KIMMIRUT/LAKE HARBOUR - There was a special tea party at Qaqqalik School last month, with homemade cake, cookies, bannock, muffins and piping hot tea and coffee. But the event was special not because of the snacks but for the reason it was being held.

"It was great and we had fun with the elders," said Ooleepeka Padluq, a Grade 10 student.

She and her fellow classmates in the school's Grade 10 Nuna science class invited the elders from the community for tea. It was a chance to have snacks and converse and also to learn about nature.

Padluq said she has not done anything like this in school before and that it was good to study it in school.

Her science teacher Rosalie Schop is one of six teachers in the territory piloting a new Nuna science class.

"The program is based on traditional science and knowledge learned through elders," she said.

As part of the new Education Act, the Department of Education introduced the Nuna curriculum to make classroom materials more relevant to Nunavut.

In the classroom, Schop said she had been working on a unit about medicines and ecosystems focusing on traditional teas and plants used by Inuit in the region.

Students learned what plants that grow on the tundra can be used for medicines, such as chamomile and crowberries. They also learned you can use mushrooms to make Band-Aids.

Grade 10/11 student Ningeolaa Killiktee said she had thought crowberries were just for making pies.

"I know now more about plants and rocks," she said.

Her fellow student Naiomi Itulu said she already knew a lot of the information they learned, but the fact they got to study about what is found in the Arctic was something different.

She also said getting to hang out with the elders was cool.

Qipani Michael got to talk with some elders who were telling him how they used to survive out on the land.

"My favourite story was when they said there were lots of whales inside the harbour," he said.

He said one elder told him humans, like caribou, can eat lichen.

The day before the tea, students and Schop were busy in the school kitchen making all the snacks.

Schop said this is the first of several events she hopes to plan this year.

"They're great and we will definitely plan another," she said.

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