Science School @Telus World of Science

Peek over the edge of our magic carpet as we follow Groat Road north from the University across the North Saskatchewan River leaning into each bend through the banks of Groat Ravine and make a sweeping turn at the Westmount Shopping Centre so we can come in low over the Queen Elizabeth II Planetarium to check out its restoration progress.  A little farther to the south and west, we see more renovating construction at the TELUS World of Science, Douglas Cardinal’s striking and innovative building created as Edmonton’s flagship project commemorating the Province of Alberta's 75th Anniversary. Now take a moment to consider the time space continuum, appreciating this convergence operated by the Edmonton Space & Science Foundation, a non-profit organization, on a mission to: Ignite curiosity. Inspire discovery. Celebrate science. Change lives. Personally, the opportunity to contemplate a rock from the moon and reflect on how it made its way to earth and our science centre is transformational. We are at the home of Science School.

Andrea Brickman, School Programs Specialist, came to the Telus World of Science (TWOSE) as a teaching contractor. Science School and Inquiring Minds entered her job description the first time in 2016. The next years of her journey with Inquiring Minds are not unlike the red Tardis phone box of Dr. Who, moved by mat leave jumps, personnel changes and moments not just in her life but that of others. During these COVID-19 times, TWOSE has ramped up its virtual connection to the public and I found Andrea at her home office.

She wishes many teachers could get beyond their “science disgust” when considering her site. She exhorts teachers, “If you are not comfortable with science, it is not a reason to not apply (to Science School). Think of writing in science as a big idea, not a list of curriculum considerations. Plus, there are things to do here you would not do at in the classroom because, in the case of robotics, for example, we have the resources.”

Andrea finds joy in showing off staff for many different reasons. People working in the building at the Telus World of Science love Science School. Interviews with staff prove to be some of the most treasured moments of the week. Andrea mentions the diversity of jobs required to make the Telus World of Science function; accountants, board members and yes, scientists. She illustrates with the example of a passionate exhibit designer who gets kids excited about design thinking. During his presentation, he touches on the importance of failure in creative problem solving.  

The Inquiring Minds website describes Science School this way:

Science School is designed to inspire students to explore STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) through collaborative design projects, guided explorations of the natural environment, experimentation with engineering and technology, and learning through play. This journey will help students develop a passion for science and discover the areas that excite them.

Look at the Science School webpage. https://telusworldofscienceedmonton.ca/educators/science-school/

Do you want to know more? Contact Andrea at ABrickwood@twose.ca

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

U School

From the Jubilee Auditorium it is a quick, short swooping flight to the University of Alberta north campus. Evolving on the edge of the North Saskatchewan River since its founding in 1908, it covers 230 acres or 930,777 square metres (almost but not quite bringing meaning to a million). With over 37,000 undergraduates it would have ranked 9^th as a population centre in Alberta. The program is under the aegis (I owe my personal love of Greek mythology to my most memorable U of A undergrad professor, Dr. Robert Buck, who demonstrated every class to me the essential place of sharing passion in learning) of the Chancellor and Senate of the University of Alberta, and makes the most of its volunteer experts to open the window of endless possibility in inquiry to U School students.

I caught up to Michaela Mann, U School program lead, working at her apartment near campus. COVID-19 means U of A classes are being delivered remotely and only essential work is being done on campus.  Most U of A research is continuing remotely, but essential research is being conducted on campus related to COVID-19 and clinical care activities.

Michaela’s path to Inquiring Minds started when she was working for U of A Students Union in professional development and program design for students on campus. The previous U School program lead, Melania Woloszyn, reached out looking to fulfil a U School teacher’s big idea. Mel asked Michaela to make a presentation to a U School class on leadership. There was also an “off the wall” connection, which literally came while she was climbing a wall. Michaela got to know a facilitator of class experiences at U School while on the climbing wall at the Wilson Climbing Centre and as a result in the fall of 2019 applied for the position of Program Lead.

Her first thought when asked about an overlooked aspect of U School concerns the walking. “It is a big site, basically a small city,” she told me, “and we walk everywhere.”  Walking across campus provides a visual representation of the breadth of the university. We agreed that walking is an essential and wonderful learning activity built into every Inquiring Minds site.

