Youth across Prince Edward Island are getting hands-on lessons in how aquatic invasive species spread, thanks to a new program run by the P.E.I. Invasive Species Council.

Chase Guindon, a co-ordinator with the council, said the group received funding from the P.E.I. Wildlife Conservation Fund this winter to bring aquatic invasive species education directly into classrooms.

The program focuses on students in grades 4 to 6, which Guindon said fits well with the existing curriculum. Over the winter, the council has been visiting classrooms across the Island, giving presentations on what invasive species are and how they affect local ecosystems.

“If they can understand this stuff from a really early age, I think the chance of them carrying it through life and into adulthood, where they might have more of an influence on environmental changes, could be stronger,” Guindon said.

“Maybe they’ll go home and talk to their parents about it as well and sort of pass on that education.”

Among the activities, the highlight for many students has been a classroom game called the invasive species boat race.

Guindon said staff from the council bring in long, shallow storage totes and fill them with water. In some of them, they sprinkle dried parsley to represent invasive aquatic plants.

Students then fold origami paper boats and race them through the “infested” water by blowing on them with straws. After the first race, the students take their boats out, try to clean them off, and then place them into a second tote filled with clean water to race again.

“Even though they tried their best to clean their boats and get rid of all the invasive plants that were attached to them, they would spread to the water body that was previously clean. It would demonstrate that unintentional spread of invasive plants from one water body to another,” he said.

“The classes got quite loud and rambunctious.… They had a lot of fun.”

Council staff also show examples of invasive species and their impacts, which has led to lots of surprises for the kids — like goldfish, which many children recognized as a common household pet but did not realize is an invasive species on P.E.I.

But Guindon said he was also struck by how much some students already understood.

“There was always at least a few students who were able to give a really good example of what an invasive species actually is and what a native species actually is,” he said.

“We’re not really engaging with these age groups a whole lot, so for us to see how much they already understand was really exciting.”

Bringing lessons Island-wide

So far this winter, the P.E.I. Invasive Species Council has visited five schools, delivering the program to 20 classes and reaching about 400 students.

The council now has a waitlist of about eight more schools.

They have one more school to visit before the end of the month under the current round of funding. After that, they plan to use new funding to start working through the waitlist over the coming months.

Guindon said the funding also supported the creation of a teacher resource guide so schools can continue the learning without council staff present.

The guide can be found on the council’s website. It has activities ranging from one where students act as invasive or native species and experience competition for food and habitat, to printable resources such as word searches, crossword puzzles and other worksheets.