The Chilliwack 3
Progress Thursday
16
News
Scene
7
News
Garden art
Revamped
Ecovillage
Making art from junk for Sunshine Community Garden.
Echo Room makes some changes.
Breaking ground for the next phase.
Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • T H U R S D AY, J U LY 1 8 , 2 0 1 3
Human-caused wildfire on Cultus Lake cliff contained Jennifer Feinberg The Progress
Dense smoke rising out of the woods at the south end of Cultus Lake grew into a wildfire Monday night that was a little over a hectare in size by Tuesday. Overnight rains helped by Wednesday, and it was fully contained. Crews with the Coastal Fire Centre report that the fire near Lindell Beach was 60 per cent contained on Tuesday morning, said information officer Donna MacPherson. The fire near a popular cliff diving area was determined to be human-caused since there were no lightning strikes in the area recently, she said. The fire measured 1.3 ha and the crews were in mop-up mode yesterday. Firefighting aircraft, called air tankers, were battling the blaze Tuesday afternoon, near the Lindell Beach area. There was a unit crew of 20 dispatched, with a rappel crew of three, and the use of a boat from BC Parks. Air tankers and helicopters were buzzing over the lake since Monday night, dropping fire retardant and buckets of water in an effort to contain the blaze. They asked residents and boaters to stay out of the path of the aircraft and boats at work. There were no evacuations from the cliff face, and no injuries reported. jfeinberg@theprogress.com Twitter.com/chwkjourno
Summer school takes new approach Alina Konevski The Progress
For middle school students who failed a subject during the year, the days of simply redoing the class during summer are over in Chilliwack. This year, the Chilliwack school district is trying something new with its summer learning programming. Instead of taking a specific summer school course, such as Grade 7 math or English, students enrolled in summer learning take a ‘summit course,’ in which they spend the morning for four weeks in July to cover math, English, social studies,
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People watch from a boat as crews battle the wildfire. DAVID MARQUET PHOTO
Freedom Smart (left) and Stefanny Collazos Garcia are both taking the Chilliwack school district’s summer learning program at Vedder middle school. Freedom is taking it to complete her grade, whereas Stefanny is there to preview her upcoming Grade 7 courses. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
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science, and a daily physical activity (DPA) such as soccer or yoga. “It’s a new wave of thinking we’ve incorporated into summer learning. Our belief is that if students are struggling in one academic area, most likely they are struggling in others,” said Paul Allanson, summer learning acting vice-principal. Students who fail a class are likely disconnected from school and struggling in other subjects, the theory goes, and a rounded-out supplemental program would serve them better. The change in format comes after several years of study, including watching how well a similar pro-
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gram in Maple Ridge has done. The provincially funded summit course is available to students coming out of Grade 7, 8, and 9, as well as Grade 6 students who want to preview the upcoming grade’s offerings. While English and math are taught in blocks of time, students spend 1.5 hours a day on a project of their choosing, which counts for their social studies and science learning. The project could be anything from researching black bears to compiling a list of recreation options in the Fraser Valley. “We’ve come up with a theme for them. They design the question, they design the research
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project around that question. That takes in a lot of the English, math, and the science and social studies aspects, and it really makes it personalized learning for themselves,” said Allanson. This month’s summit course includes fully funded field trips to a rock climbing gym in Abbotsford, a hike up Teapot Hill, and a walk to the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve. Students pass or fail the program as a whole, so someone who struggles in math must only succeed in the other subjects in order to complete the summit course. Continued: LEARNING/ p25
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