Howe Sound Legacies

Grades K to 12

Atl'ka7tsem Howe Sound Legacies Program

Exclusive from October 2024 to February 2025

The Howe Sounds Legacies Program will be available from October 2024 to February 2025. The program takes students on a journey that details the discovery of copper, the ways it was processed, and the consequences for the nearby Howe Sound ecosystem.

Students will get to see our temporary exhibit: Ore and Orcas: the Remediation of Howe Sound |Átl’ḵa7tsem, including a chance to see and touch a real killer whale skeleton courtesy of the Strawberry Isle Marine Research Society.

This Program Package Includes:

• Copper Quest Underground Tour (60 mins)

• BOOM! in the Historic Mill No. 3 (30 mins)

• Legacies Lab and facilitated time with aquatic specimens in the Terra Lab (45 mins)

  • Flex time - we allow 15 minutes of flex time for restroom breaks and travel between stations.

Program Length

2 1/2 Hours in total

Area of Focus

• Environmental Remediation
• Food Chains
• Mineral Exploration
• Mineral Processin

What you will see and do

• Travel underground and experience the sights and sounds of the historic mine.

• Discover key innovations in exploration with live equipment demonstrations.

• Reflect on the consequences of Britannia’s successful mineral exploration.

• Watch BOOM! – a new immersive learning experience that brings the historic Mill to life.

• Explore how metal contamination from the mine impacted the Howe Sound food web, from plankton to killer whales.

• See preserved animal specimens, including a real killer whale skeleton as well as fish and marine invertebrates from the Beaty Biodiversity Museum collections.

• Learn how the environmental issues were addressed at Britannia and how a modern Water Treatment Plant now protects this ecosystem.

Big Ideas

This program covers many of the BC Curriculum's Big Ideas across all grades.