Monthly Archives: January 2013

10 Great Things to Talk About

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1. Mr. Buhler (student teacher from SFU) is back with Div 18 and he is now teaching full time.  He is teaching Math 7, Humanities and Science with Ms. Moody’s class, and PE.  Ms. Moody is continuing to work with the grade 6/7’s on their Science Fair projects and with her class in French.

2. Div 17 & 18 are very fortunate to have a French Language Monitor helping once a week in our classes.  Mamady will be working with Ms. Moody’s class on Mondays and Ms. Abbot’s class on Wednesdays.  He is supporting the oral language component of the French curriculum.  Students reviewed introducing themselves, their family and their interests and then had a chance to play pictionary en francais.

3. Half of the MACC 6/7 students signed up for a two session workshop on Physical Theatre at Evergreen Cultural Centre.  Students learned some basic techniques and then went back this Friday to share skits and then revise their skits.  Students will be writing a blog post about the workshops.

4. Last Friday, the grade 8’s presented a Medieval Feast.  The grade 6/7’s had the chance to observe part of the feast.  The students enjoyed seeing the grade 8’s dancing and acting in their roles.  Some of the highlights were seeing some of the grade 8 MACC students piping, being jesters and puppeteers, and dancing.

5. Currently in PE students are split by gender.  The girls have finished two weeks playing table tennis and the boys have finished two weeks of basketball.  Next week, boys will begin table tennis and girls will begin basketball.

6. The Explorations term finished on Friday – students will be starting their new classes on Monday.  Dramus will go to Art; Tech Ed will go to Dramus. Some Tech Ed projects are viewable here.

7. In HCE, grade 6’s have started a unit exploring overexcitabilities (based on research by Dabrowski).  “Dabrowski’s work has become of great interest to educators concerned with the social and emotional development of gifted students. It has been my experience that helping gifted middle school students understand his concept of overexcitabilities gives them increased insight into their personality traits and reassures them that they are not alone in some of their feelings and reactions,” explains Cindy Strickland. A great list of resources is available here.

8. Last week, grade 6/7’s went to Vanier Park and the HR MacMillan Planetarium.  Please see the two student blog posts about our day here and here.

9. Next week, remember that Wednesday is a Spirit Day.  Students are encouraged to wear any sports jersey that they may have whether it is a local sports team they play on or professional sports team.  If you don’t have a jersey, wear your favourite teams colours.

10.  As we are still in the cold and flu season, we are encouraging students to wash their hands frequently and to sneeze or cough into their elbow and not their hands.  If your son or daughter might need tissues because of a runny nose or Spring hayfever, please send a box of tissues to school with them.

 

MACC Goes to the Planetarium

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On Jan.17, 2013 Ms. Moody’s and Ms. Abbot’s classes explored the wonders of Vancouver’s space center. While there we did many exciting things including an informative movie, a demonstration on how make fire change colour and a stroll in the park. Here is a summary of our fun time at the space centre.

When we first got there we admired a large steel crab. We were then brought inside and taken to the screen dome in which we watched the night sky. We learned about the creation of the universe, telescopes, how stars are created and how to find stars like Polaris also known as the North Star.  We had a short break then watched another little video about how ancient civilizations tracked the stars and what important discoveries they made. We had another break then continued on to the cosmic courtyard which had some very interesting things like the first moon landing footage, a meteorite, a space suit and a couple of space arcade games scattered about. After that we watched a man make fire change into different colours like green, blue and red. He told us how scientists understand what a star is made of.  He showed us the different stages in star lifecycles and what problems our sun aging might cause in 5.5 billion years. When his presentation was over we went outside for a little walk down by the water. Then sadly our day in space had to end and we went back to school.

All in all I think everyone enjoyed themselves and I hope we do this again next year.

By Sophie

An Experience of Cosmic Wonder

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At the HR MacMillan Space Centre
BY MACC, January 18, 2013

When humans gaze into the night sky, we can’t help but feel minute in the universe.

That is just how MACC felt as we headed to the HR Macmillan Space Centre, located in a quiet, sedated area, not far away from the bustling city. Sharing a building with the Museum of Vancouver, this small but awe-inspiring facility houses a stage for live performances, a series of cosmic exhibits, and, most stunning of all, a massive 360° Star Theatre built into the roof itself.

A steel crab statue, solemnly standing in the centre of a frozen-over pond, greeted our party. Not long afterwards, we found ourselves in the grand theatre, contemplating the origins of our native star, the neighboring planets, and the entire cosmos beyond, with the presentation of ‘Quest for Origins’.

Perhaps the greatest wonder of the theatre is an extremely accurate star projector dubbed ‘Harold’, nestled in a central area, and the seating radiating out in all directions. Despite its incredible similarity to a mace, Harold was able to predict and project the wonders of the night sky.

Aided by an animated robotic character named ‘Oliver’, the narrator discusses the problematic question of the Big Bang, the discovery of the universe’s expansion using the Doppler Effect, as well as ongoing projects that investigate the great mysteries the cosmos presents us with.

