Sudbury Catholic District School Board

Category: Technology

Skills Ontario International Women’s Day Conference 2021

Posted on by Carlee Vendramin

On Monday, March 8th over 100 Marymount Students joined Skills Ontario’s virtual conference in celebration of International Women’s Day 2021! This event was dedicated to empowering women through relatable and engaging conversations. This year, International Women’s Day’s official theme was: Choose to Challenge.

“A challenged world is an alert world. Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day. We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world. From challenge comes change, so let’s all choose to challenge.” (IWD 2021)

Students heard how tradeswomen are shattering stigmas and stereotypes surrounding sexism, working in a male-dominated industry, being an inspiring female entrepreneur, maintaining work-life balance, and more. The Skills Ontario International Women’s Day Conference 2021 provided viewers with the opportunity to listen and to engage with women working in skilled trades and technologies. Women who are exploring and entering these careers were able to hear firsthand from women in the industry on their experiences and advice.

Students listened to encouraging messages from highly respected and influential leaders and tradespeople, including former Regal Tessa Gooden, (class of 2009) now a music producer and sing/songwriter, the Honourable Jill Dunlop, Associate Minister of Children’s and Women’s Issues, Jill Timushka, welding instructor/inspector and Hilary Noack, Owner of Ink & Iron an all-female auto body shop.

The conference ended with Principal Cassandra Tenbergen addressing her students. “Today I encourage all girls to reflect on and honour powerful women in their life and who inspires them, as they become our strong, future leaders of tomorrow.”

PEACE Students Place 1st in the Regional Paper Glider Plane Virtual Competition

Posted on by Carlee Vendramin

Skills Ontario offers a variety of opportunities for students to demonstrate creativity, skills, and knowledge of the skilled trades.

Grade 7-12 students were asked to design and build a glider plane made of household items. Their submissions included detailed blueprints, photographs, and lists demonstrating their effective use of materials and safety practices. The final task was to create a video. The test was to see how long the glider could stay in the air.

The PEACE Team from St. Albert Education Centre placed 1st in the Skills Ontario Regional competition!

Bradley Larabie-Parsons, Captain of the team, was so excited to hear the news! When asked how many trials it took to get to the winner and he said, “Too many to count.”

Kathryn Kurt teacher of the PEACE program states, “I feel so grateful for incentives like this glider competition, that cover the curriculum, make learning engaging and support a creative classroom environment. But mostly, I’m so excited to see the students in our program get the credit they deserve for the hard work they do every day!

View the Skills Ontario Paper Glider Competition: Regional Winners Announcement Ceremony that was shared on January 21.

The team will now be advancing to the championship round to compete against medalists from all regions at the secondary level. Good luck to everyone!

Winners will be announced on March 11th!

Five Sudbury Catholic Students Place Provincially in #SkillsAtHome Challenges

Posted on by Carlee Vendramin

Skills Ontario and Edge Factor initiated 17 challenges for students in Ontario to explore the skilled trades and technology through a series of contests on Twitter. The challenges began in March 2020 and wrapped up in January 2021. Sudbury Catholic students, Kindergarten to Grade 12, eagerly participated throughout the series with incredible results. Overall, the Board is proud to have five students place provincially:

• Sofia Brine, Grade 1 student at St. John Catholic Elementary School, placed third in the #SkillsAtHome Challenge: Wacky Hair Challenge.

• Maili Jutila and Lylah Jebreen, Grade 7 students at Marymount Academy, placed first in the #SkillsAtHome Challenge: Construction Sector- Iron Worker- Tallest Marshmallow Towers.

• Milena Raso, Grade 12 student at Marymount Academy, placed third in the #SkillsAtHome Challenge: Service Sector’s Paper Dress 1920’s Style challenge.

• Owen Carpenter, Grade 6 student at St. Francis School, placed third in the #SkillsAtHome Challenge – Build a Fort.

• Brady Howard, Grade 12 student at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School, placed first in the #SkillsAtHome Challenge: Cake Decorating.

