Earth Rangers

On January 21, 2020 Earth Rangers migrated their online kids portal to the Earth Rangers App.[1] The app creates a safe place for families to learn about nature, while empowering children to take environmental action by participating in missions (see below). The app is especially helpful for kids who experience "eco-anxiety" due to climate change by allowing them to take part in conservation efforts and be part of small but mighty solutions to help save animals.[2] Signs of eco-anxiety in children might include them expressing fear of the unknown, a lack of control over the future or feeling like there might be a catastrophe.

The Earth Rangers App is free to download, and gives children access to programs and features such as:

• Over 20 fun Missions that make a real and positive impact on the environment like planting trees, battery recycling drives, conserving energy and creating butterfly gardens
• Animal Adoptions that allow you to support real, on the ground conservation projects across Canada
• Virtual badges, leaderboards, and rewards for almost everything you do in the app
• Endless entertainment and inspiration through hours of educational videos and thousands of fascinating articles about animals and the environment
• Easy access to the award-winning Earth Rangers podcast
• Points-based levelling system that allows you to journey through different habitats, unlocking cool animal facts along the way
• Customizable avatars that allow you to create your own virtual identity
• Free membership card and welcome package sent by mail when you complete your membership sign-up

Regarding online safety, the Earth Rangers App does not share or make visible personally identifiable information, and privacy is strictly protected. Membership requires parent activation, and all comments posted on the Wild Wire blog are moderated by specially trained Earth Rangers staff. Additionally, the websites are audited on a regular basis to ensure they are PCI compliant. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements designed to ensure that all companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment.

Animal Ambassador "Hudson" the Eurasian Lynx

Missions are fun, tangible activities Earth Rangers provides to members throughout the year that are designed to demonstrate the collective impact of working together to protect the environment. They address a wide range of issues and provide kids with ways to take action through things like conserving energy at home, organizing shoreline cleanups and planting pollinator gardens. Missions are also designed to be completed with the help of family and friends. The goal of this program is to educate and inspire children about biodiversity loss.

The Earth Rangers School Assembly is a presentation for Grades 1 to 6 that leverages the shared and innate connection children of all backgrounds have to animals. Through the power of live animal demonstrations, and positive, science-based information, the program educates students about the importance of protecting biodiversity, while highlighting diverse conservation initiatives across Canada. Throughout the show, students are introduced to four of the Earth Rangers Animal Ambassadors, such as Blue the Peregrine Falcon, Shelley the Painted Turtle, and Hudson the Eurasian Lynx. The program visits more than 800 schools across Canada each year.

Earth Rangers also delivers hands-on, curriculum-linked Classroom Visits for Grades 3 to 6, which explore subjects like climate change, pollination, and wildlife habitats in more depth.

All Earth Rangers get their own membership cards

Teachers worldwide can register their school's ecology club as an official Earth Rangers Club in order to help engaging their students in taking action to protect animals and the environment. By registering, they gain access to exciting activities and materials linked directly to the Canadian school curriculum. Similarly to the individual missions that Earth Rangers members participate in, clubs take on club-specific missions throughout the school year. The program is recommended for grades K-6 and can be adapted to grades 7 and 8. Missions are engaging and tangible environmental activities that help Club Members take action for important environmental issues. They can involve Club Members, a classroom or the entire school.

The Wildlife Adoptions Program educates children and their families about the importance of biodiversity, highlights different species and conservation projects across Canada, and raises funds for research, species monitoring, and habitat conservation. To participate, children log into their account on the Earth Rangers App, where they learn about the various projects and select the animal they want to adopt, choosing between a virtual or a plushie adoption kit. Throughout the year, Earth Rangers headquarters provides updates on each project, ensuring that those participating in the program know how adoption funds were used and what was accomplished with them.

Every adoption kit purchased helps support scientists and conservation partners working on tangible projects that can make a big difference for animals at risk. Whether it’s learning more about how grizzly bears use their habitat in Yukon’s Beaver River watershed, or helping restore meadow habitat through Toronto’s urban core, our projects reach the full breadth and depth of conservation work.

Led by Earth Ranger Emma, the Earth Rangers Podcast is a show for everyone who loves to explore the mysteries of nature. In addition to being available directly in the Earth Rangers App, the podcast is available through various podcast applications such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The Earth Rangers Centre was one of the first buildings in Canada to use displacement ventilation, and has the largest installation of earth tubes in North America. This ventilation system circulates air through diffusers located near the floor level and displaces the existing air into return ducts near the ceiling.

The Earth Rangers 9.3 square metre data centre was completed in December 2008. The data room uses storage servers from Pillar, Dell's processing servers, and virtual personal machines using VMware View software. Nortel's Power over Ethernet (PoE) switching facilitates the transfer of electrical power and data across the infrastructure.[3] Earth Rangers also participates in Compugen's Green4Good program which works to combat the environmental impact of end-of-life technology products and support charities in need.[4]

The Earth Rangers Centre has two solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays in operation; both convert the sun's rays into standard voltage to be used by the building's systems. In the Earth Rangers Centre parking lot there is a 57.6 kWp dual-axis tracking array on six separate posts consisting of 54 Solgate 175 W panels, provided by Sentinel Power Systems. Each array follows the sun from east to west during the day, increasing output by up to 30 per cent over a fixed panel. Each panel has its own Enphase micro-inverter, further increasing the efficiency of the arrays and allowing real-time monitoring of the system on panel by panel basis. The second array is located on the aviary, a building that boasts a 28.08 kWp, designed and installed by Enviro-Energy Technologies Inc.[5] This offsets approximately 10% of the Earth Rangers Centre's annual needs.[6]

The Earth Rangers Centre was one of the first 100% radiant heated and cooled buildings in North America. The building uses 22 km of REHAU radiant tubing, which was laid within the concrete floors and ceiling. The flow of a non-toxic, vegetable-based liquid (water/glycol) through these tubes causes the concrete to become thermally activated. In the warm seasons, cooled liquid is supplied to the concrete slabs. The heat from the computers, people and the sun is absorbed by the concrete, causing the cooled liquid in the tubing to warm up. The liquid is then cooled by rejecting heat to the ground source system or free cooled by directly coupling to the cooling tower. In the colder months, the glycol is warmed by the ground source heat pump before it is supplied to the slab system.