The Outdoor Learning Centre in Kananaskis Country, run by the local school board, has had a very successful summer by attracting students to take courses at the facility from around Alberta.
Work at the Outdoor Learning Centre began three years ago with Canadian Rockies Public Schools signing a lease with the province for the former group camp site in Bow Valley Provincial Park.
Thanks to $100,000 of funding from Improvement District #9 – the area around and including Lake Louise – the public school board began developing courses to deliver at the facility.
This past summer, CRPS Superintendent Chris MacPhee said the facility has seen more than 150 students take the required high school credit course Career and Life Management (CALM) at the Outdoor Learning Centre.
It is a significant increase in students attending the facility from the previous two summers and he said 16 outside school divisions have had students travel to the K-country centre this summer.
“We are very pleased that programming is doubling there – it is doing absolutely wonderful,” MacPhee said.
In addition to offering CALM, a course needed to graduate high school in Alberta, the Outdoor Learning Centre offers water safety courses and winter travel courses, which are also hosted at Lake Louise Ski Area.
The five-year lease for the site in Kananaskis includes a diner and three bunkhouses, which are near Camp Chief Hector.
