2 minute read
INSPIRED STUDENTS
Middle School Highlights
classroom furniture, while the students in the arts and crafts group began preparing and creating holiday cards.
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Junior/Middle School Student Committee distributed candygrams during lunch, which students purchased for their classmates in support of PC’s holiday gift card drive. The students raised over $400.
In Grade 8 Science, students met two international scientists—one at the University of California, Los Angeles (USA) and the other at the University of Cambridge (UK)—and asked them questions about their work. Both scientists gave small lessons based on their research and challenged students to expand upon their prior learning. Seeing the real-life applications of their classroom learning inspired several students to consider a future career in science.
Grade 7 students worked at perfecting their French pronunciation and recitation skills by participating in Les Voix de la Poésie This competition, held annually across Canada in both English and French, promotes a love of poetry for students in Grades 6-12. This was the first year that Middle School students participated, and Claire Yao, Grade 7, was selected as the school champion. Claire’s recitation of Tristan Corbière’s Le Crapaud and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ozymandias portrayed immense emotion and a mastery of oratory presentation skills. Her performance earned her a spot representing PC at the National Junior Finals.
Grade 6 explored the Pickering College campus in search of evidence of animals. They discovered many animal tracks, including those of rabbits, squirrels and other small animals. They also examined short-tail shrew tunnels and were lucky enough to see a short-tail shrew go from one tunnel to the next!
Grade 6 students designed, built and wired an arcade game as their culminating activity for the Science electricity unit. Using their knowledge of series and parallel circuits, students created games that incorporated lights, motors and switches. They then spent an afternoon playing one another’s games.
Middle School participated in a Community Pillar Day—a day to think of others and give back to the community. One group of students headed to the Aurora Food Pantry to help sort donations. They learned about why people struggle to buy food, what foods are over-donated, and what types of food are needed.
Middle School students participated in activities related to the four pillars of the Global Leadership Program in Middle School— Adventure, Wisdom, Community and Freedom. Grade 6 students developed plans to use social media to promote wellness, which they pitched to a panel of judges. Grade 7 students learned about traditional voices and skills through the arts of mitten-making and outdoor cooking, and took part in Indigenous lessons on the Medicine Wheel, Dene Games, The Seven Grandfather Teachings and the ongoing drinking water crisis on First Nation Reserves. Grade 8 students focused on being advocates for water access and conservation, with a final project of creating a public service announcement that was viewed and judged in a film-festival setting.
Agnes Yang, Grade 7, took home first place in the Royal Canadian Legion Remembrance Day Poster Contest for Branch 426. Her poster then competed in Zone E2, where it again was awarded first place. Congratulations on your beautiful work of art and recognition!
Grade 7 students participated in a workshop with Kim Wheatley, an Anishinaabe (Ojibway) band member of Shawanaga First Nation Reserve located in the Georgian Bay region of Ontario. She discussed how various First Nations communities within Canada do not have established infrastructure or access to essential resources such as clean drinking water in their local communities. After her workshop, the students wrote letters about reconciliation to members of the federal government, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Tony Van Bynen, the member of Parliament representing Newmarket-Aurora. Students later received responses and were excited to learn that their concerns were acknowledged by federal representatives.
Grade 7 spent time in the Senior Science lab exploring the concept of solubility as part of their unit on pure substances and mixtures. The students were excited to practice lab safety and demonstrate meticulous, analytical lab skills.
