Stakeholders in the Leave it to Beavers project met recently to reflect on fall visits and to plan ahead for spring and beyond.Rachelle Haddock from the Miistakis Institute summarized the fall program including the great news that a few ‘nuisance’ beaver were located and trapped to be introduced to the reservoir. http://www.rockies.ca/blog/?p=697 New Resident to Goodwin… Continue reading Leave it to Beavers Project Update
Mission Impossible Our grade 8’s have been trying to avoid our motion detectors this week in their study of how light is reflected, transmitted and absorbed by different materials. Our school has several motion detectors as a part of our alarm system, the students were challenged by their teachers to avoid detection. A motion detection… Continue reading Grade 8 Light and Optical Systems
Parent Guest Blogger Denise Kitagawa Click here to visit “Out and About with the GeoKs” Our first visit to the Cross Conservation Area Pine Creek watershed was back in June. Against a backdrop of tall, green grass and leafy trees, a multitude of insects, toads and birds blessed us with natural “music” over the course of… Continue reading Bringing Beavers Back to the Cross Conservation Area – Site Visit #2
CSS Math & Science Inquiry Projects Database Our Math and Science Team has created a Google Doc to house a database of inquiry projects that they will use throughout the year. The goal of this database is to provide a place where teachers within the school and ultimately, teachers from outside the school, can see… Continue reading Math & Science Inquiry Projects
On September 11, 2012 eight of our grade 8 students walked to Mount Royal University to assist with an Google Apps orientation for new Education students. We were contacted by Dr. Norm Vaughn, who sits on the Calgary Science School board, to come and help his students in using the different applications that our students as so familiar… Continue reading Students Teaching the Student Teachers
-by Kevin Sonico “Show me your ‘thinking’.” “Explain your process.” These are two statements that are often used to encourage students to communicate their strategies in solving a word problem. In my experience, what is often produced, written, and described are algorithms, equations, and other symbolic representations. Rarely have students submitted strategies that comprised of… Continue reading Action Research: The Model Method in Solving Word Problems
-by Dave Scott, Grade 8 Humanities This year one of the goals of the Grade 8 team was to undertake an interdisciplinary unit that brought together the four core subject areas of math, science, language arts, and social studies. With the aid of Erin Couillard, PD and outreach coordinator, after an afternoon planning session seeking… Continue reading Thoughts and Viruses Interdisciplinary Inquiry Unit
-by Dave Scott, Grade 8 Humanities Recently grade 8 Humanities students finished an inquiry unit that brought together an independent novel study with the creation of their own magazine. For this project students were asked to select a novel of their choice and work through a series of four writing assignments listed below. Each writing… Continue reading Grade 8 Magazine Project
-by Margaret Leland, Grade 8 Humanities Teacher I found it curious the day after Steve Jobs died that I overheard some of the students wondering who the image on our Apple start page was and, moreover, that they didn’t take the time to investigate. After all, that’s what we do at CSS. I then thought… Continue reading Steve Jobs, Modern Day Renaissance Man?
-by Dave Scott, Grade 8 Humanities This post is part of a four-part series exploring the curricular potential of digital textbooks or what I am calling “Integrated Inquiry Resources.” Read the first blog here for an introduction to the ideas that informed this project as well as the inquiry resource itself. And then a second… Continue reading Student Responses to a Digital Textbook Continued
