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-by Dave Bennett and Katie Haigh As part of our Waste in Our World exploration, grade 4s have been tasked with taking something of little or no value and creating something usable that serves a purpose. The overarching question was … Continue reading Upcycle That! Grade 4 Waste in Our World
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-by Greg Neil, Grade 7 Math/Science Teacher In the Spring of 2014, I was looking for an engaging question that would connect to the Grade 7 Science Unit Ecosystems and Interactions. At the time, I was hearing a lot in … Continue reading An Inquiry into the Northern Gateway Pipeline
By IanV., Trevor B., and Parker S.In April, the grade 8’s had the pleasure of visiting the University of Calgary for a human body performance lab . During this time, we had the opportunity to visit 6 different stations, all with a general focus on human body performance. The reason for this trip, aside from the learning experience, was to judge a university level kinesiology contest. The grade 8 students were provided with a sheet of paper, containing subsections for each station. We were required to provide feedback for each and every station, as well as a mark out of … Continue reading University of Calgary Human Performance Lab
Cynthia Nilsson~ Grade 9 Math/Science Pre-service teacherWerklund School of Education As a graduating student from the Werklund School of Education, experiencing my final practicum experience at Connect Charter, one of my professional goals was to focus on assessment for learning in a real and meaningful way, rather than only assessment of learning. With the support and mentorship of Louis Cheng, I was able to gain experience in implementing assessment for learning in a Grade 9 Math/Science class, by combining feedback loops with outcomes based assessment. The use of a system of feedback loops has been particularly effective throughout a long … Continue reading Outcomes Based Assessment and Feedback Loops
Our Science Communication Club are looking for opportunities to share their knowledge and demonstrations this spring. We would like to support their hard work in helping to find schools, centres, malls or other venues where they can safely demonstrate some of what they have been working on this year. If you are interested in hosting our club or have questions about the project, please email dan.m@connectcharter.ca Continue reading Science Communication Opportunity
Our grade 4 and 7 classes are collaborating this year in the Classroom Energy Diet Challenge. The students have been assembled into small combined teams where each takes up the different challenges. Our grade 7 students have taken up these leadership roles, and below is a blog post written by a grade 4 and 7 pair. They could earn up to 15 points for their team! Energy Diet (Letter to the editor)By: T and P What are different types of energy sources? And which one is best for our environment? Sun Solar panels generate electricity from the sun. The old solar panels were made of … Continue reading Energy Diet- A student post
-by Erin Couillard, Lisa Nelson, Carolyn Armstrong and Carly DeBoice For our Aerodynamics and Flight unit this year, we decided to begin with students gaining an understanding of the properties of air, as outlined by the Alberta Program of Studies. To do this, students would be paired with a peer and assigned a property of air to investigate. They would then choose a demonstration that best explains/proves that specific property of air. To begin with, we chose a small demonstration to do for them. This had two purposes. First, to construct a criteria around what an effective science demonstration looks … Continue reading Property of Air Demonstrations, Grade 6
-by Louis Cheng and Cindy Nilsson Today the grade 9 students were given a series of instructions to complete a Master Chef Electricity Challenge. In teams of four, they were provided a box of electrical supplies and had 10 minutes to begin researching how to build some circuits. After their research time, they had to put away their laptops and textbooks to attempt to build the following: A series circuit A parallel circuit Two way and three way switches – a three way switch is the kind of switch you might have in your house, where two different switches in … Continue reading Master Chef Electricity Challenge, Grade 9
Heather Melville- Grade 4 Math and Science In July 2013, I had the privilege to work with students, teachers, Galileo Network experts and researchers at the University of Calgary. (Brent Davis – Professor and chair of mathematics education, Krista Francis Poscente – IOSTEM Director). We met in May to discuss the research portion of the spatial reasoning project. In that one day in May I discovered the importance of spatial reasoning as I went through my own testing and problem solving activities. I learned very quickly that this is a skill that needs to be taught and explored throughout our … Continue reading Spatial Reasoning
Flower Pounding in Grade 4Marla Paxton~ Grade 4 Math and Science Prep Time – A weekend (with breaks) to treat and prepare fabricLesson – Approximately 4-5 classes. My partner teacher Heather Melville and I wanted to look at the way we took up Plant Growth & Change this year so the grade 4‘s made a lot of noise exploring the parts of a flower. It all started with a picture book by Dianna Hutts Aston & Sylvia Long, A Seed is Sleepy. Students looked at how seeds were sleepy, secretive, fruitful, adventurous, inventive, generous, ancient, thirsty, hungry, clever, and even … Continue reading Plant Growth and Changes