Different activities connect to different outcome in Physical Science 20 and Physics 30.
To give students a chance to use their creative and critical thinking skills in a variety of physics related challenges.
Students track their activities and do reflections on their own learning. (See sheet at bottom)
Students are given the opportunity to connect to their Fun Physic Friday challenges to the curriculum goals and aims dependent on the course.

What is Genius Hour? Genius Hour is a set amount of time for students to create projects based on their passions and interests, research a deeper level of their passion, and finally present on their own learning.

How We Introduced Genius Hour:
1. Show Pep talk video and introduce Genius Hour (see link)
2. Start with what is your passion? – that is all (Students think first then add a post-it telling me their passion)
3. How can we turn your passion into a project? Students write ideas and conference with me.
4. Once they all have projects, the time is their own. One hour every 6 day cycle to work on project. (Can be more than one project; if they finish the first, they come up with another)
5. The less rules the better (mine have to present at a Genius Fair (like a science fair) and have visuals for their table when done their project

The Grade 1-3 PLC team has created a choice boards for students learning from home in response to COVID-19.
The areas addressed include Reading, Writing, Math, Get Moving, Get Active, and a subject area project.

The Grade 1-3 PLC team has created a choice boards for students learning from home in response to COVID-19.
The areas addressed include Reading, Writing, Math, Get Moving, Get Active, and a subject area project.

In partners, students researched, illustrated, and recorded a section of our classroom digital storybook about First Nations way of living. Students worked with a partner to research a topic given to them about the Plains First Nations. Various topics such as hunting techniques, transportation, homes, food, clothing, education, recreation, and religion were assigned to the partners to research. Students wrote jot notes using a graphic organizer. Once they finished their research they wrote a descriptive paragraph on their topic. Each partner was then responsible to illustrate a picture that would represent their paragraph that they wrote. Once students had typed up their good copy of their paragraphs, and finished their illustrations they spilt up their paragraph to decide who would read what part. Students rehearsed reading their paragraphs out loud to each other before they recorded their voices on the IPad. As each group was ready to record they then used the IPad to take a picture using the camera of their illustration and uploaded it into the app. Students then recorded their voices using the app.

My goal this year was to include more opportunities for students to work collaboratively and develop their critical thinking skills at the same time. The example I have chosen for my artifact is an invitation I created for our final Science unit, Rocks and Minerals. I included this invitation in my centers and this allowed students a great deal of time to explore and examine the station independently. The students loved it and it was a very popular place in our classroom! I created the invitation by gathering the rocks and minerals books and materials that we had in our school. Students were then given opportunity just to explore the rocks and minerals station before we even began the unit. Once we began the unit students began to add materials to the exploration station in the classroom.

Student collaborated together and discussed the idea of flashmobs – what they were, where they occur, why they occur, how they relate to pop culture. We utilized You Tube so that students could see these in action and garner ideas for their own which was the end goal.

Part One: Students are tasked with using factual information learned about an animal species of their choice (Life Science – Diversity of Living Things). Students read and conduct research using a variety of resources, including online, textbook, and non-fiction materials.

Part Two: Students are tasked with using the writing process to prepare and present a scientific report (ELA – Compose and Create).

Part Three: Students are tasked with designing, constructing and displaying a mask of their animal species (Arts Ed – Creative/ Productive) along with a written title and caption for their display piece.

