Inquiring Minds - a poem

Inquire, Inspire, Immerse

Interact, Innovate, Investigate

Engage

Experience, Excite, Empower  

Curious, Connect, Collaborate

Question

Active, Authentic, Awareness

Motivate, Meaningful, Mindful

Memorable

Dreams, Deliver, Deep

Joyful, Powerful, Real

Partnership

Hands-on, Self-directed, Flexible

Eye-opening, New, Stimulating

Education-movement

This was created from the collected words of site coordinators September 2019.

Elevate Aviation Learning Centre – Edmonton International Airport

Spring is definitely in the air.  Let us imagine jets on this magic carpet and head out to the Edmonton International Airport. Edmonton has a rich aviation history that has always fascinated me. I am quite excited to visit here because this is a brand-new member of Inquiring Minds. Elevate Aviation is a non-profit organization founded in 2015 in Edmonton, Alberta. As we fly in, I want to be careful to avoid causing any air traffic controllers a problem. I will just peek down at the horses training on the Century Mile racetrack (I do love horses).

Airports all over the world look different right now. Edmonton International Airport takes the current COVID-19 (coronavirus) very seriously and has been working closely with Alberta Health Services (AHS) and Public Health Agency Canada (PHAC) to identify best practices and help inform passengers with the correct information. In this time of travel restrictions, physical distancing and health concerns, EIA continues to stay open for critical and essential travel.

Nova Andrews, Program Director for the Elevate Aviation Learning Centre, and I had a wonderful chat about the development of this program. The paths to Inquiring Minds are forked and winding. A ballet dancer who had a career in aviation, she found herself recently taking off into the open skies of Elevate. Like all of us in these unusual fluid days, she is learning about navigating interesting times. She is excited and hopeful about the weeks in the 2020-21 school year following the Inquiring Minds model. We agree on the idea of flight as inspirational, innovating and engaging, a perfect place to start an opportunity to learn, no matter what age the learner is.

The Inquiring Minds website has this to say about Aviation School:

Students see the world of aviation through a brand-new lens, meet inspiring people, and learn about careers through mentor presentations, conversations, hands-on activities, and tours. They will also have the opportunity to go behind the scenes with Edmonton International Airport, NAV CANADA, Edmonton Flying Club, Canadian North, North Cariboo Air, and the Royal Canadian Air Force. We invite you to join us on this week-long interactive and immersive experience as we focus on aviation careers, aviation safety, and design thinking for innovation.

Look at the Elevate Aviation Learning Centre webpage. https://www.elevateaviation.ca/programs/ealc/

Do you want to know more? Contact Nova at learning@elevateaviation.ca   

You can start your application process at the Inquiring Minds website. https://ourinquiringminds.wordpress.com/application/

Zoo School

From Rogers Place we head west above 104 Ave, pick up the Groat Ravine, check to see how many new green leaves are showing and then turn right and follow the North Saskatchewan River. After a couple of bends we will swoop under the pedestrian bridge that joins Hawrelak Park to Buena Vista Park then bank right to our destination, the Edmonton Valley Zoo.  The Zoo welcomed its first guests on July 1, 1959 and maintains a vision of being a special place that inspires love and learning of animals and nature. Certainly, when the god-mother of Inquiring Minds, Gillian Kydd, visited it back in 1999, she found a warm, welcoming environment and staff with a willingness to let children get behind the scenes. The Zoo had already had a class or two come every day for a week by that time and were well on their way to the program that is called Zoo School, today. During these Covid-19 times and like all City of Edmonton recreation facilities and attractions, the Zoo is closed to the public until further notice. However, true stewards, the staff at the Edmonton Valley Zoo continue to provide the highest quality of care to the more than 350 animals that live at the zoo.

Courtney van Roijen, Immersive Experiences Coordinator for the Zoo, tells me she was working at the Zoo part time while finishing her education degree when she heard about Zoo School/Zoo Immersion. Since she already had a BSc in Biology, the idea of being able to teach kids and animals really called to her. “I loved the idea of being able to work in a non-conventional classroom,” she adds. Courtney taught Zoo Immersion for 2 years before she took over the Zoo School coordinator role in 2014 and has been with Zoo School and Inquiring Minds ever since.

Courtney feels people overlook the inter-curricular objectives the program can provide and that many teachers think it is just for younger kids. “I've had a blast doing older grades and trying to think of ways to integrate other curricular ties. I had a junior high class that focused on careers. We talked to multiple people at the zoo and talked to a manager about job interview techniques,” she says. She continues with a smile, “I have gathered data to calculate the perimeter and area of an enclosure using non-standard measures, as in our feet.”

