how they shape the world around us. This program involves a 1.8-km hike back to the Manuels River Centre.
Grade 5: People, Place, Environment
From the early Indigenous people to the Vikings and all the Europeans who came after, learn about how the movement and settlement of people were determined by their environment.
Grade 6: Evolution
Explore natural selection and evolution while gaining an understanding of how species survive in an ever-changing environment.
Grade 7: Ecosystems
Explore local ecosystems and the differences and interactions between biotic and abiotic factors while hiking along the river. Through group games and activities learn about food webs and nutrient cycles.
Grade 8: Water Quality
Perform a series of abiotic and biotic water quality experiments to determine the water quality of Manuels River. Hike along the river to learn about watersheds, the factors that can affect river flow and possible sources of water pollution.
Science 1206: Coastal Explorers Field School
Join this citizen science project to monitor the coastline at Worsley Beach at the end of Manuels River. Learn about random sampling, animal identification, water quality testing, and more. Then share your data with classrooms all along the Atlantic Coast.
Earth Systems 3209: Historical Geology
Take a walk through time and learn about how the island of Newfoundland was formed. The story is set in the rocks of Manuels River. We have interactive activities to illustrate big ideas like geological time and plate tectonic theory, plus evidence of major changes in the Earth’s history right here on our trails.
Geology Field Trips for College Classes
Join us for a walk along Manuels River and bring those classroom lectures to life. Observe sedimentary and igneous rocks in situ and learn about the geological processes that resulted in Manuels River’s unique river valley.
Winter (Half-day: 2.5 hours)
Grade 2: Wind, Water and Weather
Come explore our Giant Floor Map of NL and snowshoe along our Trails, to learn how wind and water move to create the wild and wonderful weather that we all share.
Grade 3: Provincial Identity
Discover the unique place names and symbols of our province on our Giant Floor Map of NL and learn about our special culture through games and activities and outdoor snowshoe adventure on our Trails.
Grade 4: Habitats
Learn about the elements of habitats while exploring the habitats of Newfoundland and Labrador on our Giant Floor Map of NL and venturing out along the trails of Manuels River.
Grade 5: People, Place and Environment
Using our Giant Floor map of NL, learn about how the movement and settlement of people were determined by their environment. Then go snowshoeing along the river to learn about how people navigated their world before roads.