Constructing Cold Frames

Rein Tammemagi Environmental Stewardship, Healthy Living, Science and Math No Comments


Teaching a course like Green Industries can be tricky in the fall season, headed into a cold Canadian winter, as a big emphasis of the course involves growing plants. This presented a perfect opportunity to introduce the concept of “cold frames”, which allow gardeners to keep growing crops outside even in Canadian winters. What’s more, we were able to upcycle the pallets that we had our soil delivered on, and use them as the material to construct our cold frame. Waste management is another emphasis of the course, and learning about reusing materials to build something practical and productive, as opposed to sending them to a landfill is a win-win-win. Stay tuned to see how our crops flourish in the next month!

Planting Native Species With the TRCA

Rein Tammemagi Beyond the Classroom, Environmental Stewardship, Science and Math No Comments


After being put to work outside in the cold rain and ice, during many of our Green Industries classes, I was hoping that Mother Nature would make it up to us for our trip to a natural area in Etobicoke to team up with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA). Fortunately, we were treated to a sunny day and 18*C weather. The sun energized our group as we spent 2 hours of hours planting a variety of different native plant species, while learning the importance of establishing and propagating such species for ecosystem health and improving biodiversity. The students worked hard, and were rewarded with leftover halloween candy and lunch at the Sherway Gardens food court. The TRCA crew was so impressed with our effort and attitude that they are eager to maintain a partnership with our school and excited to invite us back out to a variety of different efforts and initiatives that they’re working on around the city.

Check out more photos from this event on our Facebook page!

Middle School Paints and Plants

John Cuthbert Environmental Stewardship, Experiential Learning No Comments

The start of this school year looks a little different than those that have past, but the Middle Schoolers at The YMCA Academy started the year by bridging the gap between in-school and online learning experiences with a community building activity. Whether in person or on the web, students shared the experience of painting pots and planting their own plant. Students learned how plants can benefit mental health and promote learning, and over the school year, they will continue to learn about and care for their green friends.

Academy Hosts Workshop About Healthy Eating

YMCA Academy English and Humanities, Environmental Stewardship, Experiential Learning, Healthy Living No Comments

students in classroom participating in presentation

Last Friday, the Academy’s Grade 11/12 Workplace English class and Food and Nutrition class took part in a workshop about healthy eating, and about how millions and millions of animals are being killed for the food that we eat. Tracey Timmins from the Educated Choices Program explained what we consider food and what we do not consider food, and the health risks of food.

Tracy talked about how animals were slowly being led into slaughterhouses to be killed for food. She also talked about how killing animals can have major impacts on the environment. “It’s important to learn where food comes from,” says Russell, an English student. “It made me feel more motivated to make changes in my daily life to save the environment.”

It is really important to learn these things so you know where your food is coming from. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat meat. You can have a balance with meat and things that are not meat. If you feel like you don’t want to eat meat, that is your choice, but this is something that you should know about. “I feel like we organized this, because students everywhere need to learn about animals, and why we need food every day to survive,” says Lucas, another English student. This presentation is helpful, because it teaches everyone how to live a better life and feel happier.

The presentation happened so that we could learn how to eat healthy and save the environment which you can click to view here. It’s important because the presenter talked about how we should eat less meat and more healthy foods. “I think this topic is very important because we are killing animals for our food and it is also having an impact on our diet and health,” says Russell.

“I felt sad and angry at the same time,” says Lucas. “I felt like I had to take action by following Tracy’s presentation facts and details of making the world a better place.”

A student named Cole concluded, “The presentation impacted me, because even though animals do get killed for food, it’s wrong to just take a bunch of animals into a horrible place and just murder them. I also think that we should take a stand. Animals are nature. Without nature, there won’t be anymore animals to take care of. I realized when I was watching this presentation that I can choose to eat less meat and more plant-based things.”

– By the Grade 11/12 Workplace English class

Royal Agricultural Winter Fair

Todd Harrison Beyond the Classroom, Environmental Stewardship, Events, Healthy Living, Science and Math No Comments

Dogs with superpowers, a ketchup race, amazing animals, delicious food, and a whole lot of fun: Academy students from four very different classes came together to experience all this, and much more, earlier this month at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.

The Royal is a longstanding Toronto tradition, and a fantastic place to extend learning through experiential opportunities that activate (literally) all the senses. This also means that it’s perfect for cross-curricular learning; at a seminar hosted by faculty and students from the Centre for Food at Durham College, we learned about how ketchup is made — including investigations of chemical processes, food science and safety standards, career connections, and sensory feedback. It was a supercharged lesson for our students from the Food and Nutrition, Grade 10 Science, Career Studies, and Grade 11 English classes.

At the Academy, we’re constantly working to find ways large and small to break down the walls of the classroom and provide authentic learning experiences. And when we can combine that with free cheese samples and a pack of adorable Superdogs? Well, that’s absolute perfection.

Check out more photos from this event on our Facebook page!