Sun West receives $35,000 grant for outdoor learning program

By Ian MacKay

Sun West School Division is getting a $35,000 provincial grant for outdoor learning.

The money will help pay for 20 students from around the school division "to attend the Faces Experience this summer," communications co-ordinator Mike Fedyk said in a message on Friday. Officials aim "to offer a similar program in Sun West next summer," Fedyk said.

Twenty students and five teachers from around Sun West School Division are heading to the Crowsnest Pass in mid-July to participate in an outdoor learning experience, with the goal of creating a similar program in Sun West next year. PHOTO BY IAN MACKAY

Sun West calls the plan to go to the Alberta Rockies in mid-July Choice and Challenge: Outdoor Learning for Well-Being. The grant was included in about $1.5 million in 33 disbursements from a provincial teacher innovation fund revealed last week.

The grants are intended to "provide enhanced learning opportunities for students across the province in the 2026-27 school year," an Education Department statement said.

"These projects highlight the creativity and leadership teachers bring to their schools and classrooms every day," said Everett Hindley, the education minister. The projects emphasize "experiential learning, exposure to trades and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programming," the statement said.

The Faces camping program, based at Coleman, Alta., in the Crowsnest Pass, "includes a carefully crafted personal adventure and an exciting and challenging wilderness adventure," a late-April Sun West statement said. Five teachers are to attend the camp, which runs July 13 to 18, along with students entering grades 10 and 11 on Sept. 2.

The students and teachers have been selected, but officials want to get them together for a photo before revealing who they are, Fedyk added.

"We think this will be an awesome way for Sun West to learn how best to approach developing a Faces program here," Darryl Seguin, Sun West's education director, said in the April statement.