This assessment was developed and used for a larger assignment that we had planned for in this unit. I interned in GSSD, and they go by 4 point scale (Beginning, Developing, Meeting and Exceeding), so this is what the rubric my class and I created it to be centered around. I wanted the students input on the way they were being assessed, so they understood what I was looking for and they fully understood how they were being marked. Most of the time students either gloss over their assessment and forget about it or don't even look at it at all. I wanted to change that, and thought this would be a great way to do that. We created this rubric on the smart board before I typed it up, and had students put their input into it and talk about what was fair, too easy or too hard to accomplish. I included the outcomes in the rubric as well because the students are familiar that they will be marked in levels rather than percentages now. I rewrote the outcome into an I Can (Partners Can) statement so it was easier for them to understand. This took almost a whole class to complete but by the end of it the students were more confident with what they needed to do to receive a good grade. We talked about what a good video would look like it and they could hardly wait to get started!
I find this to fit right into 21st century teaching as it opens up the communication and collaboration between myself and the students. I had the opportunity to listen to their needs and wants and incorporate some of them into the rubric. I also found that the students felt responsible for this and wanted to 'live up' to the expectations they created. This assignment allowed students to get creative and collaborate with each other for ideas as well! This was a big success for me because students knew their expectations all the time, they had tons of fun, learnt a lot about the technology and programs behind making a video and truly enjoyed being part of the assessment process. I Hope you enjoy it and maybe even use it someday in the future!

Grasshopper is designed for individual learning rather than classroom implementation, so there's no dashboard or central place to monitor student progress. This makes it better suited for students to learn and practice at their own pace with teacher support. Teachers with some coding experience can advise and coach students as they encounter complex problems, while teachers without much coding experience can encourage students to work collaboratively and/or use the available help in the app. For classes using unplugged activities to teach coding concepts, Grasshopper is a great way to let students start putting that knowledge to use on an individualized basis.

Download from the App Store or Google Play.

This nonfiction piece tells about Barbara del Colorado, a village in Costa Rica. People needed a way to make money; a scientist suggested that they grow butterflies. The town now sells 250 pupae a month, making enough money to buy what they need.

Sometimes a single unlikely idea can have massive impact across the world. Sir Harold Evans, the author of They Made America, describes how frustration drove Malcom McLean, a small-town truck driver, to invent the shipping container. Containerization was born, and it transformed the modern global economy. A quiz, thought provoking question, and links for further study are provided to create a lesson around the 5-minute video. Educators may use the platform to easily "Flip" or create their own lesson for use with their students of any age or level.

Adam Savage walks through two spectacular examples of profound scientific discoveries that came from simple, creative methods anyone could have followed -- Eratosthenes' calculation of the Earth's circumference around 200 BC and Hippolyte Fizeau's measurement of the speed of light in 1849. A quiz, thought provoking question, and links for further study are provided to create a lesson around the 7-minute video. Educators may use the platform to easily "Flip" or create their own lesson for use with their students of any age or level.

While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics. A quiz, thought provoking question, and links for further study are provided to create a lesson around the 20-minute video. Educators may use the platform to easily "Flip" or create their own lesson for use with their students of any age or level.

In these YouTube lessons for young children, you start by writing a letter of the alphabet and turn the letter into an animal starting with the letter.

Check out the lessons to see the animals kids can draw from the entire alphabet!

Cognitive psychology and neuroscience have begun to dissect the neuronal mechanisms of literacy using brain-imaging techniques. During reading acquisition, our brain circuitry recycles several of its pre-existing visual and auditory areas in order to reorient them to the processing of letters and phonemes. The nature of this "neuronal recycling" process helps explain many of the children's difficulties in learning to read. Our growing understanding of the child's brain has important consequences for how education should be optimally organized.

Understanding how the brain learns to read can help us all be more effective in teaching students to read.

This balloon LEGO car activity is easy and simple, and it’s a fun time for the entire family! Be sure to check out the LEGO zip line for the minifigures too!

Created by the University of Regina Hill and Levene Schools of Business, the Imagineur program is made up of 8 online modules designed for high school and university students who are interested in becoming entrepreneurs. There is also an educator's kit that can be downloaded for each module.

The importance of creativity, the quality of screen time, perfectionism, creativity in the classroom, finding your "tribe", problem solving, and the art of copying are explored. Other resources and contacts are also linked in.

This lesson explores different ways people can innovate ideas, products, services and methods for doing things.