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Colleen Martin (R), Ducks Unlimited's Education Coordinator, and artist Barb Hoyt (L) hold some of Hoyt's hand-painted props used in the new Wonder of Wetlands floor game that 200 Fredericton area school kids will play the week of December 17th at the Fredericton Conservation Centre.
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- Ducks Unlimited Canada Fredericton Conservation Centre
Teachers Eager for Students to "Dive Into" New Ducks Unlimited Wetland Game 
Teacher Response to Trial Run Exceptional
Fredericton NB, Dec. 14 – Over 200 children from classrooms in the greater Fredericton area will be taking a new wetland game for a test run the week of the 17th. Fredericton's Ducks Unlimited Conservation Centre has waived the regular fees associated with the delivery of this education program in order to receive some feedback from what the centre interpreters openly call their "guinea pigs".
The Wonder of Wetlands floor game for grades three to six covers 209 square feet and took four months to create. Children place wooden props, representing plants, animals and land-use activities, on a painted landscape floor mat. Based on a popular game created in London, England, to increase awareness of the need to conserve the River Thames, Ducks Unlimited's game drives home points about wetland values, threats to wetlands and the need to conserve these areas that are important to wildlife and improving water quality. The game will be added to the existing education programs being offered out of the Conservation Centre in the New Year.
The morning after the schools heard about the free trial run, the nine available spots were filled. Colleen Martin, the education coordinator at the Conservation Centre who spearheaded the floor game's development, was a little surprised.
"It was an amazing response! Schools are usually pretty busy at Christmas time, so it's wonderful that these classes can help us refine the program," Martin said. "The floor game supports the provincial science curriculum at the Grade 3 to 6 levels which makes the program popular with teachers. The large scale of the game and the opportunity to role play makes the learning fun for students and allows them to do something they normally would not do in the classroom."
Local artist Barb Hoyt hand-painted the more than 100 wooden props used in the game. Interpretive staff have collected other items to help children act out characters like the dastardly "Purple" who spreads the invasive noxious weed purple loosestrife and "Grease Lightning" who dumps used oil down drains where it flows untreated into waterways and wetlands.
"While the characters are purposely comical, they represent real wetland management issues that are discussed seriously with the class at the end of the game," Martin said. "We want to make students aware that wildlife managers have to solve these very same pollution problems. Many of the ideas that the students come up with, such as public education on the importance of wetlands, stricter wetland protection laws and hefty fines, are right on the mark with what is really needed to help protect and conserve wetland environments."
By the end of the two-hour game, Martin said the students will have an appreciation for the natural wetland ecosystem, how humans have impacted this ecosystem and how people can help to minimize impacts on wetlands.
Ducks Unlimited Canada has been working in Canada for more than 60 years to conserve wetlands and associated habitats for waterfowl, other wildlife and people.