Michaela relishes the constant opportunities U School provides for her own learning. One of the first presentations she saw connected the spectrum and the thermo-dynamic (hot and cold) science of lasers. After predicting the effects of shining a green laser at green balloon and then a red balloon (absorbed and reflective energy) and watching one explode, she now has an incredible love of all things laser. She routinely sees that happen to U School students; exposure to something mind blowing plants seeds of interest deep in a brain.

The Inquiring Minds website describes U School this way:

U School is designed to give students the opportunity to interact with University of Alberta staff, students, professors and community members while learning about a wide variety of teacher-directed topics.  Students are introduced to the U of A and our sessions take place primarily on North Campus.  Please note U School only accepts applicants from socially vulnerable metro areas and provides rural opportunities to those outside of metro areas.

Take a look at the U School webpage. https://www.ualberta.ca/chancellor-and-senate/u-school/index.html

Do you want to know more? Contact Michaela at uschool@ualberta.ca

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

Jube School

Our first fly-over on this magic carpet ride, is the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium. This program exists in two cities: in Edmonton at the Northern Jubilee Auditorium and in Calgary at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium. Those of us who have had the privilege of visiting both these International Style monuments built to celebrate Alberta’s Jubilee (50 years) as a province of Canada have experienced a real twinge of Déjà vu or two subtly different realities. The buildings were born twin sisters and live full lives in two different settings and cities but continue, over more than 60 years, to share the same beautiful bone, muscle and skin. Twin spaces. Different places.

Karen Youngberg is the Cultural Development Specialist for the Alberta Jubilee Auditoria Society, a not-for-profit organization led by Board members working for the betterment of the Jubilee and striving to promote the importance of art and culture. She carries a passion for what she does that radiates from her eyes and smile. Her path to Inquiring Minds, like each of the people we will meet who facilitate Inquiring Minds, is unique. 

Prior to coming to work at the Southern Jubilee Auditorium in an office admin job, she had been stage managing and working with Quest Theatre, a company with lots of experience working with and in schools. Her own children had exposure to inquiry learning education. She was eager when I invited her to come and spend an observation day with me at a site being run at the Calgary Arts Common in the fall of 2015. The rest, as they like to say, is history. She connected with a supportive crew from Campus Calgary/Open Minds and built a Jube School (Jube is a diminutive or term used  to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment for Jubilee Auditorium) program at the Southern Alberta Jubilee. In the past year, the existing Northern Alberta Jube School program folded into her job description.

In these days of Covid 19, the Jubilee Auditoria are “dark”, a term they use in the theatre business, meaning the venue has been closed to the public. But Karen is busy creating ideas and sharing activities for connecting folks of all ages with the arts. I, myself, attempted her “One Line Sketching” Challenge.

I asked her to comment on something teachers might overlook about her site and she barely hesitated. “I don’t think teachers realize it is a government building. It’s filled with more than 60 years of storytelling. They will get to feel that lived experience of building. The arts are about creating and sharing community.”

For her, a hidden gem of Jube School is directly related to that idea. Her voice warmed as she related the wonder of a student in Grade 3 who volunteered the fact that his dad loved Led Zeppelin. Building on those associations for kids makes participating in an activity about the Jube's state of the art sound system a connected, deep learning experience. Karen enjoys revealing the long list of artists who have walked from the dressing rooms out to perform on the Jubilee stage.

The Inquiring Minds website describes Jube School this way:  

A week-long program of personalized, interactive, arts-based learning rooted in elements of each class’ curriculum. Creative explorations in the technical, visual and performing arts will inspire learners and educators to make personal connections in, through, and about the arts. Working alongside some of the world’s best teaching artists and technicians, students have a hands-on opportunity to create, reflect, and explore in an environment that supports personal and social growth, empowers practical learning and inspires curiosity that enriches the individual, the class, and our community. 

