Scientific Observations in the Park

Brandon Stewart Beyond the Classroom, Experiential Learning, Science and Math No Comments

Early in the school year, the grade 10 science classes learned about quantitative and qualitative observations in the field. The groups headed out on a single-period walking excursion to Queen’s Park where they could conduct some observations in a dynamic environment. Students began by engaging their senses; feeling textures, smelling scents, observing colours, and listening to the sounds around them. Learning how terms like “lots,” “green,” “good,” and “cold,” represented judgements that could be considered qualitative was useful. Students also developed knowledge around how countable measurements of distance, weight, amount, temperature, volume, and area using standard units would be considered quantitative.

Students toured in small groups around the park, making both qualitative and quantitative observations. They were instructed to return to the whole group with three qualitative questions, and three quantitative questions that could be posed about features of the park. A group discussion was held about how that data could be gathered and verified.

Pine Crest High School Trip

Brandon Stewart Beyond the Classroom, Community, Experiential Learning No Comments

A group of YMCA Academy High School students embarked on a three day journey into the wilderness of the Muskoka region at the YMCA’s Camp Pine Crest. The trip included a stay in cabins, songs and s’mores around the campfire, portaging canoes, and a night at a backwoods campsite on picturesque Gullwing Lake.

During the paddle back to the main camp, our Pine Crest trip guides asked the Academy teachers and students for their “Rose, Thorn, and Bud”; a clever way to ask for a positive reflection, a negative experience, and a wish for the future. Students shared their enjoyment of the games, the good sleep they had, and the mental health break that the wilderness brought them as their roses. They shared about the challenges posed by the bugs, the sun, and missing home as their thorns. Students also cited the return to their own beds, seeing family that they were missing, and a reunion with their phones as their buds. One teacher, who saved his Rose, Bud, and Thorn for this very blog post, reflected that he was impressed by how dedicated students were in hauling gear and canoes through a muddy and bug-infested 300 meter portage, how he wished the adventure could have been just one night longer, and how much he was looking forward to ice cream upon his return from the wilderness.

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Glimpse into the life of a Beekeeper

Brandon Stewart Beyond the Classroom, Environmental Stewardship, Experiential Learning No Comments

The weather is warming up and pollinators have begun buzzing around our neighbourhoods. The YMCA Academy had a first hand lesson in a particular pollinating species. Though solitary bees, flies, beetles, birds, and native bees make up the most significant populations of pollinators, no insect has quite the same history with human activity as the Western Honey Bee.

This spring the Academy High School students got a glimpse into the life of a beekeeper. Academy teacher and hobby beekeeper, Brandon, brought in an empty hive and beekeeping equipment to demonstrate some of the jobs of a beekeeper. No bees were brought in for the demonstration, but the hive and equipment was enough to show the basics, and excite the curiosity of student participants. The workshop began with bee behaviours and biology, the life cycle of honey bees, the different types of bees, and the roles that bees take in the colony, and about the importance of pollinators in our ecosystems.

Lighting the hive smoker, and donning a beekeeper’s veil, Brandon demonstrated a hive inspection. He explained the parts of a Langstroth Hive, and how the bees use the space within. Making connections to Biology, Green Industries, and Careers courses, the students discussed the hazards and benefits of keeping bees.

Student questions focused on the role of the queen in the colony, what swarming behaviour is for, what a bee sting feels like, and how beekeepers get their start. At the end of the workshop, Brandon invited students to taste honey directly from the comb.

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Mental Health Promotion Workshops

Brandon Stewart Community, Events, Healthy Living No Comments

The YMCA Academy has been hosting placement students from the Ryerson, Centennial, and George Brown Collaborative Nursing Degree Program. The placement students set an independent goal to develop and run a series of Positive Mental Health Promotion Workshops. High School students rotated through four workshops:

  • Affirmations and Positive Self Talk
  • Stress Ball Making
  • Mindfulness and Rest
  • Stress Management

High School students developed skills, strategies, and tools for taking better care of themselves and their mental well being. Each student left with a stress ball, a set of positive self affirmations, and a range of strategies to help prepare them for better self care.

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Midwinter Feasts Blog

Brandon Stewart Community, English and Humanities No Comments


As the days have gotten shorter, the weather has turned colder, and the first big holiday celebrations of the winter holiday season have begun, students at the YMCA Academy have been discussing the celebrations that take place during the winter months.

Students in the 20th Century World History Course took a break from learning about the geopolitics of the last 120 years to explore why this season is so jam-packed with holidays and important celebrations. We explored the idea of how challenging the shorter, darker, colder days can be, and how in communities of the past the need for celebration, community, and levity could be extreme during the midwinter months.

A grid of holidays, celebrations, observances, and feast days was put up on the board, students were tasked with doing research into a handful of the feast days, and were asked to write a brief description of the holiday. The holidays were selected from faiths, secular observances, and historical festivals, and ranged from the familiar to the unheard of.

Once the grid was populated with descriptions, symbols, art, and graphics, students were asked to verbally talk about the midwinter feast that they found the most interesting. The Class was very excited to learn about some of the celebrations that have been important during this time of year.

  • Bodhi Day
  • Christmas
  • Emancipation Proclamation Day
  • Hanukkah
  • Human Light
  • Kwanzaa
  • Makar Sankranti
  • Malka
  • Modraniht
  • Pancha Ganapati
  • Sadeh
  • Saturnalia
  • Sol Invictus
  • Solstice
  • Yalda
  • Yule