Virtual Worlds: A Home away from Home

Andras Nagy Beyond the Classroom, Community No Comments

 

When we first embarked on this virtual journey there was nothing but wilderness: forests, rivers, canyons, green fields, and wild animals in this new environment. Our virtual world is now 43 days old and has been running almost 24/7 (minus some downtime during classes). The initial week of getting situated and figuring out what we as a community wanted to build was quite structured, we discussed community rules, being a responsible virtual villager, the essentials of settling in a new world (building shelter, respecting borders, sharing resources, etc.) After that initial phase, we removed most of the structured goals and activities and observed what the students would create on their own during club time and on their own time.

It has been an absolute pleasure observing the birth of a vibrant community created by students cooperating, planning, gathering resources and helping each other build whatever they saw fit. I witnessed the creation of not just buildings that acted as shelter, but actual homes – all with unique individual designs and aesthetics. The further I explored I found:

  • Hidden Green Spaces and Community Gardens
  • Sustainable Houses with vegetable gardens and farm animals
  • Intricate road networks for travelling between communities
  • A ‘Sea Turtle’ farm situated in a small canyon water reservoir
  • Industry and Mining areas for resource extraction to build structures from new materials
  • Forges and Workshops to create new and better items for community members

I look forward to seeing what else this community will create in this new world! Next week we will be bringing some more structured goals back, specifically the ‘Great Wall Initiative’ and the development of our community village with public buildings for new players.

A Source of Escape

Luka Ilic Beyond the Classroom, English and Humanities No Comments

 

The Travel and Tourism class let their imagination run wild as they designed an itinerary for their dream destination! Starting from scratch, they were responsible for choosing their travel dates, booking a flight and accommodation, keeping track of their budget, and thoroughly researching their chosen city.

Students have been both diligent and thoughtful with their work. They have developed a wide-ranging, seven-day itinerary that includes maps, photos, directions, hours of operation, prices, and a variety of attractions. While nearly every step was carefully calculated, there was also time set aside for spontaneity and ingenuity.

It has been a lot of fun following what students were up to and reviewing their plans. The next step is presentations. Each student will share their research and findings with the rest of the class in a creative and engaging format. Now, I will let their work speak for itself. Enjoy!

Solving mysteries in the land of fantasy

Ada Miller Community No Comments

 

Here lies a land of mystery, intrigue, and adventure. Academy Students have been solving mysteries in this world, bringing wrong-doers to the proper authorities and showcasing their problem solving skills. From a simple case of the wronged party looking for peace, to the most recent foray into mystery, solving the case of a haunted lighthouse.

Each week we’ve been exploring these mysteries and a common theme seems to be occurring, ghosts! Is the party haunted? Unlucky? Or are these spirits drawn to the party because they know that they can count on them to give them the peace they desire? Only time will tell.

While we use traditional Dungeons and Dragons as a club tool, not everyone has access to the tools that make that particular game unique (including rule books and dice). So we had to improvise. We decided that this group will use video calls to communicate with each other and the group. We also decided to use a system that utilizes only traditional six-sided dice and an approach where characters the players play use a simple word based system to showcase what their personas are both good at, and not-so-great at.

Kahoot Trivia Challenges Round 2

Zareh Demirdji Community No Comments

Students participate in Board Game Club

Instalment four of Gameboard Club saw the return of Kahoot Trivia Challenges, which we played in week two and a bit in week three. It is a favourite of the students as it allows for flexibility in the topics. As such, we brought it back for an entire hour this week. Students and staff cast their answers in quizzes involving weekly news, music, movies, sports, video games, celebrities, and finally geography. It was a fun way to spend an hour and we are excited to resume week five.

What does a can of tomatoes have to do with Geography?

Colleen Whelan Beyond the Classroom, English and Humanities, Science and Math No Comments

 

Unit 3 of the Grade 9 Geography course focuses on natural resources.  We use a “simple” can of tomatoes to explore what natural resources are, how humans use them and how we use energy resources at every stage of production.  The class had to brainstorm the production steps required to start with a tomato seed and end up with a can of tomatoes sitting on a supermarket shelf.

Once we brainstormed the steps in production, we traced back which natural resources were used in each step. As a class, we investigated several of these in depth.  For example, if you want to put the tomatoes in the can, you first have to make the can.  What natural resource would you gather?  What impact might gathering that natural resource have on the environment?  What energy natural resource would be required to manufacture the can?  What resources are used in transporting the can?

At the end of the lesson, students started to understand that there are hundreds of steps in the production of even a simple item, and that resources and energy are used in every step.  Ultimately this led us to a larger discussion of how to reduce the amount of natural resources and energy that we use in our daily lives.