Palmer's Junior Science Fair

On Wednesday, I had the honour of attending Palmer Secondary's Junior Science Fair. About 90 students in grades 8-10 participated in this competitive science fair, with the top projects being chosen to move ahead to the next level of competition, at the provincial level. The students were in their best attire, with prepared scripts ready to read to the judges.

The teachers had invited elementary students to tour the projects earlier in the afternoon and over 200 elementary students visited, many who will be participating in our district's Science Jam at the end of February. I am sure Palmer's Science Fair was very inspiring to them!

As a guest, I asked the students to not read their scripts and to just tell me about their projects. As I asked questions, the passion the students had for their projects came through and their depth of knowledge was well beyond their years. 

This pair of grade 8 students tested very substances on controlling the spread of E. coli bacteria.
They found vinegar worked the best.

This pair of grade 10 students investigated an alternative to petroleum-based plastic forks.
They found a substance created using potato starch created the sturdiest fork that also decomposed well.

This pair of students were motivated to find a way to still drink green tea in the evening, with a reduced effect from caffeine. Using the residue from brewing tea made with hot and cold water, they found that green tea made with cold water had significantly less caffeine than green tea made with hot water.

It was a great experience (and a great visit for me to my old Junior High School) to see so many inspiring scientists!

~Janice

Math Catcher Outreach: seeing mathematics in our lives

This week I attended a session presented by the SFU Math Catcher Outreach Program to a group of Combined Studies students and some other invited students at Hugh Boyd. The main goal of the program is:
 to generally popularize mathematics and to increase students’ awareness about the presence and importance of mathematics in their lives. 

Dr. Veselin Jungic (Dr. J) is a mathematics professor at SFU and coordinates the program. He and two of his students shared their personal stories with mathematics, engaged the Boyd students in some mathematical thinking and presented some examples to help the students "see" the math in the world around them. We then were able to handle some amazing three-dimensional geometric models including some created by a three-d printer.

The students particularly enjoyed our opportunity to create our own geometric models.

More information about the program can be found HERE.

A big thank you to Leanne McColl, Teacher Consultant (Aboriginal Education) for organizing this event for our students.
~Janice

graphing rational functions in Pre-Calc 12

Last week I visited Ms Wagner's Pre-Calculus 12 class at McMath Secondary. The students were using their graphing calculators to graph rational functions and then compare them. Ms Wagner provided the prompts: How are they the same? How are they different? These same prompts are used in mathematics from Kindergarten-Grade 12 to frame students' comparisons and analysis. In Grade 1, students might compare how a square and a rectangle are the same and different and then fast forward to Grade 12 and the same open-ended questions lead to strong mathematical thinking about rational functions.

Knowing that the math department at McMath would soon be getting a set of iPads, I pulled out my iPad and asked a student if he would like to try something out. We used the ShowMe screencasting app and he took a photo of the screen on his graphing calculator and then recorded his thinking about the two graphs.

We shared his short screencast via projector and speakers and the rest of the class clapped...not what I was expecting in a grade 12 class! I think the students were already thinking of the possibilities for this technology in math and I am looking forward to working with them again.
~Janice