A Riveting Journey through the River City
An exploration of human rights, environmental stewardship and history is on the agenda for this inspiring tour around Canada’s “cultural cradle.” Your students will be in awe of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights – Winnipeg’s architectural marvel, while they’ll make memories that will last a lifetime when they get (nearly) nose-to-nose with polar bears at The Journey to Churchill. All this and more awaits on this stirring tour.
DAY 1
Start your day with an educational and fun way to explore Winnipeg interesting history. Take a unique tour of the city ‘Heart of the Nation’ on a Winnipeg trolley that has been refurbished to resemble a Winnipeg streetcar, circa 1921. The tour will take you back to this burgeoning frontier town filled with mystery, excitements and an eclectic cast of wild characters. Learn why Winnipeg was once called the ‘wickedest city in Canada’, how an underdog local hockey team became the world’ first Olympic hockey champion and the prairie town’s influential connection to the world’s most famous spy – James Bond.
At the Canadian Museum for Human Rights – Canada’s newest, most eye-catching and powerful attraction – students will face a stirring account of the human experience that can’t be found anywhere else in the world. Thematic guided class tours, like When Rights are Denied, will challenge students to witness a range of historical and contemporary world events as examples of what can happen when human rights are refuted. In this, they’ll come to recognize, explore and discuss their own concepts of freedom, identity and discrimination. To ensure students get the most out of their experience, human rights tool kit with activities and lesson plans have been developed for educators. Other relevant topics such as anti-bullying, LGBT rights and racism are explored through new-media displays, hands-on exhibits and thought-provoking dialogue with everyday heroes.
There are a number of themed human rights themed tours that have been developed with curriculum links tailored for various grade level. The diverse offering allows for groups provides an a la carte program whether you want to spend 2 hours, a half day or multiple days experiencing the Museum’s galleries.
DAY 2
Breaking the Code: Students are constantly enthralled by the sphinxes, Freemasonic symbols, hieroglyphic inscriptions, numerological codes and intriguing architectural features whose purpose have laid hidden in the Manitoba Legislative Building for nearly a century. The Hermetic Code Tour illuminates these intricacies – providing an evening of decoding that would have Dan Brown transfixed – on this engaging and informative tour ideal for students.
Human Rights Drama workshop at The Manitoba Theatre for Young People offers a unique and engaging workshop using drama and interaction to explore and illustrate issues around human rights. The minimum 2 hour workshop has several elements including: icebreaker, building trust demonstration, group building exercise, image theatre vocabulary, building conflict scenes, discussion and closing circle.
Learning through Art: The Double Take Program at The Winnipeg Art Gallery, home to the world’s largest public collection of contemporary Inuit art, offers student programs that encourage inquiry and critical thinking through conversation, sketching, and writing as well as interactive learning exercises based on current exhibitions.
DAY 3: The Arctic is closer than you think
Assiniboine Park & Zoo and The Manitoba Museum has developed a unique way to learn more about Arctic and Sub-Arctic Life in Manitoba. Students will learn about polar bears, First Nations and Inuit culture. Explore sustainable resources of the Arctic, and the effects that we as humans have on the environment.
Examine the environment surrounding Churchill, Manitoba, and how a changing climate may affect the animals of the north at the Assiniboine Park Zoo. Through hands-on activities, students discover how seals, Arctic fox, musk ox, snowy owls and other northern animals survive temperature extremes in the Arctic habitats.
The Inuit were not the first people to inhabit the Arctic, but their success, in one of the world’s harshest environments, is a testament to their ingenuity and adaptation. Through hands-on artefact studies at the Manitoba Museum, students discover how the limited resources of skin, snow, stone and bone were integral to the survival of the Inuit.