One surprising thing that Courtney loves sharing is the zoo’s compost space. She expands, “Whenever we get up there it's fun to be able to talk about things we can do to support the environment and when we take a quiet moment up there we can often see wild coyotes that live in the area which is an interesting juxtaposition to the fact that we have camels right around the corner.”

The Inquiring Minds website describes Zoo School this way:

Get closer to the animals at the Edmonton Valley Zoo! Imagine how memorable learning is when smelling, touching, hearing and seeing our residents up close and personal.   Zoo School offers a customized curricular week-long immersion into the inner workings of the zoo.  This program builds writing and observational skills through the use of a naturalist journal, beginning in September and carrying on throughout the year until June.

Look at the Zoo School webpage https://www.edmonton.ca/attractions_events/edmonton_valley_zoo/zoo-school.aspx

Do you want to know more? Contact Courtney at courtney.vanroijen@edmonton.ca

You can start your application process at the Inquiring Minds website. https://ourinquiringminds.wordpress.com/application/

School at the Legislature

When I am done this Inquiring Minds tour, it’s going to be hard to give up the magic carpet, but right now I wish we were walking this next path together. Regardless, we will fly out of Churchill Square south and pass a fine example of Edmonton’s architectural heritage, the Hotel MacDonald. At the Mac, let’s swoop gently to the west to follow the Heritage Trail that approximates the original path from the settlement of Edmonton to the Hudson’s Bay Company Fort where the Alberta Legislature Building sits. Along this trail are plaques about sites of historic importance and McKay Ave School, the meeting place for Alberta’s first Legislative Assembly. As we wend our way through the buildings just above the treetops lining the streets, we finally pass the Federal Building and turn to the right to carefully swoop down to the reflecting pools. Look south and take in the iconic Dome and then north to the windows of the Education Centre, home of the School at the Legislature.

Are you a teacher interested in Parliamentary Democracy? Consider the Alberta Teachers Institute on Parliamentary Democracy planned for this fall. I can’t help but wonder here, if an alumnus of School at the Legislature is already working in our provincial civil service or considering running as an MLA?

The health and safety of the Members, staff and visitors is a top priority for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, so during these Covid-19 times, all tours and public events are suspended.

I had the opportunity to catch Kelsey Kendrick, Michael Ruiter and Grace McNeely working hard in their respective homes. Kelsey first observed Inquiring Minds in action at the Legislature in 2015. As a program assistant, she facilitated a hodgepodge events for programs and exhibits. Michael Ruiter, with a Master of Letters in Medieval Studies, was a tour guide (Heritage Interpreter) at the Legislature when he met Inquiring Minds through a class of Gr 4 I brought from EJ (Edmonton Journal) School. Grace McNeely, who recently became SATL Education Coordinator, started at the Legislature in fall 2016 as a Heritage Interpreter. Her first interaction with SATL was giving a small group interview for a French class! She began leading SATL weeks a year later, in 2017, and eventually became a Programs Assistant.

I asked each of them in turn about misconceptions teachers might have about spending a week at the Alberta Legislature. In their own ways they all came back to the idea that the educational opportunities of their space are so much more than social studies. They enjoy making connections to ideas teachers might only dream they could make there.

The diversity of their hidden gems surprised me. These gems speak to the wonder of how pleasing it can be to be engaged by different things. I have visited and toured the site numerous times over many years and appreciate the fact that I have not plumbed the depths of treasures there. For Kelsey the gem is a piece of beautiful and clever stained glass in Legislature Library. Michael takes great joy in sharing a larch planted to honour Alberta’s sister province in Japan, Hokkaido and builds on its needle dropping habits to illustrate the metaphor of something being two things at once. Inside the refurbished Federal Building is a pedway stairwell walled with Tyndall stone where Grace delights in revealing fossils from a time before even flowers existed, a surprising science, art and just plain fascinating set of connections.

The Inquiring Minds website has this to say about School at the Legislature:

Bring your students to our fully equipped classroom to experience government first-hand and to meet the people behind today’s headlines!  The School at the Legislature program is targeted towards meeting all aspects of the Grade 6 curriculum and aims to educate students about citizenship and democracy while providing a fun and exciting learning environment.

Look at the School at the Legislature webpage. http://www.assembly.ab.ca/visitor/teachers/SchoolatLeg/SATL_program.htm

Do you want to know more? Contact them at satl@assembly.ab.ca

You can start your application process at the Inquiring Minds website. https://ourinquiringminds.wordpress.com/application/