Ms. Coutts' Class

Category: Cross-Curricular (Page 3 of 7)

Finding Balance in a Digital World

April 3, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Division 3 is learning to identify and reflect on the habits they have with digital media and devices.

From phones and tablets to streaming movies and YouTube, tech and media are everywhere. Kids love easy access to TV shows, games, and information.

Parents and caregivers love that kids can stay in contact while they explore their independence. But it’s easy to overdo it when the phone never stops pinging and the next episode plays automatically.

Check out these tips from Common Sense Media to keep media and tech use in check.

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Digital Bulletin Board: Human Impacts on Climate Change

March 30, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Division 3 was examining how humans have impacted the Earth, and more specifically how we have contributed to climate change. Students were asked to do some research to define what they thought were the top three human contributions to climate change. They in which format to present the information.

One of the skills we have been focusing on is using evidence to support a claim–whether in our responses to reading, drawing conclusions in social studies, or investigating hypotheses in science. With this assignment, students needed to explain the connection between the harmful human activities they identified, and the impact on the climate.

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Language and Knowledge

March 6, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Humans all over the world define our knowledge, values, culture, and worldviews through the language we use. Today Division 3 looked at Inuktitut syllabics and listened to the language.

Inuktitut includes many different dialects, and is written today using two methods: Qaniujaqpait (syllabics) and Roman orthography. Many Inuit communities are working on revitalizing and continuing to teach/learn Inuktitut to maintain traditional knowledge. Inuit use their language to describe places, phenomena, and relationships unique to them. This is reflective of the deep relationship they have with the land, as well as the complex understandings about nature they have learned from their environment. Like in other languages, Inuktitut ties Inuit to their ancestors, family members, and neighbours. It is a way for them to unite and ensure that their cultures endures for generations to come.

Check out some of these games made for children (and really anyone) to develop some understanding of Inuktitut.

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Black Canadian Excellence

March 2, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Throughout February, Division 3 celebrated Black History Month by researching various individuals of note and summarizing who they are and what they do/did into one to three PowerPoint slides. Students discovered a wide range of Black Canadians that have contributed to our country through sport, politics, art, activism, education, and more.

Students collaborated on a shared PowerPoint file, each person adding their set of slides to the overall composition. Division 3 has been learning how to communicate information effectively. In their slides, their goal was to use visuals and point form to communicate the main ideas clearly.

Please check out their work with this link: Black Canadian Excellence

Curricular & Core Competencies in Math

February 21, 2023 / / 1 Comment

Recently I was chatting with the math department head at Burnaby Mountain Secondary, Ms. Reily, about skills and competencies needed as students transition into secondary learning. The K-12 curriculum has shifted toward building thinking and communicating skills as a problem-solving foundation that is applicable across all areas of learning.

Here is what Ms. Reily shared with me:

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Diversity

January 23, 2023 / / 0 Comments

In the current novel we’re reading, The Giver, the world is a place of grays and beiges. Everyone under twelve recognizes their birthday on the exact same day, and people take medication to suppress their feelings. Great steps are taken to avoid any amount of physical or emotional pain. People dress the same, and life’s big decisions–jobs, domestic partnerships, and even children–are chosen for you. If members of the community are no longer able to contribute to society, they are released, keeping only the most “productive” of people.

Most students in Division 3 have expressed this is not a world they’d want to live in, and they have many reasons why–namely, a lack of variety or diversity. By minimizing difference/diversity, in what ways is the society in The Giver weaker or unappealing place to live?

Today we also discussed being able to argue both sides of an issue in order to predict and counter an opposition’s argument to your stance. What are some reasons that it might be beneficial to limit decision making and difference (i.e., what do you think is the goal of the Elders by setting these limitations on the community?)

Cave Art

December 8, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Division 3 has been looking at the emergence of art as early humans developed conceptual thinking and and some understanding of themselves in relation to the world around them. Examining the cave paintings from France, Spain, and Argentina, we noticed they often pictured large animals such as mammoth, bison, horses, deer, etc. Some of the paintings featured depictions of humans and arrows or spears. Some anthropologists suggest these depictions may have been intended to “enchant” big game animals for a successful hunt. Or maybe they were recording stories from their lived experiences for future generations. The negative-space hand prints are, perhaps, the most haunting of the cave paintings. It’s almost as though you can reach out and touch our early human ancestors living in the midst of an ice age!

Earlier this week, we headed out to the forest to collect raw materials that could be combined to create painting tools. Students gathered sticks, grass, rocks, leaves, etc. Then we brought them inside to adapt the raw materials to create useable tools. We agreed that we could use twine to bind things, but no glue or tape.

Finally, we got to painting on our “cave” walls! Students worked on vertical surfaces and different heights to experience a tiny bit of what it might have been like to paint this way. Some students worked more independently, and some collaboratively in order to create their images. They attempted to work in the style of the cave paintings from France and Spain, and depicted similar subjects as well.

Hour of Code & Computer Science Education Week

December 6, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Hour of Code takes place during Computer Science Education Week, which is this week!

Some smaller versions of our now-grade 7s! This photo is from when I visited UHE a few years ago to teach some coding, back when I held a district position.

The idea behind Hour of Code is get everyone participating in a coding activity at some point throughout the week. Students have all different levels of experience with coding, and it has become part of our B.C. curriculum. While we understand that not all students will grow up to become programmers, learning coding and computational thinking in school helps demystify the powers that drive our everyday technologies, broadens participation in the field of computer science, and nurtures problem solving skills. It is essentially a new literacy needed as our children grow up and navigate the world.

Thinking about coding and modern technologies is especially interesting as we also examine and think about prehistoric technologies early modern humans used to survive, thrive, and observe their world.  Division 3 has been looking at some of the earliest cave art found in Spain, France, and Argentina. This week, students are combining found natural materials to create tools that could be used for painting–then we will test if they work! Keep an eye out for some of our process and finished pieces!

I have positioned some coding links on our Hour of Code page. Feel free to check them out!

 

The Best Caterpillar in the World?

November 23, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Division 3 has been learning about how living things adapt and evolve to be successful in specific environments–meaning they can meet their survival needs. Living things need food, water, air, space, strategies for successful reproduction, and a way to stay safe from predators in order to continue thriving in an ecosystem.

Mimicry is one way that some animals protect themselves from predators. Yesterday we watched a video about the amazing Hawks Moth Caterpillar.  Watch how this prey animal turns into (what looks like) a predatory one to scare away its own predator!

Division 3 has had the opportunity to work with the Inquiry Beaty Box, borrowed from the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC. We have been carefully observing and making sketches of the specimens, and then analyzing and hypothesizing about how some of the various structures or characteristics of the organism benefit its survival in relation to where it lives.

Nature is truly amazing!

Division 3 — what was a structure or a characteristic of your specimen that contributed to its survival success in its particular ecosystem? Can you think of another example from outside of the Beaty Box?

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