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371 Arthur St. S., ELMIRA, ON | 519-669-3232 Ontario's #1 Weekly Community Newspaper
OCTOBER 14, 2021
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Elmira, Ontario, Canada | observerxtra.com | Volume 26 | Issue 41
Arts | 14
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Woolwich taking part in mock election to test online voting Brock University political scientist has students examining Neuvote technology Steve Kannon Observer Staff
WOOLWICH RESIDENTS HAVE A CHANCE to be involved in a practice run for a new technology designed to make online voting more secure. The mock vote that runs through tomorrow (Friday) is a project of Brock University political science professor Nicole Goodman. Students in her Canadian Politics in the Digital Age course will be monitoring the experience of those using a verified voting system developed by Kitchener-based Neuvote. The technology allows for voters to essentially track their vote through the process, providing verification of the ballots they’ve cast. While Ontario municipalities have been using electronic voting since 2003 and the technology has been expanding, the new software takes security to a new level, said Goodman. “The neat feature about this technology is that it will give you a ballot
tracker ID where you’ll be able to track your ballot to essentially verify that it was cast as you intended it to be. And it also gives you a receipt, which you can print and get a paper receipt,” said Goodman. “This has been kind of unheard of, as you always hear people criticize online voting and say that there’s no ability for a paper trail. With the ability to print receipts, that can create a paper trail.” Goodman’s students will take part in voting and then assess the experience. Working in groups, the students will examine the election’s accessibility, security and privacy, turnout and convenience, election evaluation and user experience. “It’s really a fantastic learning experience for my students, but I also think it’ll be great to see if people, when they’re using this technology, does this mean that they will trust online voting more? There are some people that are going to trust it no matter what, but others might → ONLINE VOTE 4
EDSS teacher Kevin Hodd (right) with some of his students who built mud kitchens for St. Jacobs Public School.
Justine Fraser
EDSS students learn on the job for kindies Tech and construction Grade 11/12 students build outdoor kitchens for St. Jacobs PS Justine Fraser Observer Staff
IT’S BEEN A LONG, TOUGH road for students the past year and a half. As they started to get back to the swing of things, a group of EDSS students jumped at the chance to develop a new project that saw them create something for the younger generation. EDSS teacher Kevin Hodd coached his students through the
woodworking project, which had the added advantage of providing them with some new skills. “The students were building mud kitchens for the kindergarten class at St. Jacobs Public School. They were excited – it’s something we don’t normally get to do. When the principal reached out to us, it was a project we were willing to take on. It’s something outside the norm in this class, but it’s something we enjoyed and
something we’d do in the future. It was a great project for them” explained Hodd. The students who created the outdoor mud kitchen for the St Jacobs kindergarteners were a group of Grade 11 and 12s taking a construction tech class at the Elmira high school. It took them close to a week to create two versions of the wooden kitchens, which consist of wooden features such as a countertop attached
to a wooden backdrop. They were able to find a sink and measured out the wood to fit around it perfectly, he added. The class features lessons about construction, tech and woodworking, making this an interesting project for the high school students to take on, said Hodd. In the construction class students will typically learn useful skills they can apply later such as framing → EDSS 5
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