Blackville Students Meet Chris Hadfield

Col. Chris Hadfield and Sgt.
Brett Duffy of 679 Blackville
Royal Canadian Air Cadet
Squadron

Grade 10 Blackville student Brett Duffy contacted retired Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield before Hadfield arrived in Fredericton on April 21 as a guest speaker for UNB's Andrew Initiative on April 21.

Duffy sent a letter to Hadfield, who was the first Canadian Commander of the International Space Station, asking if the cadets from his regiment could personally meet Hadfield after the event.

In his letter, Duffy said that he thought meeting Hadfield would be an amazing opportunity for local people to have a chance to talk to such an inspiring Canadian.  Duffy said he was "was very excited and surprised" when he received a response.

Duffy's autographed photo of
Col. Chris Hadfield

Hadfield spoke at the Andrew Initiative event at the UNB Fredericton Campus last Monday. Duffy and other cadets from the area attended the event.

Hadfield spoke about his experiences in space and walked the attendees through what life in space was like.  Duffy said that the overall experience "was very fulfilling and enjoyable."

Duffy has been a member of the 679 Blackville Royal Canadian Air Cadets for almost five years. His rank in the regiment is Sergeant.

by Justin Donahue

Science in Action

By Nathalie Sturgeon

Carly Hallihan explains the experiment to Mandy Colford and Junior Vickers

Students from the grade 12 Biology class were in attendance with their experiments at a STEM (Science, Technology and Math) Expo that was recently held at James M. Hill Memorial High School.

Melissa Underhill and Carly Hallihan armed with a Wii and a cell phone brought their experiment about texting while driving. The experiment was titled “Texting Behind the WiiL.”

Alex Sturgeon, Brody Dunnett and James Vickers also went to the expo with their experiment “Game On.” They tested whether playing video games improves your reflexes.

Alex Sturgeon said he enjoyed viewing all the different and interesting experiments that were brought by other students at the expo. Another STEM expo will be held around the third week of March, and Blackville School anticipates entries for March.

Grade 12 Biology Project

By: Nathalie Sturgeon

Blackville Schools students are being subject to a special experiment this year. Grade 12 students are testing students from different grade levels. They are learning how to test their reflexes in a term project introduced by their Biology teacher Mrs. Trudy Underhill.

The class was divided into several small groups and selected a certain project provided to them or they created a project themselves. Students will spend many days using a variety of different reflex tests to prove their ultimate hypothesis.

Morgan Coughlan and Taylor Fortune are enjoying their experiment. The students are looking at how texting on mobile devices affects students’ learning. Coughlan says she enjoys interacting with the other students.

Carly Hallihan and Melissa Underhill are using a computer simulation about the effects of texting and driving. While the students text they have to drive through open gates in the simulation. Hallihan says she expects to see higher percentages of open gates missed while texting.

Many students used the ruler drop for testing reflexes, including Lindsay Sullivan, Erin Duffy and Nathalie Sturgeon. Students who were tested from grade 1 said they really enjoyed the ruler drop, and many of them stated they like the older students who helped them.
For more pictures, click here.

A New Technological Aim at Student Learning

By Nathalie Sturgeon and Braden Coughlan

Blackville School is part of a provincial initiative called “Demonstration Schools.” The aim of this initiative is to study the impact of technology and computers on student learning. Along with 36 schools across the province, Blackville will represent District 16.

The focus of this research initiative is three folded. How does technology impact students? How does technology affect the engagement of students? And, lastly, how does technology address the education of diverse learners?

Blackville School has specified two questions they would like to see answered by this initiative. Is there a correlation between one-to-one access and students being on task? Secondly, will access to online resources and a variety of options for student feedback lead students to take personal ownership of their learning?

A designated team of high school teachers has been assigned to do the research, but all high school teachers will assist in the project. The school will receive assistance from District 16 Technology Mentors Joey Savoy and Rick Hayward. They will help educate students and provide Blackville with data.

“The project is really a living and evolving one that sees us addressing new needs as we identify them through our student body,” said Blackville School Vice-Principal Aaron Johnston.

“However, like any research proposal we will have to wait and see what the data at the end tells us. But, I am optimistic that this will prove to be a good initiative,” continued Johnston.

After being asked whether more money would be set forth for a program surrounding technology, Johnston had this to say, “I am hopeful that the department will find this to be a progressive initiative and be able to help fund it.” This comes after District 16 implemented SMART Boards in all their classrooms.

Grade nine student Brittney Hayne said she finds the net books convenient when doing her work. Grade nine student Madison Astle added, “Google is like a dictionary on its own, you can pretty much find anything. If you need anything you can just search it on the internet.”

“Regardless of what the results are, Blackville School will continue to be an advocate for technology in the schools. We will use it to teach, use it to engage, and use it to reach higher and higher levels of achievement,” said Johnston.

Photos by Taylar Curtis

An Apple Leaves a Lasting Impression

An apple a day keeps the doctors away, but no one ever said anything about leaves.

On Tuesday, October 4 Grade 6 Blackville students Jules Keenan and Emily Peterson found an apple that had something very unusual about it.

Emily was digging through her lunch can and found a bright red shiny apple. Thanks to her friend Jules, the apple was saved. Jules noticed a subtle imprint of a leaf on the apple.

Seeing that this was a special apple Emily traded it with her teacher, Mrs. Carmel Fiander for another apple, and the apple is now kept in the science room.

By Braden Coughlan

Mum's the word

Chicken mummies? Grade five students at Blackville School are working on their final project for their study on Ancient Egypt. The students are mummifying chickens. Each group will eventually wrap their mummified chicken in linen (gauze) at the end of the six weeks and make a sarcophagus for their chicken - just like how it was done in Ancient Egypt. For more photos of the students working on their project, click here.
In photo (l-r): Jessica D., Robyn S., Ciara A., Hillary C., and Nicole H.

From electricity to popcorn, Middle School students display their Science Fair Projects

Grade three to five students at Blackville School held their science fair Friday morning, March 12. In photos are Logan B. (top), Kailey D. (bottom left) and Lauren V. (bottom right). For more photos from the fair, click here.