Bug Hunt: Mapping How Big Emotions Rise

Bug Hunt invites Grade 9 students on a creative quest to map how big emotions bubble to the surface and explore art-based techniques to manage them.

Overview
This immersive artist-in-residency blends social-emotional learning (SEL), art, and STEM. Students become “Bug Hunters,” tracking emotional “bugs” — anger, worry, sadness — and learning to map, manage, and transform them through creativity. The program ends with a school-wide event where Grade 9 students share learning by leading the other grades in co-designed, art-based emotional learning activities.

Goals

• Teach emotional regulation using calming, art-based tools

• Develop leadership through peer-designed learning activities

• Promote school-wide impact via a student-led SEL event

  
  

Program Highlights
Students explore their emotions through hands-on art projects, infused with SEL. Integrated STEM concepts include the brain-body connection and the biology of stress. Calming tools like breathwork and sensory art make strategies accessible. Students collaborate to design activities for “Bug Hunt Day” — a final SEL event led by students for the entire school.

Who It’s For

• Grade 9 students (core participants)

• K–9 school community (engaged during final event)

  
  

Why It Works
By blending play and creativity, Bug Hunt makes emotional learning approachable. Guided by a certified art therapist, students experience cross-curricular learning that builds lasting emotional resilience.

Outcomes
Students will:

• Understand emotional science and self-regulation

• Identify personal triggers and coping strategies

• Build confidence through creative self-expression

  
  

Logistics

• Duration: Artist in Residence - per school 4 weeks (12 weeks in total).

• Sessions: Each school will meet weekly for 1–4 hour workshops + event planning

• Facilitator: Artist-in-residence with Art Therapy certification

• Materials: Art kits & STEM supplies (see budget for full list)

• Space: Art room or flexible classroom

• Final Event: Student-led “Bug Hunt Day” SEL event

  
  

Impact & Measurement
This pilot will reach 1,875 students across three NE Calgary schools:

• Prairie Sky School (729)

• Riverside School (630)

• Stanley Jones School (516)

  
  

Grade 9 students will complete an emotional intelligence questionnaire at intake and after the program to track growth in emotional awareness and regulation.

Conclusion
Bug Hunt empowers students to understand emotions, and build a more emotionally aware school community — all through art, science, and play.

While Grade 9 students are the core participants, the entire school community of three schools (1,875 students) benefits from their leadership and creativity. Through the project, Grade 9s develop skills in emotional awareness and creative expression, which they then share with younger students.

The project culminates in a school-wide “Bug Hunt Day,” which operates similarly to a Sports Day. Students move between a series of interactive stations, each co-designed and led by the Grade 9 classes to share their new knowledge with the rest of the school. These stations feature fun, art-based emotional learning activities that invite curiosity and self-expression.

Teachers also benefit by gaining new art-based strategies and tools to support social-emotional growth in their classrooms. The program as a whole fosters a school-wide culture of creativity and emotional wellness, giving students and staff lasting tools to understand and navigate emotions together—strengthening relationships, resilience, and community well-being.