Presentations Galore

Mid-March was a time of presentations and better weather.  There were four presentations to be exact and everyone was glad to see the end of the cold snap.  Let’s go ahead with the presentations.

            

ACTUA presenters

“ACTUA is a [Canadian] charity that prepa[res] youth to be innovators and leaders by engaging them in exciting and accessible STEM experiences that build critical skills and confidence.”  (STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math.)  The charity operates in all provinces & territories, employs 1,000 undergraduate students each year, and has members in 33 universities & colleges.  They also have a team of 1,000 volunteers that deliver STEM workshops all over the country.  Two undergraduate students employed by ACTUA arrived in Arctic Bay to carry out workshops with the elementary, middle, & high school students.  Everyone was excited to see what they had to offer.

            

The undergrads gave the teaching staff a private workshop at our staff meetings.  They wanted to show us what our students would be working on.  I was mesmerized by the Ozobots, tiny toy robots that follow coloured lines you draw with markers.  The robots follow the lines by using photo sensor arrays.  Toys like these didn’t exist when I was in school.

            

Learning Web

The high school workshop was held in the afternoon on March 15.  Everyone gathered in the math & science classroom.  The ACTUA presenters introduced themselves and explained the workshop would focus on climate change & the importance of sea ice in the north.  The students got into a circle and played a learning web game.  Each student pair was given a card with information about animals in Canada’s northern waters.  Once they shared the information with the class, they threw a ball of string to another pair but kept a piece of the string.  At the end of the game, there was a web of white string criss-crossing the middle of the circle.  The web showed how all the animals are connected and important in the Arctic ecosystem.

            

The students liked the next activity, an experiment showing the difference between fresh water & salt water.  Two students poured fresh water & salt water into a clear plastic hyperrectangle.  The fresh water was coloured green and the salt water was coloured red.  A third student held a ruler in the middle, separating the two liquids.  When the ruler was removed, the fresh water moved to the top of the hyperrectangle and the salt water moved to the bottom.  The simple experiment was to show that salt water is heavier than fresh water.

            

The second half of the workshop saw the students measuring the temperatures of certain liquids in vials over a period of time.  The liquids were heated with large flood lights.  The experiment was about thermohaline circulation and how global warming can effect sea ice.  The students graphed their data and presented their results to the class.

            

Overall the workshop was okay, but I think the thermohaline circulation experiment needed to be more active.  I was hoping they would let the students play with the Ozobots but that wasn’t the case.  Those were reserved for the younger grades.

            

Kindergarten Winners.

Inuujaq School held its monthly attendance awards assembly on March 16.  K-12 students who attained perfect attendance for the month of February, were called up individually to receive a certificate. 

            

March 18, 2017

I took a break from work & cadets and drove up to the top of King George V Mountain on March 18.  There were clouds in the sky but not that many to block out the bright sun.  I followed the same trail I used last February but didn’t film my ascent with my GoPro cameras.  I parked my skidoo at the summit and walked over to the edges to take pictures of Arctic Bay, the airport, garbage dump, and surrounding landscapes.  I was hoping to film a plane landing, but no plane arrived.  Arctic Bay (the actual bay, not the community), was littered with snowdrifts, making the area appear as a vast frozen field of moguls and speedbumps.  I returned to the community after enjoying the scenery for some time.

            

Road between rocks.

Colby O'Donnell speaks to Inuujaq School students.

Colby O’Donnell, a Child and Youth Advocacy Specialist, visited Inuujaq School to talk to the Grades 9 – 12 students about Nunavut’s Representative for Children and Youth (NRCY).  He explained the roles of the NRCY, his specific duties in the organization, how the NRCY helps & represents Nunavut youth, and how students can get involved in the organization.  (Their website is well organized and does a great job of explaining everything you need to know). O’Donnell also gave out copies of “An Advocate Visits – The Comic Strip” that the NRCY produces, and English & Inuktitut posters of The Convention On The Rights Of The Child.

            

At the end of the presentation, O’Donnell answered questions from the audience and gave out his contact information.  The presentation was well-informed and I think the students were glad to hear there is an organization representing their interests. 

            

The last presentation for the month of March occurred on the 21^st.  Corporal Bowskill of the RCMP, spoke to the Grades 9 – 12 students about the RCMP, its roles in the north & the rest of Canada, and what careers they have to offer to potential recruits.  He came prepared with a presentation, complete with pictures & recruitment videos.  The picture I liked was the map of Canada that displayed all the various divisions and detachment locations.  The students liked the recruitment videos.

