Students create math stories by first drawing, then writing, and finally using math symbols to show addition or subtraction.

The goal of Genius Hour was to get students more engaged in the learning process and to help instill the idea of lifelong learning. Students were asked to brainstorm what their passion was. Students then had to develop an inquiry question related to their passion. Then they had to decide how they would like to show what they learned. Then, students spent time researching about their projects. They were given one hour each Friday to work on their projects. It was an exciting project that students looked forward to working on each week! Because these projects were quite large, they did not all finish at the same time. As students complete their projects, they were able to present what they did to the class.

STEM is everywhere—from businesses and organizations to the products that power our daily lives. That’s why it’s important to build the first fully STEM literate generation. Endeavor is a first-of-its-kind interactive program designed for middle school students built to empower learners with the knowledge they’ll need to build their career pathways. Learners engage with interactive content that reinforces key STEM skills while discovering some of the exciting STEM opportunities that await.

This Course Covers
The Careers Powering STEM Industries
Big Data and the Internet of Things
The Future of Manufacturing and Design
The Algorithms Behind Recommendations

Throughout the year I have used this as a review for the end of each unit. I create five or six critical thinking questions that apply what we have been learning about. I print them on color paper and spread them around the room. I pair the students up, and have they move about the room solving the questions. I only have ten students in my class so I’m fortunate to have only five pairs at a time. I usually pair them up as sort of a strong and weak combination. This is an attempt to have them collaborate on the problems while using critical thinking.

This site offers engineering challenges with things you have at home. Kids learn from taking items from their everyday life and using them in new ways to do simple things. It helps them understand the world around them and how things work.

Courses for ALL grades and ages!

ELEMENTARY
*Word Force - teach reading skills to Gr 1-2
*Compassion Project - teach empathy Gr. 2-5
*Healthier Me - Gr. 1-4
*Vault - Financial Literacy Gr. 4-6
*FutureSmart - citizenship & finance Gr. 6-8
*Ignition - Digital Citizenship Gr. 6-9
*SaveUp - Saving for the Future Gr. 6-8
*Future Goals - Hockey - STEM Gr. 4-7
*Sustainability Foundations - many options Gr. 5-9
*Endeavor - Career Exploration Gr. 6 to 9
*Character Playbook Gr. 7-9

HIGH SCHOOL
*Get Digital - Safety in the Metaverse
*Venture - entrepreneurship
*Data Science
*Money Moves
*Vaping
*Prescription Drugs
*Mental Wellness
*Honor Code - Bullying Prevention
*Alcohol Edu
*Financial Literacy
*Financing Higher Education
*College & Career Readiness

Access all Everfi programs via the Clever portal at Sun West.
For help launching programs with your students contact Jesus Grisanti Clavier

Our fish project is an inquiry based project done over a 4 month period. It incorporates curricular connections in ELA, Math, Arts Ed. and Science. Creativity and collaboration are the highlighted dispositions.

INVESTIGATE HOW THE FORCES OF THRUST, DRAG, LIFT, AND GRAVITY ACT ON LIVING THINGS AND CONSTRUCTED DEVICES THAT FLY THROUGH THE AIR.

DESIGN A WORKING PROTOTYPE OF A FLYING OBJECT THAT MEETS SPECIFIED PERFORMANCE CRITERIA.

In this lunch and learn video, facilitator's explore how easy and inexpensive it is to implement STEAM activities into early year classrooms.  Facilitator's offer examples of supplies, costs, ideas, and make connections to cross curricular outcomes and beyond.  The video also illustrates a STEAM activity which was adapted for grades K-2 and how this STEAM activity was implemented to a K-2 classroom.  The STEAM activity and resources highlighted in the video are also shared within this resource.

The National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) have partnered to launch the Future Goals program, a North-American initiative that provides K-12 students with STEM education. EVERFI’s Hockey Scholar course, with both a math and science edition, leverages highly interactive gameplay and the sport of hockey to reinforce key concepts like scientific thinking and data analysis, exposing students to foundational STEM concepts through real-life applications.
This Course Covers Foundational STEM Concepts Scientific Thinking,Data/Graphical Analysis

Uncover The Ice - Students derive area formula and proper units of measurement to calculate the area of each section of ice as they remove covering.
Area, units, unit square, square meters, formula 4 SS4.2 5 SS5.1-4 6 SS6.2 7 SS7.2 8 SS8.2-3

Paint The Ice - Students apply knowledge of geometric figures and coordinate planes to paint the ice rink. Point, coordinate, x/y-axis, line, chord, segment, parallel, right angle, congruent perpendicular, diameter, radius5 SS5.5 6 SS6.3-47 SS7.1-5

The Pass - Students measure and find patterns between angles lying on a straight line, by setting up a pass that bounces off the boards and discover the Law of Reflection based on their data. Protractor, degrees, right angle, straight angles, Law of Reflection, adjacent angles 6 SS6.1, SS6.3 7 SS7.1, SS7.3 8 OP8.1

The Shot - Students explore the interaction between applied force and frictional force and use this knowledge to hit specific targets on the ice.
Force, magnitude, direction, friction, Newton’s 1st Law 5 FM5.1-3 6 FL6.2

Speed - Students record and calculate a player’s average speed (using d = v/t formula) over short and long sprint distances Rate, units of distance (m, km, mi), trials, average, rounding, formula 5 SP5.3 6 SP6.1, N6.8 7 SP7.1-2 8 P8.1, N8.3

The Skate Blades - Students help players stop on a certain target based on the radius of hollow of their skate blades, and use this data to figure out the correlation between radius of hollow and stopping distance. Variables, radius, correlation 5 P5.1, FM5.1 6 P6.1, P6.3, FL6.3 7 P7.1, SS7.2, SP7.2 8 P8.1

STEM is everywhere—from businesses and organizations to the products that power our daily lives. That’s why it’s important to build the first fully STEM literate generation and encourage STEM career exploration at an early age.

