A place for innovation in teaching and learning!
Most of our building supplies come from natural resources—trees, stones, brick, adobe, etc. Unfortunately not all of the resources available are suitable for building materials. As these natural resources are being consumed, builders are beginning to question how might they use alternative materials or unusual materials to build homes within our communities.
The study of a country’s history and evolution requires more than the memorization of dates, names and facts. Historians need to develop a deep understanding of the confounding circumstances of events, including people, places, cultures, politics, and many other factors. Coming to know why things happened the way they did is as important as knowing what happened and when. As Jill Lepore said, “The study of our history requires investigation, imagination, empathy and respect,” (The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle over American History, 2010).
When educators create rich learning experiences for their students, they engage in the complex act of curricular interpretation and planning. The act of moving from curriculum as written to curriculum as embodied through learning requires thoughtful consideration and continuous design, iteration and revision. Research informed by the learning sciences (Bell, Lewenstein, Shouse, & Feder, 2009), growth mindset (Dweck, 2012), and PISA results (Programme for International Student Assessment, 2012) has shown that what we know about learning and how students learn has changed. As well, the needs of Canadian society, especially in terms of what constitutes a skilled workforce, have changed over the last few decades. These changes require educators to reconsider how students might engage differently with mandated curricular intentions, suggesting a multi-disciplinary and multi-faceted approach to instructional delivery focused on active learning and problem finding and problem solving situated in real world contexts is appropriate.
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi, and other life forms for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. In Canada, agriculture is often a business that operates on a large or small scale. Increasingly, agricultural operations have some aspect of their work that is automated in some way, regardless of the size of the operation.
Between 1944 and 1969, the Canadian government implemented the Eskimo Identification Tag system. These tags were given to “…every Inuk living in the Western and Eastern Arctic. Each disc was about 2.5 centimetres in diameter, made of hard cardboard or leather and sienna-like in colour. The expectation was that each Inuk would keep the disc, which had a hole punched in its top, on his or her person at all times.”
We have all heard the phase, “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.” The majority of Canadians have recycling options right on their doorsteps, provided by their municipalities. The recycling symbol is a common marking on the items we use. On a personal level, what to use and how to reduce our consumption can be challenging.
Automata are whimsical and wonderful machines that combine art, play, humour, science and engineering. They have a long history that appears to transcend geography and culture.
We live in an interconnected world; our actions and activities impact living conditions for others both locally and globally. In 2000 the United Nations drafted initial Millennium Goals (https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/) to improve quality of life. Recently, these goals were revised, focusing on issues of environmental sustainability, happiness, and well being.
In 2012, many residents of the Fraser Valley experienced, or were threatened by flooding. River levels along the Fraser corridor were at their highest in 40 years. Water eroded berms and caused flooding in many areas along a 600 km stretch from northern BC to the Fraser Valley. Natural disaster is just one reason a family may have to unexpectedly vacate or abandon their home on short notice.
Canadian Parliament is calling for between 280,000 and 305,000 permanent residents to be allowed into Canada in 2016, including more refugees from war-torn Syria. This will be our country’s largest intake of immigrants into Canada since immediately following World War II.