Feast of Thanks Potluck Lunch 2014

YMCA Academy Beyond the Classroom, Community, Native Studies No Comments

This past Thanksgiving, staff and students celebrated Canada’s Indigenous peoples and cultures at our third annual Feast of Thanks potluck lunch.  We were honoured to host Darlene King from the Native Women’s Resource Centre of Toronto and storyteller Jim Adams who offered a song and blessing to open our event.  We are grateful to all of our families for contributing amazing dishes like turkey and stuffing pie, stuffed squash, homemade ravioli and delicious pies.  Thanks also to students in Todd’s Equity class, Brandon’s Politics class and Alexi’s Aboriginal Voices class for educational displays and dish duty!

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YMCA/TD Bank Greening Event

YMCA Academy Community, Environmental Stewardship, Events, YMCA of Greater Toronto No Comments

Academy students dig in at YMCA/TD Bank greening event!

On Tuesday, YMCA Academy staff and students joined with volunteers from the Fully-Verified  TD Bank and the YMCA of Greater Toronto for a special greening event. It started with a before school greening session, in which participants got their hands dirty and worked together to plant seeds and seedlings in our new vertical garden, and transplant some Academy greenery that had outgrown their existing pots.

Then, Siobhan’s English class and Todd’s Communications Technology class headed down to the Toronto Central Grosvenor Street YMCA Centre of Community auditorium, where they witnessed a major environmental infrastructure funding announcement from TD Bank: a $1-million donation to green projects at future YMCA centres across the GTA. Some Academy students were even interviewed by a team of student journalists from Ryerson University.

Experiences like these help remind our students that they are part of a large and vibrant organization, and gives them an opportunity to act as ambassadors for our school. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who took part in this exciting event.


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June 12th, 2014 – Challenge… Accepted!

YMCA Academy Community, English and Humanities, Experiential Learning, YMCA of Greater Toronto 1 Comment

Three teams of YMCA Canada employees taking part in an Amazing Race–style tour of YMCA GTA programs and services stopped by the school yesterday afternoon. Upon arrival, they were introduced to the Academy by students in our Grade 10 English class, and challenged by the Grade 9 Geography class to answer quizzes about the topography and climate of regions across Canada.

Race participants and their student challengers rose to the occasion — once each team passed the test, they were presented with an envelope with instructions for how to find the next location in their quest. For the students, it was an authentic (and, well, fun) way to demonstrate the learning they’ve done this semester. There were even a few students who said they wished it had lasted longer!

May 6th, 2014 – Car Crash Design Challenge

Andras Nagy Community, Experiential Learning No Comments

On Tuesday, May 6th students of The YMCA Academy participated in a challenge that simulated a car crash safety system. After a brief presentation to describe the concepts, teams of students were asked to design and build “crumple zones” using a variety of simple materials such as straws, elastics and paper. These were tested using a miniature car running on a track into a wall to simulate a frontal collision. An accelerometer was used to measure how quickly the car came to a stop in order to assess how effective the crumple zones would be at protecting the car’s passengers.

Congratulations to Marco, Tegan, Emma and Mikaela who were our top team. They were able to reduce the rate of deceleration from 40g to 2.25g. (One “g” is the equivalent to the acceleration due to gravity, which is 9.81 meters per second squared.)

 

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Apr 30th, 2014 – Lunch and Learn (Can YA Love)

YMCA Academy Community, Environmental Stewardship, Events 1 Comment

The Global Awareness Team and the Geography class hosted a Lunch and Learn on Wednesday April 30th. Randy from Can YA Love shared information with students and staff about the organization he co-founded. His organization is dedicated to creating a global community that believes in helping people sustain the basic necessities of life. To achieve this goal, Can Ya Love builds and develops gardening systems that can thrive in some of the harshest and most densely populated environments on Earth. Topics at the Lunch and Learn included; arable land loss, modern agriculture, desertification, urban development and slum living, global population/demographics, and how we can actually turn this situation around.

Randy also discussed his current research where he will be growing swiss chard. Knowing this the Global Awareness Team decided to cook a special creation – cheese quesadillas with the a swiss chard topping! While Randy spoke, we dined on delicious and healthy food made by the students.

Randy is currently part of a research project gathering data on how much food can be grown in a 9 square foot space. But before the research could begin, he needed a place to grow the seedlings. The YMCA Academy students (Geography class and Resource class) spent 3rd period preparing pots and soil in preparation to planting swish chard.

Our worm cast came from our worm bins that the school has been looking after for 3 years. The casts were taken out and new bins were prepared for our wiggly friends. We mixed coir, compost, potting soil and worm casts into a rich blend of soil, which was distributed into many pots donated from several families. (Thank you again for your on-going support!) The seeds that we sowed today will be looked after by our students for 4 weeks and then transplanted into vertical gardens for this research project. In the fall, we will have an opportunity to find out how our plants did and how much was produced in such a small space.

We look forward to watching our seedlings grow and don’t be surprised if in 4 short weeks, a small swish chard makes its way to your home. All students who helped with the plantings will be offered a plant. The Academy was very appreciative that Randy could take the time to come and share his meaningful work with us. It is important to be reminded of the ever-growing global disparities and learn about practical ways we can contribute to creating positive change.


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