January 2011 - Mini Gryphon.indd - Meadowridge School

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Meadowridge School A R O U N D M E A D O W R I D G E Page 16 | JANUARY 2012 Our Grade 2 and 3 classes have been enjoying Karate instruction on Tuesdays and Thursday mornings. Master Fraser and Ms. Wolf have been delivering outstanding classes for our students. The children are active and engaged. The focus of the class has been on developing good discipline (listening, following instructions, and trying their best!) The students are learning basic self-defence movements and are demonstrating that they are principled, open-minded and are risk-takers! Way to go! Our Junior Kindergar ten, Kindergar ten, Grade 1 and Grade 4 students have begun their Gymnastics Unit. The students are learning and practicing many different movement skills: locomotion, suppor ts and balances, rotations, springs and landings and routine building. The focus of the unit is to help our students acquire the fundamental movement skills which are the basis for all spor ts and physical activities. Our students have been asked to focus on being a Thinker, Inquirer and def initely a Risk Taker! At the end of the unit, all PYP students will have the oppor tunity to take par t in a f ield trip to Celestina Popa Gymnastics Club. - Ms. Michelle Brookshaw, PYP Teacher In November, the Grade 10 Visual Ar ts students had the oppor tunity to visit the Vancouver Aquarium and to view the animals within that environment from a purely ar tistic viewpoint. Developing good observations skills when working from still life can be diff icult enough, but what if the object you are trying to draw is moving all over the place? Students quickly found that new approaches were needed to capture objects in constant motion and incorporate the multiple senses activated during this experience. Some animals were hastily sketched, while others allowed for more detailed observation to take place. Although the trip was only four hours long, it required sustained intense concentration and engagement of the right side of the brain. Students were surprised how tired they were by the end of the trip! Back in the studio, students worked from their sketches and photos to develop compositions that conveyed what they found most interesting about our trip. The ar twork produced clearly shows the inf inite variety of perspectives, possibilities and individual experiences gathered from life to use as sources of inspiration. - Ms. Rhonda Laurie, MYP Teacher
Page 17 | JANUARY 2012 Las t year you helped us IMAGINE. This year, please help us DESIGN the nex t 25 year s. In nature, crystals are formed naturally from molten rocks (magmas), from hot aqueous solutions, or from hot gases. Well-formed crystals, frequently encountered in hydrothermal veins, are spectacular in form and color. Such crystals have always held a fascination for people. Throughout time, people have collected crystals, treasured them, studied them, and even ascribed magical powers to them. Mineralogy, the description and study of crystals, is one of the oldest scientif ic disciplines. Over the centuries, people have learned how to cut and shape crystals, generally by trial and error, to enhance their beauty and value, but the actual understanding of crystal structures, and classif ication of them, did not occur until the early twentieth century. The MYP 9 Science class has begun making their very own glow in the dark alum crystals. The students will take care of and grow their crystal for two weeks. The object is to try and grow the largest crystal. The f irst step to complete consists of creating the environment for the crystals to grow. This begins with students mixing ink from a f luorescent highlighter pen with hot tap water. Students will then slowly stir in alum, a compound that is used in the pickling of food. The alum, like sugar, will only dissolve so much, but when it has absorbed as much of the coloured liquid as it can the crystal grow th can then occur. Beakers are covered with a clean coffee f ilter or paper towel and taped to keep dust out. Crystals can begin to appear within one day. When all the crystals have grown and are dried, the Kindergar ten class will judge the best crystal. They are some very hard judges, so may the best crystal win! - Mr. Jamie Marriott, MYP Teacher On Wednesday, January 25, 2012, the Grade 7s had their f irst day in the lab with an experiment to learn about yeast grow th. Yeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms, classif ied as fungi. In other words, yeasts are very tiny fungi. They feed on organic compounds (like sugar) and conver t it into carbon dioxide. Yeast is also used in traditional baking, as the yeast releases carbon dioxide gas the bread rises. Yeasts are uni-cellular organisms, and they do not need sunlight to grow and accounts for less than 1% of all fungal species. The lab was to determine and test the limiting factors of yeast grow th, things that affect whether the yeast lives or dies. These include factors such as the temperature of the water they live in, the type of food they are given, the amount of food they are given, or the quality of the water. Different groups developed different experiments to test these limiting factors. The students learned a lot. One group learned that yeasts grow best in sugary water, whereas yeasts living in salty water do not grow well. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) has about the same effect as salt. Other groups, which tested how yeast grew in different liquids, learned that, if fed sugar, yeast grows best in clear water. It doesn’t per form as well in apple juice or soda pop. - Nicolas, Grade 7 Student
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January 2011 - Mini Gryphon.indd - Meadowridge School

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