Fleming College

City of Kawartha Lakes ON – (Sept. 20, 2017) – Fleming College’s Frost Campus will host a bioblitz this weekend that will involve eco-activities for both elementary students and Fleming students.

A bioblitz is a biological inventory that occurs over a 24-hour period. At Frost, the official bioblitz will take place from 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 22 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23. Bioblitzes help to quantify the number of species in given ecosystems to help assess the decline in biodiversity within that area. A combination of faculty and community volunteers from different backgrounds (some academic, some professional) will lead groups of Frost Campus students through protocols associated with collecting and identifying species. Targeted species include: birds, reptiles, small mammals, insects, trees and shrubs, grasses, mosses, and fish.

Earlier on Friday, the campus will host 300 students in grades 2 to 7 from Leslie Frost Public School. Throughout the day, the students will rotate through stations that will expose them to different ecosystems. For each ecosystem, they will be shown tools and techniques used to identify different species of plants and animals, and then encouraged to explore the ecosystem and find as many species as they can.

Here is the schedule for the students’ visit:

• 9:30 a.m. – Arrive at Frost Campus
• 9:45 a.m. – Welcome from Frost Campus Principal Brett Goodwin at the Loggersports Field
• 10 a.m. – First rotation starts, with students changing stations every 45 minutes.
• 11:30 a.m. to noon – Lunch break
• 2 p.m. – Students depart

The locations of the four stations that students will visit while on campus are: Upper Forest, which is located behind the main building, and the Lower Forest, Meadow, and Riparian Zone, which are all located behind the Heavy Equipment area, near the river’s edge.

About Fleming College
Located in the heart of Central Ontario, Fleming College has campus locations in Peterborough, Lindsay, Cobourg and Haliburton. Named for famous Canadian inventor and engineer Sir Sandford Fleming, the college features more than 100 full-time programs in Arts and Heritage, Business, Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, General Arts and Sciences, Health and Wellness, Justice and Community Development, Skilled Trades and Technology, and Continuing Education. Fleming College has more than 6,200 full-time and 10,000 part-time students, and 74,000 alumni.

-30-

Members of the media, for more information please contact:
Laura Copeland
Communications Officer
laura.copeland@flemingcollege.ca
705.749.5530 x 1370