Pickle Farm Construction

YMCA Academy Environmental Stewardship, Experiential Learning No Comments

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A group of collaborators from The YMCA Academy, The YMCA of Greater Toronto, Greenwood College, Rebekka Hutton of Alchemy Pickles and artist Micah Donovan were involved in developing a living sculpture capable of growing food. We came together to create a unique form of sculpture that will yield chard, cucumbers, radishes, carrots, herbs and other plants capable of transforming into pickles, chutneys, and preserves.

 

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On February 19, 2015, we came together for one final session to put the final sculpture together.
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We created our own special blend of soil using coir, worm casts from our in-house worm condo, and composted yard waste.
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We planted in the clay pieces that we created last semester and chose what will be our first harvest and took special care labelling what was planted and arranging the pots in the sculpture. 

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A special thank-you to the numerous people who have worked so hard over the years to make this day a reality. We will see you in a couple of months for an update on our harvest.

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The Academy visits CBC News

YMCA Academy Experiential Learning, Technology No Comments

Students from the Grade 9 English and Grade 10 Communications Technology classes went on a field trip last week to CBC News. We went there so we can see the jobs they have at the CBC, and maybe think about working there some day. At the CBC we met a lot of people, and visited a lot of newsrooms and a big elevator.

Some of the highlights of our trip included:

  • David Common doing a live broadcast and telling us about his life (Zachary)
  • when we went the radio station (Patricia)
  • when the class went in the green screen room and played with the green screen (Lucas)
  • everything, especially the robot that goes around delivering mail to people in the news station (Adam)

We learned a lot about the different jobs you can do at CBC.

  • The job I would like to do at CBC is being a radio announcer host. (Zachary)
  • The job that I most like to do at the CBC is being the news reporter, because I like doing the news so people can find out what’s going on in the world. (Patricia)
  • The job that I most like to do at the CBC is being a radio announcer or host because I like being on the radio. (Lucas)
  • I would like to be a camera operator because you work with cameras. (Adam)

Field trips like this are good because we can experience more. Reading gives you some details, but going to a place actually gives you more details. We get to live the experience of seeing people doing their jobs, and choose a job you want to do off of that.

Thanks to Mark and everyone at the CBC for welcoming us!

Written by:

Zach DS.
Lucas H.
Patricia R.
Adam V.
and Todd Harrison

Art Gallery of Ontario 2014

YMCA Academy Arts, Experiential Learning, Native Studies No Comments

The Grade 9 Expressing Aboriginal Cultures class visited the Art Gallery of Ontario on a snowy morning this week.  We toured around the Canadian Exhibition which features some gems by the Group of Seven and also saw two original paintings by the Eastern Woodlands master Norval Morriseau.  At the end of the trip we got to step into the dark and mysterious projection booth in the Jackman Hall theatre.  Old fashioned film is heavy!

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Elephant Toothpaste Lab

Zareh Demirdji Experiential Learning, Science and Math No Comments

Learning about the 6 types of chemical reactions is not always exciting for everyone, especially if it is done solely through practice worksheets. Furthermore, simply discussing and being able to recognise the different types of chemical reactions can be somewhat intimidating to most students.

But life is not always about remembering equations and formulas, because let’s face it; most students forget the majority of the equations and formulas they have learned once they leave the walls of educational institutions. If, however, you can help students see through the equations and formulas and how they apply to the world they experience around them, they will remember that for many years after they have forgotten the formulas and equations.

In order to bring the chemistry from the whiteboard and worksheets to life, we look at a real-time example of a decomposition reaction. We take a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and add to it a few drops of food colouring (for effect) and a few drops of liquid dish soap (for the wow factor). In years past, we have added yeast to speed up the reaction, but this year we tried potassium iodide and a higher concentration solution of hydrogen peroxide for a bigger and better effect. Alas, as happens in science from time to time, the reaction was no different than years past, however, the what the students witnessed still evoked the usual oohs and aahs as the oxygen produced from the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide quickly expanding the soap bubbles in the solution and quickly foamed up and over the graduated cylinder.

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Evergreen Downsview Park

YMCA Academy Environmental Stewardship, Experiential Learning No Comments

On October 10, the Academy set out for its first of two annual tree planting outings at Downsview Park for this school year’s Evergreen environmental stewardship. Although it was a bit cold at times, the beautiful, blue, and sunny sky made up for it in the long run. Our first visit had us planting some small trees, and as always, mulching. After enjoying lunch under sunny skies, we went back to planting, and for the first time ever in the Academy’s history at Evergreen Downsview, we got to plant large, 12 foot trees. Due to their size, we had to dig really massive and deep holes, which was quite time consuming, and so we were only able plant two of them. In all, the trip was one of the most successful ones to date, and we hope to top this experience in May.

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