Pepto Bismol Lab

Megan Steciw Experiential Learning, Science and Math No Comments

The students actively extracted bismuth metal from pepto bismol tablets. A soft metal that has similar properties to lead, pepto bismol is widely used in medicine and cosmetics though does not have a specific medical purpose! Bismuth actually helps with the absorption of fluid across the intestinal wall!

To isolate the Bismuth metal, the students combined Pepto Bismol and HCl (hydrochloric acid). Students then filtered the solution. Student then pondered: “Hmmm… we have bismuth chloride…” We put aluminum in the solution to form Aluminum chloride allowing the Bismuth to precipitate out of solution. The students watched in incredible amazement as the Bismuth formed immediately as these little black dots in solution! We filtered and fired the bismuth sample. The students extracted 3.2g of bismuth from 96 Pepto Bismol tablets.

WoW! One student shared that this was a great experiment!

The students asked careful questions throughout as they extracted a solid from a solution. Incredible!

We got to extract an element!
We experimented with stomach medication
We turned a medication into an element!
We did science!

Mini Movie Filming Begins

Arnold Chan Experiential Learning, Technology 1 Comment


The Communication Technology class is creating a mini movie, Invasion of the W.A.F.F.L.E Clones: Let There Be Brunch!

It is a sequel of the mini movie, Invasion of the Waffle Clones, that was produced by the previous class of Communication Technology 5 years ago. Students are split into different rotating roles such as Director, Screenwriter, Prop Master, Cinematographer, Editor and Music Supervisors and they have been using various communication technologies such as Chroma Keys, 3D Modeling, Music Composer, Video Editors, etc. in the process of making the movie.

Today we have started filming one of the many scenes, and the class is excited to premiere their final movie on graduation day!

The Lens of Peace

Brydie Smith Beyond the Classroom, English and Humanities, Experiential Learning No Comments


In November, the Super Sciences combined forces (peacefully!) to investigate images of peace in the community. Brydie’s class introduced relationships while Megan’s class introduced how light forms images as we reflected on historic, present and future relationships in our global society. The classes collaborated in building camera obscuras! The students in the photograph (not taken with our cameras!) are building the cameras. The aperture collected the light and the tinfoil covering the aperture helped to reflect onto the surface of the wax paper. The light rays, traveling in a straight diagonal direction, inverted the image onto the wax paper that acted as a window to the world. The idea was to reflect on how we create ideas of peace from diverse perspectives. We captured images of peace through drawing and actively reflected on what is peace in our society as we engaged in a brisk walk through the city streets.

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

Quantitatively Measuring Peace

YMCA Academy Science and Math No Comments


November was “Peace Month” at the Academy and every class worked on a peace-related project. Alex and Arnold’s Grade 9 math classes learned about one way of quantitatively measuring peace : the Global Peace Index (GPI) published by the Institute for Economics and Peace. Students reflected on the validity of such a measure. They then used their data management skills to investigate how different factors are correlated with GPI.

The Grade 9s collected data using the GPI Score Map, as well as using their research skills to find data sets related to factors of their interest. They then used scatter plots and lines of best fit in google sheets to analyze correlation between the factors of their choosing and GPI.

Our classes came up with some very insightful ideas about what might correlate with GPI. Is the amount of protected terrestrial area in a country correlated to its GPI score? What about a country’s carbon footprint? Or the number of McDonalds in a country? Check out our findings!

Here’s what some students had to say about the project:

“I compared my chosen factor to GPI to see if they had a correlation, put it into a scatter plot and explained and described the correlation between the two. I learned how to write math on a computer and how to write scatter plots too. Math is related to peace because we need to factor the amount of peace in a country.”

“I wrote down the data, I was moral support and a whole lot of other things. This project was really rough but at the end of the day I am taking it as a learning experience.”

“I enjoyed doing this with my partner and we did a great job asking each other and my partner helped me if I am having trouble when finding the big mac index with certain countries. I would definitely do a good job with my partner in the future.”