Concept and Topics

English Language Arts

Through our investigation of Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves we’ve pondered the role of hope and fear in contemporary society. Using the generalizations about hope and fear as a lens, we’ve immersed ourselves in a dystopian world that has challenged our ideas on environmentalism and our relationship with Canada’s Indigenous people.

Persuasive writing has been a focus as we identify theme and the intention of the author. Through examination of metaphor, we’ve constructed complex understandings of the central issues within the novel and the protagonist’s journey.

Math

After finishing up with Rational and Irrational numbers, we are looking at powers and exponents. We attempted to understand the rationality of numbers and then how vast we can denote them through the use of exponents. We transferred our understanding to the study of space and its infiniteness, relating to this through the lens of fear some may have of how big our universe is, as well as our place in the universe.

Science

This year in science we have been focusing on familiarizing ourselves with the nature of the universe. This was a far-reaching (pardon the pun) topic as we began by examining the concepts of Hope and Fear and the notion of The Infinite. 

The overarching themes, aside from ties to Hope and Fear, throughout our work with space were: the quest for knowledge, space as the last frontier for human exploration, ‘necessity being the mother of invention’ which has given us so much helpful technology that we continue to use in our everyday lives and of course, the question of whether we are alone in the universe. Space is so vast, it is difficult to summarize and prioritize, however the students were constantly baffled by the many mysteries our universe still has to offer. 

Social Studies

The Federal election provided a natural opportunity for students to discuss issues that impact Canadians. By focusing on visual literacy, we’ve built our ability to identify and interpret ideas within political cartoons. We recently hosted political cartoonist, Fred Curatolo, who worked with students to interpret editorial cartoons through the perspective of the artist. Students continue to question the effectiveness of our democracy in light of current events on a local and global scale.