The Lens of Peace

Brydie Smith Beyond the Classroom, English and Humanities, Experiential Learning No Comments


In November, the Super Sciences combined forces (peacefully!) to investigate images of peace in the community. Brydie’s class introduced relationships while Megan’s class introduced how light forms images as we reflected on historic, present and future relationships in our global society. The classes collaborated in building camera obscuras! The students in the photograph (not taken with our cameras!) are building the cameras. The aperture collected the light and the tinfoil covering the aperture helped to reflect onto the surface of the wax paper. The light rays, traveling in a straight diagonal direction, inverted the image onto the wax paper that acted as a window to the world. The idea was to reflect on how we create ideas of peace from diverse perspectives. We captured images of peace through drawing and actively reflected on what is peace in our society as we engaged in a brisk walk through the city streets.

Neighbourhood Civics Tour

Brandon Stewart Beyond the Classroom, English and Humanities, Experiential Learning No Comments


This Fall, the Canadian Civics and Citizenship class took a walking tour around the neighbourhood to see how frequently they could find evidence of the three levels of government within walking distance of our school. The answer surprised many of the students who did not realize how often they came in direct contact with the different levels of government.

The Civics and Citizenship students noted that they found examples of Municipal government the most often, but that very important features of the Provincial government were also within walking distance of the school. The Federal government was the least frequently found level of our government, though there was one great example right in front of our school doors.

Examples of the Municipal government in our neighbourhood included sewers and storm drains, public trash bins, sidewalks, street lights, traffic signals, crosswalks, parks, Toronto Police Services, community notice signs, public transportation, restaurant public health passes, bike lockups, fire hydrants, fire stations, city speed limits, and parking signs.

In our search, students found examples of the Provincial government in our neighbourhood including license plates, universities, high schools, and the Ontario Provincial Parliament, hospitals, and provincial ministry buildings.

The best example of the Federal Government being present in our neighbourhood was a Canada Post service box.

Students saw first hand how frequently they interact with their governments, and how much those government services impact our daily lives.

Worms Compost Food Waste in Middle School

John Cuthbert Environmental Stewardship, Experiential Learning, Science and Math No Comments


Vermicomposting began by setting up two worm bins on the Academy’s main floor, preparing a habitat for the wiggly decomposers before placing them in their new home. From here, students used the worm bins to deepen their understanding of natural and human-made systems, learn worm anatomy, graph and analyze waste management and much more! The amazing vermicomposter was the perfect tool for integrating multiple curricula at the start of the middle school’s Living Things and the Land unit.

Extracting and isolating DNA from strawberry cells

Megan Steciw Experiential Learning, Science and Math No Comments


What is DNA? DNA is a molecule that contains the genetic code for our proteins. The students in the Grade 11 Biology class were actively lysing strawberry cells to extract and isolate DNA from the nuclei of strawberry cells. The scientists in training first used detergent to break into the cell membrane then lastly used ethanol alcohol to precipitate the DNA from solution. A sample of DNA was collected and observed under the microscope. The students recorded many observations while asking several inquiry questions throughout the DNA investigation. Everyone has been investigating the genetic code and the experiment was a great opportunity to observe DNA in living cells.

The Power of Words

Brydie Smith English and Humanities, Experiential Learning, Healthy Living 1 Comment

During the first week of Dynamics of Human Relationships, we spent a lot of time learning about self-esteem, self-concept, and how the two factor into healthy relationships. We took a closer look at how our self-esteem can play a role in what we post on our social media accounts, as well as how our self confidence impacts how we interpret what we see online. During these lessons, we had many open discussions in which students shared some factors that influence their self-perceptions. Students shared stories from the past and present, disclosing incidents of bullying, social trends, and online activity. One student shared of an incident dating back to grade 4 and detailed how she still carries the hurtful comments from almost a decade ago. In order to show the lasting impact of hurtful comments and negative self talk, we participated in a class activity.

We started the activity by each taking one crisp, clean, blank sheet of paper. We then took turns “bullying” and talking negatively to our paper, crumpling the paper with each hurtful comment. We heard comments such as “you will never find love”, “you are worthless”, “you are dirty” and “you are weak”. We stopped bullying our pieces of paper once we had them crumpled up into small balls. We then took it in turns to apologize to the piece of paper for what we had said and tried to flatten the paper back out with each apology. We ended up with creased, ripped, holey and damaged pieces of paper. Despite how much we apologized, we could not fully erase the damage that we had done.

The students seemed to connect with this activity and appreciate the visual aid of irreparable damage. Not only is this an important lesson for when we’re talking to and about others, but it’s also important to recognize that the effects of negative self-talk can be just as long lasting and influential to our self-esteem.