Take a look at the Jube School webpage. https://jubileeauditorium.com/edmonton/jube-school

Do you want to know more? Contact Karen at kyoungberg@albertajubileesociety.ca

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

Inquiring Minds – The Fabric of the Carpet

The 13 current Edmonton and area

sites of Inquiring Minds share an application process for the 2020-21 school year and are bound together by an approach to learning. Nothing more; not extra funding or staffing, no higher order administrative structure.

The website says “Children learn best by doing. The Inquiring Minds partnership offers teachers an opportunity to move their classroom to a community site for a week of hands on, multi-sensory learning. Student learning is enhanced by meeting curriculum expectations through meaningful connections to the real world.” The website also uses the descriptive phrase “week-long, site-based, inquiry programming”.

Those ideas work together to create the essence of this approach. It’s not really a whole new world. It’s just the fascinating world that can be discovered at a site. Inquiring Minds banded together because they share this learning idea. It is an organic connection. Each site has its own individual funding and administrative organization. The diverse coordinators come together monthly to share ideas related to this approach, but there is no overall business unit or funding model in Inquiring Minds. Like the learning ideas they champion, each site handles those things in its own unique way. Inside the larger organization that is home to each program, the magic of the site and pride in the learning it facilitates help create meaningful connections to the real world.

If you want to raise the “hackles” of an Inquiring Minds program coordinator use the words “field trip” to describe your understanding of their program. While there are many places (some Inquiring Minds physical locations also welcome teachers and students to other programs that might be called field trips) providing very focused experiences for anything from an hour to a full day, the approach of Inquiring Minds is to slow down and open up the multi-facilitated learning available at that physical space. Site-based means to “be” at a site and introduce as many different curriculum connections as might to be possible in a week’s worth of full days.

Week-long has recently morphed to 5 days with the education school days (instruction days) calendar leaving fewer whole weeks. Most program coordinators use a creative approach to provide 5 consecutive instructional days. The point is to bring students and teachers often enough to the space to allow time for observing, connecting and reflecting with a variety of people and things, traverse the breadth of the space and get behind the scenes. Overcoming first impression newness and allowing for visit-revisit connections settles sensory stimulated brains and provides deeper learning opportunities. Inside this practice we like to say, “Students and teachers end up owning the space”.

The big idea behind an inquiry approach in a learning rich environment is the power of ENGAGEMENT of students; what “catches the eye”, fascinates and creates a willingness to spend time slow looking naturally leads next to lots of questions. With more time those questions lead to the process of seeking answers and that can lead to (with nurture or without) connections making curriculum objectives come alive.

One of the reveals at each site is an introduction to jobs many of us, adults included, know little about. A key component of each program is the people who work for the larger organization. Tying curriculum to the everyday skills and ideas of occupations can give reason or purpose to certain aspects of learning. In Alberta we refer to these curriculum connections under the term, Career and Life Management or CALM.

All the programs hope against hope that participating teachers will use the experience as a central part of a year long connection to learning. Facilitators offer educators ways and support to divide the school year into 3 parts: 1. before we go, 2. while we are there and 3. what we can do with what we learned.

And all Inquiring Minds sites champion the use of a journal as a primary research and reflecting tool.

The next 13 posts will be about individual sites. Our current “interesting times” gave me the opportunity to phone chat with a variety of program coordinators. There is nothing like a personal perspective to see a whole new world.

Hang on to the fringes and tassels. Here we go.

Inquiring Minds

Site Coordinators Feb. 28, 2020

I can’t help it but the words from the Disney song, A Whole New World , keep rolling through my brain as I sit to write. Yes, I watched a few of the different Duos (my goodness that word has taken on a new meaning for me in the last 3 weeks) performing the song since it was released in 1992. This math inclined brain of mine jumped to make a connection with that year. 

Gillian Kydd, in Edmonton we refer to her as the god-mother of Inquiring Minds, was early in her role as a science consultant for Calgary Board of Education. She met in the fall of 1992 with people at the Calgary Zoo. By January of 1993 she helped a teacher and class take the first steps onto that site every chilly day for a week. She began weaving a magic carpet of education, something with a “new, fantastic point of view". In 2002 she took me for a ride that showed me “a hundred thousand things to see” and left me all these years later saying “I can't go back to where I used to be”.

