What happens when you trade screens for streams and let kids rediscover what’s just outside the door? We sit down with Steve Leckman, director and lead instructor at Coyote Programs, to explore how immersive outdoor education builds focus, resilience, and real connection—especially for students growing up in urban environments.
Steve shares how a reluctant first canoe trip sparked a lifelong commitment to nature-based learning, and unpacks a practical, school-friendly approach that blends wilderness skills, ecology, leadership, and play. We talk fort-building instincts, sit spots, weekly outdoor routines, and how simple schoolyard experiences can reduce anxiety and deepen learning. From one-off workshops to ongoing programs, this conversation makes the case for outdoor learning not as an “extra,” but as essential groundwork for stewardship, wellbeing, and curiosity.
Your schoolyard is a living lab—what will you try first?

What if the fastest way to help kids learn is to stop rushing their growth? In this episode, we sit down with Catherine Korah from the Centre of Excellence for Behaviour Management to unpack a deceptively simple idea: when children feel secure with adults and have space for real play, learning and maturity emerge naturally.

We explore what true play actually looks like, why well-intentioned praise and goals can shut down creativity, and how protecting unstructured play primes the brain for later academic success. The conversation turns candid on screens, post-pandemic stress, and phone bans—why removing devices without replacing connection leaves a void, and what humane alternatives really work.

Grounded, hopeful, and practical, this episode offers language, confidence, and next steps for educators and parents navigating behaviour with care, patience, and trust.

Québec’s universities are at a tipping point. Funding changes, policy signals, AI, and global competition are reshaping what higher education can be. In this episode, Graham Carr of Concordia University unpacks the realities behind the headlines—and the bold choices that could define what comes next.