Students in Holly Lloyd and Liz Ward’s Grade 6/7 class at Montecito Elementary gave their school community a sneak peek at what the first settlement on Mars might look like.
The class had been studying the colonization of the red planet as part of a big-ideas, hands-on unit using B.C.’s redesigned curriculum.
They were split into groups to represent different countries on earth, working together to contribute to the new colony (Marsville) as members of the United Nations.
Each “country” worked at developing one life support system: oxygen, water, food or energy. “Tourists” were invited into the school to check out a model of new Martian settlement on Nov. 30.
Season’s greetings
The artistic talent of local elementary school students is once again being featured on the Christmas cards of Burnaby’s mayor and council.
Holiday greetings from the city will be decorated with the creations of Lakeview Elementary’s Victoria Garay, South Slope’s Chanelle Zhu and Morley’s Zandren Soria, who were all recognized at a recent council meeting.
The Burnaby Board of Education, meanwhile, will send out cards featuring the art of Lyndhurst’s Jiwon Ryu and South Slope’s Serena Tsai.
True North, Strong and Green
St. Michael’s Elementary School Grade 7 student Vinuki Perera was a winner in this year’s FORED B.C. Society poster contest.
Perera’s entry promoting the advantages of well-managed forests was plucked from hundreds of entries from youths in K-12 across British Columbia and earned a $50 prize.
FORED sponsors an annual youth poster contest to celebrate National Forest Week. The theme this year was “Canada’s Forests – True North, Strong and Green,” emphasizing how the use of renewable, wood-based products benefits the environment.
Farm-to-school grant
Forest Grove Elementary has earned a $1,500 grant for a week of seed-to-table activities during Farm to School Month in October.
Kindergarten and Grade 1 students learned about the school’s edible garden, and five intermediate classes took part in cooking classes highlighting some of the crops available in the garden.
The school’s Mandarin class learned how to make bok choi stir fry and an Asian coleslaw.
The week culminated in a community free hot lunch for the entire school. The meal, prepared with help from students, featured items grown in the school garden.
The week of activities earned them a grant from Farm to Cafeteria Canada (F2CC), national organization committed to farm to school initiatives in Canada.
Math award
The B.C. Association of Mathematics Teachers awarded Burnaby Central math teacher Maria Nicolidakis this year’s Ivan L. Johnson Memorial award for outstanding teaching in mathematics.
Johnson, a past BCAMT president, bequeathed funding for the award in his will to cover the majority of the cost of attending the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics annual conference. He had attended this conference several times and wanted others to experience the same opportunity.
The award comes on the heels of Nicolidakis winning SFU’s McEwen Family Teacher Recognition Award in the spring.
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