As part of the Grade 8 class tradition, students exchanged gifts with their Secret Santa. The Grade 8s also received beautiful cards from their Reading Buddies!
During this Christmas season, students celebrated the "reason for the season" by creating nativity trios out of wood, paint, styrofoam, and fabric. While waiting for the paint to dry, students also created Christmas cards with a few button ornaments...
Scientist Elisa returned this year for our "Fluid Power" workshop. In the first activity, students explored how fluids have different densities. Next, students had a "fluid race" to determine whether the density and viscosity of a fluid are related (they aren't). For a special challenge, students had to figure out how to make a penny and a carrot float in water using salt, water, a cup, and spoon. Finally, students investigated whether a hydraulic (liquid powered) or pneumatic (gas powered) system was stronger. Turns out that hydraulic systems are much stronger as liquids cannot be compressed as much as gasses, allowing the input force to travel more quickly.
"Instant" Synopsis: After viewing the play "Instant" at Young People's Theatre, we had our post-show workshop at YPT with Mark again. We first discussed the characters and themes in this affecting play. Mark then facilitated a variety of activities, based on the play, which allowed students' to better understand the characters' perspectives and behaviours in an online environment. To break tension, Mark ended on a lighter note, starting with"silly walks"!
In the afternoon, Mrs. Anton facilitated a coding workshop using Sphero, a set of programmable spheres that can be controlled through the use of an app to move in various directions. After learning how to use the app to write lines of code, students participated in a competition to see if they could move their sphere through a maze without knocking over any lego pieces (which formed the "walls" of the maze). Coding with Sphero
In preparation for viewing YPT's stage play, Instant, Mark, from YPT, came to our school to facilitate a pre-show workshop on the themes from the play, in particular the implications of social media as it relates to cyber-bullying and how social media affects the ways in which we communicate with one another and portray ourselves to others online. In groups, students first practiced creating tableaux of eating. Next, students created tableaux of a scene from a holiday or trip they might take. Mark then asked students to recreate the scene but to pretend they were taking a selfie of the event to post online. The difference in how the scene was portrayed changed dramatically as people constructed their "online identities". In the next activity, students were asked to imagine their own product or online platform, and to create a short scene to advertise how it works and its benefits, with hilarious results! For the final activity, students were asked to have a conversation with another person without facing them to simulate the type of conversations held in an online environment. The importance of tone in conversations became evident.
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June 2023
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