Category: Design/Prototype/Make

This past week, our students took on the challenge of designing more sustainable and inclusive communities. Using their knowledge of sustainability, accessibility, and urban planning, they created prototypes that reflect both environmental responsibility and the values of their user personas.

Through hands-on model-building, students explored solutions for:

Sustainable Housing: Energy-efficient homes using renewable materials and smart design.

Accessible Pathways: Safe, well-connected routes for people of all abilities.

Recreation Facilities: Green spaces that promote health, well-being, and biodiversity and energy efficient swimming pools.

Transit & EV Charging: Infrastructure that supports low-carbon transportation.

Retail & Food Systems: Locally sourced goods, food waste reduction initiatives, and integrated community food bank programs to ensure food security while minimizing environmental impact.

Community Spaces & Stewardship: Multi-use areas that reduce waste and promote circular economies, including makerspaces where residents can repair, repurpose, and sell upcycled products. These spaces also foster community engagement, allowing people to track and celebrate progress toward environmental goals.

Each project was guided by a unique user persona, encouraging students to think deeply about how design choices impact real people’s lives. Their creativity and problem-solving skills were on full display as they built models that prioritize environmental sustainability, inclusivity, and community needs.

Check out the incredible student work below!

Through this process, students gained hands-on experience in sustainable design thinking which is an important step in shaping the cities of tomorrow. What features would you love to see in a more sustainable and inclusive community? Let us know in the comments!

Our Commitments to Truth and Reconciliation

To honor the memory of the children lost to the residential school system, students at Aubrey created an Origami Reconciliation Project inspired by the Japanese tradition of folding paper cranes. This artwork will serve as a symbol of our shared hopes for healing and reconciliation.

The mural’s background features black hearts, representing the profound truths and emotions we hold in remembrance of this painful history. At the center, a heart formed by orange ravens symbolizes hope and our commitment to building a better future. Each raven carries messages of healing and reconciliation, contributed by students from various divisions.

This mural stands as a powerful reminder of our dedication to truth, understanding, and justice. It calls upon our community to engage in meaningful dialogue and take action to support of ongoing reconciliation and healing.

We would also like to recognize the following students for their leadership efforts in assembling the final display: Rachel Mullin, Kaitlynn Leung, Sasha Sun, and Anna Wu.

• Students recently created stunning artwork inspired by the vibrant landscapes of renowned Canadian artist Ted Harrison! Through their imaginative interpretations, they’ve explored unique artistic techniques to bring their acrylic paintings to life. Some of the artistic techniques they used included:

Bold Colour Palette: Students used vibrant, contrasting colours to evoke emotion and energy, mirroring Harrison’s distinctive style.

Layering: By applying multiple layers of paint, students achieved depth and texture, enhancing the visual impact of their landscape.

Geometric Shapes: Inspired by Harrison’s use of simplified forms, students incorporated bold geometric shapes to represent mountains, skies, and fields.

Dynamic Composition: Emphasizing movement and flow, students arranged elements to draw the viewers eye through the painting, creating an engaging experience.

Textural Techniques: Techniques such as dry brushing and sponge painting added unique textures, reflecting the natural landscapes Harrison loved.

The garden of values metaphor was used as a powerful way to visually represent the interconnected aspects of shared values, their importance, and the associated rights and responsibilities of individuals within our community.

In the garden, each plant has its own unique role and contribution to the overall beauty and health of the garden. Similarly, our shared values within our community serve as the foundation for a harmonious and thriving school environment. Each shared value, represented by a different flower in the garden, plays a crucial role in creating a positive and supportive community culture.

Just as each flower requires nurturing, care, and attention to bloom and flourish, shared values also need to be cultivated and nurtured by individuals within our community.

Furthermore, in a garden, each plant has specific needs and requirements to thrive. Similarly, individuals within our community have rights and responsibilities associated with each shared value, such as the right to be treated with respect, the responsibility to treat others with respect, the right to express themselves freely, the responsibility to consider others perspectives, the right to feel safe and included, and the responsibility to create a safe and inclusive environment for all.