This "whole new world" we find ourselves in today, was not even comprehensible on Feb. 28, 2020 when the group in the photo above spent the afternoon connecting with teachers at GETCA. The opportunity to talk to teachers this way, was something new and from my observer's view point, a great success. It is safe to say, many of us hugged, shook hands and spoke to each other well inside the 2 metre acceptable circle of today’s in-person social distancing communication guidelines.

My heart sang, all afternoon.

I told everyone I just came for the T shirt. I LOVE the new logo. But I really came to see some of the old and new faces of the site coordinators. Being truly retired means I don’t go to those facilitators' monthly meetings and I do miss them. 

Great energy crackled down the long display table and the smiles on everyone’s faces spoke to an amazing current of connection.

I was inspired. I decided to write a fly-by snap shot on each of the 13 sites of Inquiring Minds and post them here.

Early in the week that was school spring break in Edmonton, I met an alumni teacher of Inquiring Minds in the Safeway parking lot. Standing at least 3 metres apart we discussed the strange new paradigm teachers found themselves in and he asked if I thought he should still apply for a site next year. “Absolutely,” I said. “We have no idea what the school year will look like in the fall. If you don’t apply you won’t have a chance to access that rich world of learning.”

Then I reminded him of all the skills his “inquiry focused” “blank journal” equipped students can bring to their remote learning for the rest of this school year.

For the next few posts, join me, as Inquiring Minds biggest fan. I want to “open your eyes, take you wonder by wonder, over, sideways and under, On a magic carpet ride”.

“I can show you the world, Shining, shimmering, splendid” of Inquiring Minds. 

I invite you to take a brief bird's eye peek with me. It will not be technologically wonderful; just words to hook you, set your teaching imagination in motion, glimpse a hidden gem.

You can start by checking out the application at the Inquiring Minds website. It could be your magic carpet to a "whole new world" of learning.

Blank Journal 101 - Rai·son d'ê·tre

If I knew in 1974 what I now know about journaling and kids and learning to read, write, do math, sketch, connect, contemplate and a wide array of other things I would have been quite a different  teacher my first day with my own classroom.

That first classroom; what a mind-blowing experience. I think my love of old brick buildings came in part from that 1931 structure on the corner of 112 Ave and 79 street.

I had giant windows which I loved and a gym in the basement with a nine-foot ceiling which caused me to be creative in my physical education lessons. Nestled next to the growing footprint of the Edmonton Exhibition Association (it was not calling itself Northlands just yet) and Borden Park I would learn about the inner city much as a science fiction character learns about new worlds. My middle-class upbringing and four years of university did nothing to prepare me for the alternate reality I discovered but that is another story.

In a short amount of time, I felt that my university education courses had not given me tools to help my Grade 5 and 6 students learn how to escape the cycles of poverty that shaped their lives and daily presented obstacles to the acquiring of even the basic skills in reading, writing and math. The CI (Curriculum and Instruction) courses I took never touched on the realities of engagement, individualization, brain development and certainly not how to use a blank journal. 

I would give anything to be able to go back and start that first day with all those students and a set of journals.

As I write that I now, I realize that is not fair to my whole post secondary experience – I had Dr. Buck, Iain Gunn-Graham and Rachel Kindersley to thank for modelling how to engage me and share the passions they had which fuel many of my interests to this day. I just did not appreciate that aspect of their work. Engagement.

I had arrived at the University of Alberta a “good student” with outstanding departmental exam results. I had learned to write the five-sentence paragraph and the five-paragraph essay, using a point by point outline form. I could write on any topic, even something I knew little about. I loved math and sewing thanks to some wonderful high school teachers and I had just begun to think about the world from a social justice point of view.

I am unsure of the Education course material now, but I cannot find a course called Blank Journals 101 listed anywhere (the Google search did show me lots of ideas for buying journals and prompts). On this first day of school 2019-20, with an uncertain approach to curriculum on the Alberta horizon I am going to write and post as often as I can about what I know about blank journals and their power for learning. And I will offer connections to the world of people who support this educational tool and concept.

