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Heritage Academy was buzzing last week in celebration of Earth Day! From our Plant Sale, to lights off all week, to a DIY environmentally friendly household cleaner workshop, to our wasteless lunches, to STEAM (Science, Technology, Art and Mathematics) activities and an extended recess - we all certainly gave back to our Earth and enjoyed all that nature has to offer. Along with these great activities, some students also took part in cleaning up our neighbourhood.
Mr. Nathan Boersma along with his Grade 7's designed, tested and built paper cars using: 4 lifesavers, 3 straws, 2 paper clips, 1 piece of paper, and 50 centimeters of tape. Each student had a 30 minute time limit to complete their cars. They then raced their cars in timed trials, powered by only their breath.
Ms. Emily MacPherson and Mr. Aaron Clark along with their Grades 4 & 5's had the STEAM/team building challenge of constructing a tower of cups using only the supplies given. The students were not allowed to touch the supplies with their hands and couldn't verbally communicate with their teammates.
Ms. Emily MacPherson and Ms. Carlee Duchesne led their Grade 1-3's in the creating and building their own parachute system that would have helped Jack from Jack in the Beanstalk land safely on the ground.
Ms. Christine Lane and Ms. Pimenta along with their Grade 4 & 5's had a series of STEAM challenges to rotate to. From bridge building, to boat building, to Lego building challenges the students were very engaged! Each student also had to come up with something they wanted to design. They planned out their design, wrote up a report about its purpose, the environmental effects it could have, the shapes it would use and the properties of matter it had. They then they drew their designs either on paper, by using Minecraft or by using Paint on the computer. Once they finalized their design they gathered classroom materials to create it!
Ms. Amanda Carr and the Grade 9 students had to create a replica of the Eiffel Tower using nothing but straws, tape, and scissors. They would be judged on the strength of their structure, its size, and how much it looks like the Eiffel Tower. The winner would then win gum ball machines for both members of the team! A picture of the Eiffel Tower was provided for a reference.
Ms. Amanda Carr and the Grade 12 students had to make a paper airplane that could fly across the room, then they had to start adding quarters to their plane in an attempt to weigh it down. The plane that was able to still fly and carry the most amount of money across the room won a $10 Tim Hortons gift card!
Mr. Philip Joly and Mr. Phillip Jones led their Secondary students in the STEAM challenge of constructing a sculpture or a device. One student was instructed on how to build the identical device. The other student in the partnership could not watch them construct the device so they had to rely on direct and concise language in order to copy it. The use of clear and concise technical communication was a focus of this challenge.
The Plant Sale helped support a local florist - Wild Willy's (http://www.wildwillysflorist.com) - while raising money Earth Day 2017 campaign of connecting kids to nature through play (https://earthday.ca/ed2017/schools/) #Play4EarthDay @EarthDayCanada