After a brief break, we viewed another theatre program: ‘Night Watch: The Astronomer’s Passion’. This program began with an overview of milestones in the course of astronomy, followed by a rapid slideshow of famous astronomers—after which the narrator remarked that they are currently all dead.

Then, we examined the different theories concerning our place in the universe: from the ridiculous geocentric, to the currently accepted view of just how endless the universe is. This was followed by connections between the science of astronomy, popular culture, and history: constellations, the sun, and the zodiac, as well as the ‘Little Green Men’ radio signal, the new star observed by the Chinese in AD 1140, and finally the current perceptive on supernovas.

Then, the show culminated in a resident astronomer guiding us through the night sky of Vancouver for the night: starting from sunset at 4:55 PM, to Jupiter, Ursa Major and Minor, the Big Dipper, Polaris, Orion’s belt, the Orion Nebula, Taurus, Saturn, Venus, and finally sunrise at approximately 7 AM.

After a time for lunch, we headed down to the exhibits downstairs for a tour of the exhibits (collectively, the ‘Cosmic Courtyard’). Highlights included a simulation of dizziness of space, a looping video concerning the Hubble and Kepler space programs, a discussion of the likeliness of a meteor impact, numerous animated features, a small metal box that fell from a Soviet satellite (later discovered to contain Soviet souvenirs and other paraphernalia), and interactive games simulating a space shuttle docking at the ISS, as well as the virtual planning and launching of a Mars manned mission, facing obstacles such as saboteurs, lack of storage space or supplies, and malfunctioning of essential equipment.

Then, in the live theatre ‘GroundStation Canada’ was a presentation, ‘The Color of Fire’, demonstrating how different chemicals have different light ray signatures (also, colors when burned), and its applications in spectroscopy to investigate the properties of stars such as Polaris. Also discussed were the life cycle of stars, the prospects of another Earth for humans in case our sun expires, and current planet-finding missions. The feature experiment involved lighting chlorides and sulfates, and witnessing colored flames storming through large plastic water jugs.

The visit ended with another stroll through the exhibits, and a moment in Vanier Park’s rolling hills and marine backdrop. As we left the parking lot, some couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe at the universe.

The HR MacMillan Space Centre is located at 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, in Vanier Park. Look for the Gordon MacMillan Southam Observatory, featuring a ½-metre Cassegrain telescope to explore the skies around Vancouver. Weather permitting, it will be open Saturdays at 8 PM.

 

A New Years’ 10 Great Things to Talk About

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As Evan says, “one of the best things about being back at school is seeing friends you didn’t see over the back and hearing about New Years parties and the holidays.”  It has been great to be back and hearing about the adventures and excitement of each of the students holidays.  We are feeling re-energized and re-charged for 2013 and are looking forward to the next 6 months.

1. In HCE this week, the grade 6’s made posters about “What Giftness is?” and “Myths about Giftedness.” Ted says, “it was really interesting to see what other people thought giftedness was and what the myths were…” The grade 7’s continued on the same theme and reviewed the characteristics of giftedness and looked at some specific social emotional characteristics based on the writings of Annemarie Roeper.

2. In Tech Ed, students are working in Sketch Up and have had the chance to create lots of cool items.  “I’ve made a fence and pool.  I am currently working on a chair,” says Liam. In Dramus, students are working in Mixcraft and are making a rock music themed project. “We are making a short piece of music in the rock music genre and mine is done and we are going to learn how to convert it to mp3 and then we can share them,” says Ted.

3. In Ms. Abbot’s class, we are doing monthly reading assignments on any novel of our choice.  We are going to have time to read each day in silent reading and then we have the choice of 10 different activities to complete on the novel.

4. Both Ms Abbot and Ms Moody have started creative writing programs in their classes.  Ms. Abbot’s class is starting Writers Workshop and Ms. Moody’s class is working through the 6 Traits of Writing.  Students will have the chance to write in class, choosing different genres and audiences.  Students will be expected to take several drafts through editing and revision stages.  They will also need to publish a specific number of works throughout the term.

5.  We’ve been warming back up in Math…. grade 7’s have been working on Calkins’ “Mastering the Basics” and grade 6’s have been reviewing mental math strategies for basic computations.

6. Students had the opportunity to try the EPIC Yellow BEEP test again on Thursday.  Ms. Moody and Ms. Abbot were very impressed by the improvement in the scores.  Most students we able to improve there Fall BEEP test.

7. We are continuing with our theme of conflict and oppression this term and started to look at the geography of Africa.  All students are working on completing a map and are studying for a quiz.  We have included resources of Edmodo on Africa geography for students.

8. Students are continuing their science experiments and research.  Our MACC Science Fair is fast approaching.  Students will be presenting on March 1st with the other MACC students from CItadel Middle and Kwayhquitlum Middle.

9. We also introduced Passion Projects today.  Even though, a few have already been working on them at home, we spend some time sharing information about our Passion Project Expo last year and some of the projects our grade 7 & 8’s have done.  Please check out our Passion Project page and our post from about last years’ Passion Project Expo.

10. Basketball, table tennis, wrestling teams are all underway and student practice schedules are available on the school website.  The school drama production cast is rehearsing and we are looking forward to seeing the presentation before Spring Break.