By embracing these shared values all students will contributing positively to the collective well-being of our community.

Students had so much fun prototype narratives on Friday afternoon during our Serious Lego Play Workshop.

Students in Division 1, 2 and 3 at Aubrey Elementary have been learning about Ancient Civilizations and the use of soapstone. Soapstone is a soft metamorphic rock found over the globe that has been used through history by various groups to create art and tools.

Soapstone’s use dates back to antiquity: early Egyptians carved it into scarabs and seals; in China and India it was used for ornaments, implements and domestic utensils. It was similarly used at various times over the past 7,500 years by First Nations, Inuit and Norse in Canada to create qullic, and oil lamps.

Indigenous Artist Connect to Nature with Soapstone Carving

The Art of Soapstone Carving-A Tabeka Gem Documentary

Inuit Soapstone Carvings

This integrated unit involved:

ADST -prototyping, food safety, and making their pizza to show creativity, originality, and bold flavors.

Math-financial literacy (budgeting).

Health-Nutrition and menu/recipe planning and the exploration of healthy/unhealthy ingredients.

French-food vocabulary and how to order pizza in French.

Students really enjoyed planning for this activity and made some incredible pizzas. The whole school smelled amazing and the judges were left salivating over their final creations. Once the pizzas were judged, students got to enjoy their final creations. They all turned out great and there was very little if any remaining pizza. Well done Division 3!

Recently in class students participated in a climate justice and climate change simulation.  In this simulation students learned about the consequences of climate change, the injustice, and effects of climate change often experienced by vulnerable populations around the world.
Students work in groups to build communities and attempt to develop mitigation and adaptation strategies while experiencing the impacts of climate change (droughts, tropical storms, rising sea levels, and other impacts of climate change).

Some of the takeaways were:

Climate change is affecting those who are often contributing the least. The people hit the hardest are those already living in poverty and at higher risk.

The simulation also highlighted the affects that climate change is going to have on people.

– Climate change is affecting our ability to grow food. Growing seasons are disrupted or shortened and storms, droughts, and floods all
affect harvest outcomes.

– Climate change is affecting where and how we live making people relocate and find new homes after generations of living in one area. It is also causing extreme storms, rising sea level, melting permafrost, etc.

-Climate change directly affects human health and safety and can lead to the spread of diseases (like malaria), heat waves, wild fires, air pollution.

This lesson is going to be one of many climate change lessons as we explore more sustainable ways of being and doing in our world in an attempt to protect the planet.

After Spring Break students will also be participating in Indigo’s Read for the Planet Program and as a classroom we will be exploring ways we can take action in our school and the broader community to combat climate change and keep our planet healthy for more years to come

Students are naturally curious about the world in which they live. They want to know more about their planet and are concerned with the challenges we face. Reading and learning together with your child is a safe and supportive way to develop awareness and ideas for ways to care for the planet. Reading about how to care for the planet can also help deepen connections to other people and the planet—connections critical for understanding the challenges and opportunities being faced in communities around our planet.

The attached resource was designed by the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation in partnership with our curriculum partner, The Critical Thinking Consortium (TC2) as an extension of our school-based Read For The Planet learning modules. We know that schools are just one place students learn and that home is a critical space for expanding on and practicing what happens in the classroom. This guide provides parents and caregivers with book suggestions, worksheets, discussion prompts and a template for a home-based action project all to help you and your little changemaker to get inspired through reading and have fun while learning about the environment together.

http://This lesson will invite students to examine the qualities of people or actions intended to address climate change or other environmental issues. The focus will be on helping students explore and decide what actions they might take.

Lesson Retrieved From: http://www.mcic.ca/uploads/documents/Climate%20Justice-Final%20PDF%202022.pdf