            

Bowskill then focused his recruitment presentation on the annual summer Depot Youth Camp.  The Depot is the colloquial name for the RCMP Training Academy in Regina, Saskatchewan.  The week long summer camp is for youth 16 – 19 years of age who are interested in pursuing a career in the RCMP.  What was really beneficial was that a high school student in the audience attended the camp the previous summer.  Bowskill also happened to be there.  The two shared several stories of their time at the Depot to the delight of everyone present.  They talked about waking up early in the morning, eating in the mess hall, doing marching drill, and engaging in physical training.

            

Bowskill finished his presentation by reviewing the requirements one has to obtain before applying to the RCMP, the application & selection processes, and what to expect if your application is accepted.  He also left several application forms for the youth camp.

     

Chilly March

Regular classes resumed on February 20 after PI Week.  My students asked me what I did during PI Week and I told them.  They found my acting story quite amusing, especially the part where people thought I was injured.  (I wasn’t).  I asked my students if they went out on the land during the break, now that the sun had returned, but most of them said no.  They argued the weather was too cold.  Most of them stayed indoors and/or visited several friends.

            

I saw a few local Inuit going out during PI Week but I didn’t know who they were.  I guess they weren’t my students.  I agreed the weather was getting pretty cold even though the sun was back.  In fact, Arctic Bay was Canada’s cold spot on Sunday, February 12, (2017).  The temperature that day was a low of -39⁰C, -51⁰C with wind chill.  The human body is quite adaptable but there are temperatures that even the Inuit consider too cold.

            

In Grade 10 English, we began the paragraph/essay writing unit. I explained that paragraph/essay writing would be on their Grade 12 Departmental Exam so it was best to start learning & practicing now.  We looked at several types of paragraphs, brainstorming & organizing ideas, forming topic & concluding sentences, adding details, essay structure, and coherence.  My Grade 11 Social Studies students continued their study of European Imperialism and its effects on the entire world.  They were surprised to discover that many ethnicities in Africa & Asia went through similar negative experiences as the Inuit did in Canada.  My Grade 10 Social Studies students finished the Globalization unit and began studying Canada’s residential school system.  And finally, my Grade 10 guitar students continued learning simple songs, basic chords, and music notation theory.

            

Speaking of music, one of my former guitar students recently won first prize in the Qikiqtani Inuit Association’s Inuktitut song/poem contest.  Leetia Kalluk submitted a love song she wrote in February and was announced as the winner on March 1.  She also received $400.  She graduated from Inuujaq School last year and is currently attending the Nunavut Sivuniksavut college program in Ottawa.

            

The first eight days of March were cold.  Really cold.  Temperatures plummeted to -50⁰C and even lower.  The rules in place stipulate that if temperatures plummet that far, then classes should be cancelled.  The temperatures fluctuated throughout the day, so there were times when classes were cancelled only in the mornings and other times, only in the afternoons. 

            

I took advantage of an afternoon cancellation on Friday, March 3, and did a quick experiment.  I boiled six coffee cups of water in my electric kettle, went outside, walked into the middle of the deserted, frozen street, and threw the water into the air.  I wanted to see what would happen.  There was a lot of steam and some water did hit the ground.  I filmed the stunt with a GoPro camera.  I won’t boil the water next time.  I’ll throw room temperature water and see if it’ll turn into ice before it hits the ground.

            

The wind picked up on the evening of March 4^th.  Several locals were commenting on Facebook that the blizzard conditions were fierce.  I decided to investigate.  I put on several layers of warm clothing and went outside for a walk around the Uptown neighbourhood.  Indeed, the weather was cold and there was wind, but the blizzard wasn’t as bad as I expected.  I walked around for about 15 minutes before returning home.  I reviewed the raw footage I took with my GoPro camera and managed to get some good shots of the blizzard.  Unfortunately, the camera I was using isn’t that good at recording night footage unless there are bright street lights.  (Unfortunately, the video is too large for me to upload to this blog).  Turns out the blizzard was stronger down around the school and in the east side of town.  No buildings collapsed.

            

Cadet Corporal Tilley, Dylan returned from the National Biathlon Competition, held in Valcartier, Quebec, on March 6.  He brought back a bronze medal he won in the patrol race.  Not only is he the first cadet from 3045 Army to attend the competition, but now he is the first cadet to win a medal at the national level.  On Wednesday, March 8, Tilley was given the opportunity to share his experience to the rest of the cadet corps.  Tilley spoke in Inuktitut and I walked around, snapping photographs.  The cadets were intrigued and interested by his stories and laughed when he said something amusing.  A group photo was taken when he was finished speaking.