Borrow a Nature Discovery Backpack and get ready for your family’s next outdoor adventure!  

The Junction Creek Stewardship Committee has partnered with Watersheds Canada, the Greater Sudbury Public Library, and the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek First Nation community to deliver the Nature Discovery Backpack Lending program in N’Swakamok/Greater Sudbury at the Garson Public Library, Downtown Mackenzie Library, and Lively Public Library as well as the Atikameksheng Kendaasii-Gamik. 

The program is generously funded by the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation.   

About the Nature Discovery Backpack Lending Program 

These Nature Discovery Backpacks are Ontario-curriculum linked and contain activities and field equipment to help you explore local nature and the wildlife that live there. The backpack activities are targeted for grades 7-12 but will be enjoyed by adults and families too! Backpacks can be checked out for one week from any of the three library locations, or you can reserve them online to pick up.  

Inside each Nature Discovery Backpack you will find: 

• Binoculars 
• Seven identification guides: trees, wildflowers, dragonflies and damselflies, birds, animal tracks, reptiles, and aquatic macroinvertebrates 
• A water quality test kit 
• A small dip net  
• An observation jar with a built-in magnifying glass 

• A 32-page ‘Nature Discovery Learning Workbook’ filled with 10 activities 

 

These tools will help increase people’s engagement and identification skills regarding local species and contribute to environmental sustainability knowledge and action in the Greater Sudbury area. Each backpack can be checked out for one week at a time. Please return all field materials with the backpack to any of the three GSPL locations (Garson, Downtown, or Lively). You can keep any used water quality test strips and data sheets, and your ‘Nature Discovery Learning Workbook’.  

 Please note the backpacks are only available in English at this time.  

You can download individual activities from the Nature Discovery Learning Workbook below!

Become a Community Scientist activity
Bio-Blitz activity
Follow in their Footsteps – animal tracks activity
Life in a Square activity
Nature Journaling activity
Nature Word Search
Pond Study activity
Riparian Zone activity – Sketch it!
Talk to the Birds activity
Water Quality Experiment