Now, enough of the rear-view mirror.

I am making a vow to write myself every single day. Join me. Get started with kids. Have a great year.

To infinity and beyond. Buzz Lightyear

Honouring my teaching journey

I first saw Robert John Meehan’s inspirational statement “If you ask me what I came into this world to do, I will tell you without hesitation: I was born to be a teacher” in my early days on Twitter less than a year after officially retiring from Edmonton Public School Board. I could not actually retire from teaching.

My earliest memory of stating that I wanted to be a teacher dates to a time when I am about 9 years old. I was likely more interested in bossing around my sister, brother and cousins during the playing of “school” but the formal idea stuck. I was fortunate during my grade 1 to 12 experience to have what proved to be an amazing number of excellent educators from Rose Wollman (Gr. 1), Nancy Eng (Gr. 5), Ruth McQuarrie (Gr. 7), Daiyo Sawada (Elementary Math), Bill Tanasichuk (Science 10) and Lorne Sparks (Social Studies 10 and 30) whose collective impact formed my attitude that this was a profession to aspire to. While my Faculty of Education experiences in university were not all as satisfying, I did spend time in the presence of 2 master lecturers: Dr. Robert Buck (Classics) and Iain Gunn-Graham (Art History) who illuminated the power of story as a teaching tool and learned to love dance from Rachel Kindersley.

My first teaching assignment as an EPSB teacher in 1974 landed me on another planet, the inner city of Edmonton. The product of a basically middle class childhood and with nothing from my university training to prepare me for what I discovered was the childhood reality of most of my students at Cromdale, I threw myself into changing those kids lives. I had the great good fortune to be supported in my educational growth by a superior administrator, Len Fossum, who encouraged me to use my passion for physical education to engage my students. From there I found myself in the beginning days of early childhood education inside EPBS and learned the lessons related to use of theme as an organizing idea for educational activities and experiences.

In 1977, I was invited by the innovative EPSB administrator, Keith Muirhead, to be part of the staff he was pulling together to create the first fine arts focussed alternative elementary program in EPSB at Virginia Park. I came in as an early childhood dancing “expert” and added skills every day to my teaching tool kit. School wide collegial planning and opportunities to learn by observing other fine arts “experts” were integral pieces of my professional development. I became a teacher/librarian and joined the ranks of Best of the Best and worked on the development of a Focus on Research which lead to a Focus on Inquiry.

When my own children began to attend Virginia Park, I moved to Beacon Heights to update that learning resources collection and an initiative to manage it with computer technology. There I enjoyed the company of north-east teachers banded together to promote writing, a collaboration of schools called WOW (World of Writing) and planned and hosted several student writing conferences. I was given the opportunity to train in Balanced Lit and added another collection of tools to my kit.

And then in 2002 along came Edmonton Oilers ICE School, my dream job that I never knew would exist until I was given the opportunity to build it. Based on the ground-breaking work of Gillian Kydd and Open Minds/Campus Calgary, I was seconded to the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation and asked to create a program inside the world of an NHL hockey rink, the Edmonton Oilers and Northlands. During that time, other site coordinators and I joined forces to create Inquiring Minds Edmonton to support each other in our truly out of the box facilitation roles. I retired from full-time work with EPSB (and Edmonton Oilers ICE School) in 2011.

My mother’s battle with cancer and the birth of my first grand-child made the lack of support to me (through any kind of supply teaching) very apparent. But my passion for and commitment to this type of work lead me to an opportunity to build EJ School (Edmonton Journal) and support the development of JUBE School (Northern Jubilee Auditorium), two smaller sites.

These days I use Twitter to promote week-long, site based, inquiry learning and what it means to 21st century learners. I enjoy the planning with teachers, scheduling and connecting of experts to students as much for my personal growth as for the benefit of a program. I believe passionately that learners need the tools of observation, interview and critical thinking to facilitate the essential brain activity of learning and require many diverse hands-on experiences for neuron development, no matter what age or stage of life.

“If you ask me what I came into this world to do, I will tell you without hesitation: I was born to be a teacher”