Elmwood educator acknowledged for her environmental enthusiasm

Manitoba’s bioscience community has recognized an Elmwood High School teacher for her commitment to environmental education. 

Elmwood teacher Jenna Forslund received the Outstanding Educator of the Year award at Bioscience Association Manitoba’s annual awards gala, which was held virtually on March 4. 

According to www.biomb.ca, the BAM Awards celebrate Manitobans who are involved in “world-class research and development”, as well as businesses “working to make our lives healthier and more sustainable.” That includes students and educators who are “committed to building a stronger community of future leaders in the growing Manitoba bioscience industry.”

Forslund, who is in her eighth year at Elmwood, teaches math, science and environment education to Grades 7 to 12. In October, 2020, Forslund received a Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence for her dedication to environmental education.

She’s thrilled to receive such praise, but Forslund is a modest person and feels a tad embarrassed accepting such honours during a pandemic. 

“I share this award with my colleagues and my administrator who support me in what I want to do,” Forslund said. “My fellow teachers and staff across Winnipeg School Division are trying their best right now. We should all be receiving awards.”

Forslund said she’s always been interested in the environment, but it wasn’t until a 2016 trip to the Canadian Arctic with the Schools on Board program when she decided to bring that interest into her classroom. 

“My trip with Schools on Board was a huge eye-opener and caused a paradigm shift in my pedagogy and practice as to what’s really meaningful,” Forslund said. 

“It catapulted the projects that I’ve been involved with since.”

During the Schools on Board voyage, Forslund sailed the Northwest Passage aboard the CCGS Amundsen Arctic research vessel and visited Inuit communities like Pond Inlet, located on the northern tip of Baffin Island. 

Since that life-changing trip, Forslund has spearheaded Elmwood’s Sustainability and Envirothon teams and co-chaired the Arctic Climate Change Youth Forum that Elmwood hosted in 2016.

“Prior to going on that trip, there had been such a push for global environmental change,” Forslund said. “While I agree with that, I think there’s something to say for local change and recognizing that Canada, although we’re a Global North country, we still have the issues that are very apparent in the Global South, like poverty, access to clean water and climate change.

“I think it would be ignorant of me as someone who’s living in an urban setting to completely dismiss what we’re doing as city-dwelling people and how that’s effecting the lives of those that live in the North. That’s what has propelled me to get students to think about what they’re doing at a local level and how that’s affecting their fellow Canadians.”

In Forslund’s opinion, environmental education starts with empathy. 

“I’m mindful that the students I’m working with are coming from a community that has some of these same issues, like food accessibility and access to greenspace,” Forslund said. 

“I think all teachers need to be cognizant that some of these global issues that we’re promoting in our classrooms really hit close to home because they’re issues that are happening in our very communities.”

“I don’t believe you can teach just sustainability. It’s a huge concept that even adults have a hard time understanding. But you can teach empathy. And if students have empathy then hopefully it will lead to a more sustainable future.”