{"id":46568,"date":"2017-09-08T14:55:07","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T18:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=46568"},"modified":"2017-09-11T09:35:46","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T13:35:46","slug":"nature-centre-site-of-hands-on-learning-for-goodman-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2017\/09\/nature-centre-site-of-hands-on-learning-for-goodman-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature centre site of hands-on learning for Goodman students"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bond between Brock University and Heartland Forest continues to grow.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Niagara Falls nature centre, which hosts more than 20,000 visitors each year, has strengthened its ties with the University through a series of experiential education opportunities for students.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heartland Forest annually welcomes students from Brock\u2019s Goodman School of Business to participate in service-learning projects that assist the organization with many of its behind-the-scenes administrative needs. <\/span><\/p>\n

The not-for-profit organization provides an interactive nature experience for people of all ages and abilities with a variety of programming on its extensive property.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heartland’s Executive Director Elisabeth Graham praised the various Goodman project teams for their contributions to the organization in the last six years, from working on an accounting audit service to creating a human resources plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had incredible growth,\u201d she said\u00a0of the nature centre, which now employs 31 people. \u201cAnd Brock students, through our service-learning projects, have come alongside us to be very involved in that growth. Having the students and their expertise available to us is incredible and is a very important part of our history.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The positive effect of the partnership has not been exclusive to Heartland\u2019s team. Graham also highlighted the diverse experience that working for a not-for-profit organization has provided the Brock students who have participated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden, from the environmental or accessibility side, there is a spark of excitement that they are part of an organization that is making a difference,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are able to participate in a small way in what is happening while also seeing what they have worked on being implemented.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With Brock\u2019s ongoing focus on experiential education continuing to gain national recognition, the University\u2019s lengthy partnership with Heartland \u2014 which has seen more than 84 student participants \u2014 showcases the many benefits that experiential education can provide. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur numerous projects with Heartland Forest serve as an incredible example of what service learning can bring to an organization and to our student participants,\u201d said Goodman\u2019s Experiential Education Co-ordinator, David DiPietro. The organization has \u201ctaken full advantage\u201d of the services offered by Goodman, he said, while showing the school support throughout the years-long partnership.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to experiential education students from Goodman, the Heartland Forest team has also employed three Brock co-op students for summer placements. The nature centre is beginning several new partnerships with additional Brock University Faculties, allowing other students to gain similar experiences while continuing to serve the needs of the organization. Recreation and leisure students are now involved in Heartland\u2019s homeschool program and Nursing students are helping to design an intergenerational fitness program.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most importantly for Graham, the partnership with Brock allows Heartland to work with more members of the community in an experiential way.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Heartland is all about is experiential learning, whether it\u2019s with our own crew, our school groups or our day camp, and it makes sense for us to be partnering with Brock to extend that same opportunity to the students as well,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

More information about visiting or volunteering at Heartland Forest, 8215 Heartland Forest Rd. in Niagara Falls, is <\/span>available online.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bond between Brock University and Heartland Forest continues to grow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":46569,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,7,1,4],"tags":[5050,703,5765,5764,4811,594,5156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}