Community and Service

 

Since the AOI Community and Service faculty training given by Dinos back in August progress has been made in this area. It has helped us all to be more aware and motivated towards Community and Service. G10 students have been thinking, planning, participating and reflecting on their ideas for Community and Service as part of the MYP requirement. New planning forms and rubrics have been created this year as a record for students’ participation in activities. One of the many successes in semester 1 has been the school wide involvement in the Kenya appeal, which culminated in a trip by our students to Bingwa in October, where they helped to build a much needed classroom. Middle school students now have the opportunity to be pen pals to their peers in Bingwa. This is now an ongoing Community and Service commitment.

G10 students organised the successful shoe box appeal of 90 boxes to send to children abroad just in time for Christmas. This is an activity that we hope will continue next year too. In Middle School Grade 7 students collected seeds and money to send to the Hatcliffe Extension Homeless Alliance in Zimbabwe. Grade 6 students organised the Salvation Army can drive at the end of last year and Middle school students together collected 530 cans. Also Grade 6-8 students participated in the ‘Give up to Give’ campaign to raise money for the Salvation Army to buy needy children presents for Christmas.

MS students have had presentations in their assemblies on Community and Service. They have completed their Community and Service surveys and reflections for quarter 1. The students have also thought about how they can be involved outside school in their local or global communities. The whole school united to raise funds for the Haiti appeal. HS students were keen to be involved in the planning, setting up and coordinating the project.

A large Community and Service notice board is now up on the wall in Cedar. Take a look at the places to go and see. Students are beginning to recommend their favourite places to visit and add them to a map of the area.

Karen McAvoy

Environments

 

The Environments Area of Interaction has been a focus in many Science classes around campus. The 10th grade students attended Epping Forest Field Centre to participate in a Woodland Ecology course to enhance the Grade 10 Ecology unit. Students learned and participated in labs pertaining to pond habitats, including aquatic invertebrates and vegetation. Students learned how to pond dip and obtain samples of invertebrates in open water, vegetation, and detritus. After gaining the knowledge about possible testing methods and how invertebrates are indicators of ecological health, students returned to school in order to design an inquiry ecology lab.

Eighth grade students completed some research about renewable sources of energy: biomass, hydroelectric, hydrogen fuel cells, geothermal and solar. They were responsible for finding information about this energy source as it pertained to science and investigated a variety of factors, such as economics, ethical, social, environmental and political. Students created posters, to present to the rest of the class, making sure to focus on the benefits and limitations of this energy source.

Susan Corrigan

Human Ingenuity

 

The Human Ingenuity area of interaction has been very busy as all Middle School students have taken part in an advisory activity culminating in a competition with results displayed on the Maple noticeboard. The competition involved all students getting into small groups and only with a small volume of newspapers creating a freestanding architectural structure that was inspired from three existing structures and buildings of their choice. Some of the entries were outstanding and very clever. Watch this space for the winning entry.

Alan Perkins