Conferences

2016 Keynote Speakers

Lenny Ross • Monday, August 15 • 9:30–10:45

lenny rossLenny Ross is a teacher at Strawberry Vale Elementary School in Greater Victoria. He created such award winning programs as the Colquitz Watershed Stewardship Project, Eco Rowing at Esquimalt Lagoon, and The Gorge Eco Tours. He has an MA in Environmental and Aboriginal Education from the University of Victoria, and in 2004 received the Faculty of Education’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

Nature Centered, Place-Based Learning – The evolution of an aquatic and marine educator

Using such resources as Project Wild, and the contacts and resources gained from NAME membership, events, and journals, Lenny created district programs that focused on marine and aquatic environmental sciences. Over time these programs evolved to first include an Aboriginal education focus.  Eventually his approach morphed to adopt the best practices of nature education as has been highlighted in the development of local “nature kindergartens” and is now being applied to whole school settings.


Dr. Eileen van der Flier Keller • Tuesday, August 16 • 9:00–10:15

lenny rossEileen is an Earth scientist, passionate about engaging the public with science, and increasing awareness of the important role science plays in all of our lives. As a faculty member in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at UVic, she works closely with science educators to make Earth science engaging and accessible, especially to K-12 school children and their teachers. Eileen wrote “A Field Guide to the Identification of Pebbles” and “The South Vancouver Island Earth Science Fun Guide”, and has written chapters for CBC Learning teacher resource guides for Nature of Things series including ‘One Ocean’, and ‘Geologic Journey’ I and II. She is currently Past-President of the Canadian Geoscience Education Network (CGEN). In 2009 Eileen received the Geological Association of Canada E.R. Ward Neale Medal for sustained outstanding efforts in sharing earth science with Canadians, and won the University of Victoria Faculty of Science Teaching Excellence Award in 2015. Eileen will be moving to Simon Fraser University in July 2016 to take up an appointment as Teaching Professor in the Earth Sciences Department and Special Advisor to the Dean of Science - Public Education and Outreach.

Keynote—The Ocean in the Anthropocene

Humans and our activities are changing not only the Earth’s land surface, but freshwater, the atmosphere and also the ocean. We are now the main cause of environmental change globally. This has led scientists to propose a new division of geological time – the ‘Anthropocene’, to recognise this recent human impact on our planet.

How is the ocean changing in the Anthropocene? Some scientists suggest that global warming is really ocean warming. From warming, sea level change, ocean acidification, oxygen-poor dead zones, and changes in ocean circulation, it is important that we understand how our actions are influencing the ocean as well as how the ocean influences us.


Jane Watson • Wednesday, August 17 • 9:00–10:15

jane watsonJane Watson grew up on the BC coast, and knew from a very early age that she wanted to be marine biologist. She completed her B.Sc. at the University of British Columbia in 1981 and her Ph.D. at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1993. She presently teaches biology at Vancouver Island University. She has spent more than 25 summers studying sea otters and kelp on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Sea Otters – A Very Natural History

Sea otters, prized for their thick fur, were hunted to extinction in British Columbia in a commercial fur trade that started in the late 1700s and lasted until sea otters were protected in the early 20th century. Otters were reintroduced to BC from 1969 to 1972 when 89 Alaskan sea otters were released into Checleset Bay off the northwest coast of Vancouver Island in a series of three translocations. Since their “repatriation”, the Canadian sea otter population has grown and spread; today there are over 6000 sea otters along the outer coast of BC and northern end of Vancouver Island. The return of sea otters, which has resulted in dramatic changes to coastal ecosystems, has not been without controversy. Sea otters depend on a thick fur and prodigious appetite to stay warm in their chilly ocean environment and it is these two features - their luxurious fur coats and enormous appetites - that have made sea otters both desired and hated. In this talk we will explore the biology and ecology of this important and charismatic species– in what is truly a very natural history.