Endeavor is a first-of-its-kind interactive program designed for exploring STEM careers for middle school students. This STEM curriculum for middle school is built to empower learners with the knowledge they'll need to discover their career pathways.

The STEM lesson plans for middle school provided in this course enable learners to engage with interactive content that reinforces key STEM skills while discovering some of the exciting STEM opportunities that await.

Sun West School Division: Access this EVERFI course through your clever account.

Christmas is coming and the kids are getting EXCITED! To keep them focused and motivated young scientists during this crazy time of year, here are 24 days of fun Christmas STEM Activities.

It’s kind of like a STEM Advent Calendar of learning for the month of December! Included are lots of cool science, tech, math and engineering activities to keep little ones busy.

There are a number of ways to use Genius Hour in the classroom. There are many web resources to view and access to help guide you along your Genius Hour path as well. I accessed Facebook as well and joined several groups that discussed ways to implement Genius Hour. As this was my first time trying this out with the students, there are a few things that I would adjust for next time, but here is my version!
In this project, students were allowed to choose a topic that interested them to create a large scale project on. Students were able to choose to do these projects on their own or in partners/groups. They filled out a proposal and then we met and discussed what they would be working on and what their products would look like.
Every day 4, I gave students one period (56 minutes) to work on their Genius Hour creations. Students were asked to create outlines of their projects and journal entries stating their progress. The final product could be their choice but they would be presented to the class in some way.
When beginning the project, we went over the Creativity Process and discussed the way that student would follow and use this process. We followed each step of the process as we went through the journey and discussed.
Students would receive marks on their overall project as well as their presentation. As well, they completed a self-assessment afterwards.

This lesson covers the following outcomes:
Outcome 7.1 – I can explore how movement and forces in the Earth’s crust, including earthquakes, volcanoes and mountainbuilding,
has added to the development of the theory of plate tectonics.
7.1 d. I can compare and contrast some of the catastrophic events (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions) of the past by on my
own.
7.1 h. I can describe how scientists measure the effects of earthquakes and volcanoes (e.g. seismology, Richter scale).
7.1 i. I can give examples of ways that science and technology can help reduce the effects of catastrophic events on people
and communities (e.g. building codes in earthquake zones, earthquake readiness training, reducing the effect of a volcanic
eruption).

In this fun engineering activity, you are challenged to build a gingerbread house that meets specific design requirements.

Holiday fun!

Summary of Plan for Communication and Computer and Digital Technologies:

I wanted the students to have a realistic scenario in which they would have to display and use data to persuade an audience of a particular point of view. I thought of a sales pitch by a travel agent. I created 13 different scenarios for my 13 students. Each scenario detailed the names of each individual travelling, the reason for the trip, the group’s budget, the duration of the trip, and preferred location of travel. Student blindly selected a scenario. The student would assume the role of the travel agent and their sales pitch to the class using a Power Point presentation. They would use the rubric to guide the development of their presentations.

As a pilot teacher for the new Physical Science 20 course, the challenge in the pilot year is to develop the
course content to meet student interests and student needs, while meeting the outcomes indicated by the new
curriculum. In an effort to teach outcomes and appropriate indicators, Aaron Biberdorf of Sun West Distance
Learning Centre and I developed an action plan to find interactive or virtual labs for each outcome for the
three major units of Physical Science 20. This would be most beneficial for the Distance Learning Centre,
where students are studying a science course but may not have access to lab materials while working
independently. Further, for students who are absent in a regular classroom and miss a lab, the virtual lab(s)
could be an alternative assignment.

Taking STEAM Learning to new heights! LEGO® Education is teaming up with NASA and the Artemis I team to bring students and teachers an out-of-this-world STEAM learning series. Build to Launch is an exploration of the technology, STEAM concepts and careers behind the Artemis I mission to the Moon. Join the all new LEGO® Space Team and their Artemis I team counterparts for a 10-week interactive digital learning adventure. Each episode students will find themselves in the shoes of NASA engineers, scientists, and of course astronauts. Through open ended lessons students will get hands-on and solve similar problems the Artemis I team faces as they build towards launch.

Downloadable teacher resources include: Teacher Resource Guide, LEGO Space Team Cards, Engineering Design Notebook, Module 1 Teacher Guide, Module 1 Student Lessons, Module 2 Teacher Guide, Module 2 Students Lessons, Module 3 Teacher Guide, Module 3 Student Lessons, Professional Development Resource Guide, Certificate of Completion.

There is a series overview webinar and videos for each of the episodes.

Check out the great fun!