“It is with great pride that the Board congratulates our five provincially recognized winners who participated in the Skills Ontario Challenges that took place between March 2020 and this January,” said Joanne Bénard, Director of Education. “Their innovation and creativity is inspiring! We thank our dedicated educators as well as our families for guiding and continually supporting opportunities to challenge and engage our students .”

“The efforts and accomplishments made by our participating students are a testament to the enthusiasm and collaboration that our staff and students display year-round,” said Superintendent of School Effectiveness, Peter Prochilo. “Skills Ontario has been a great partner in supporting the exploration of the trades pathways and it is these opportunities that broaden horizons for our youth.”

Over 3500 students Participate in Hour of Code Activities At Sudbury Catholic Schools

Posted on by Carlee Vendramin

Approximately 3, 543 students Kindergarten to Grade 12 from 167 classes Board wide participated in Hour of Code activities during Computer Science Week. The Hour of Code is a global movement that Sudbury Catholic District School Board staff and students are thrilled to participate in annually.
This year, activities were held virtually and in-class. Classroom teachers registered their students to participate. They then taught a lesson on their own or joined one of the six lessons led by members of our Learning Support Services team. In addition, the Board also hosted two virtual evening sessions in which 74 additional coders helped create an online dance all while learning about coding!

The event continues to grow in popularity each year as more and more classrooms participate in computer science and coding activities!

“It’s incredible to see the level of dedication and engagement our staff and students continue to show to computer science and the Hour of Code,” said Joanne Bénard, Director of Education for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board. “The Hour of Code provides unique opportunities to introduce coding to students of all grade levels. We thank our educators and those on our Learning Support Services team who always go above and beyond to plan educational and rewarding learning opportunities throughout the school year.”

Join our Virtual Dance Party!

Posted on by Carlee Vendramin

On Tuesday evening, families participated in an Hour of Code while participating in a dance party and learning about coding all at the same time! This session was designed for families to learn the basics of coding without even using a device.

Students learned that events are a useful way to control when an action happens and can be used to make multiple things act in sync. In programming, events can be used to respond to a user controlling it (like pressing buttons or clicking the mouse) and that events can make programs more interesting and interactive.

Following, our teachers taught various dance moves such as the “Star, Dab, High Clap and This & That”. Then, families were asked to create their own unique dance algorithm and to share their finished products in order to have a chance to win a family prize pack.

There is still time for families to join our next Dance Party on December 10th at 6pm. To register go to: Learning Support Hub for Students and Parents.

SkillsAtHome Challenge Series Challenge #16: Build A Robot

Posted on by Carlee Vendramin

Ms. Reale’s Grade 1 & 2 class at Holy Cross School was assigned challenge #16 as it relates to mathematics and literacy curriculum expectations. Students were asked to use their imagination to create and write about a robot following the challenge rules set out by Skills Ontario. This challenge introduces children to robotics and project planning.

We encourage students to enter the 2nd last challenge in the series for a chance to win one of three prizes. Submissions are due by December 14th at noon. More information about this challenge can be found at the following link: Build a Robot.

St. Francis Student places Third in the Ontario #SkillsAtHome Challenge Series Challenge #14: Build a Fort

Posted on by Carlee Vendramin

Owen Carpenter, Grade 6 student at St. Francis School, placed third in the #SkillsAtHome Challenge – Build a Fort.

Challenge #14 required students to build a blanket-covered structure in their home using household items such as blankets, broomsticks, pillows and couch cushions. Students were to collect and take inventory of the fort materials around their home. Using the materials they collected, the students created a design on paper and then built it. Challengers were marked on their ability to use creative items for their structures, the details within their blueprint designs as well as their overall structure. This challenge involved the following skills: planning, design, creativity, organization and fine motor and promoted the skilled trades of architectural design, ironworker, welder, and home renovations.
Owen and his brother had a fun time designing and creating their own unique forts. Owen created an army base equipped with sleeping quarters, kitchen, war zone and command base. Owen has been participating in several of Skills Ontario’s challenges.

“We congratulate Owen on his third-place finish in this #SkillsAtHome challenge. Sudbury Catholic students continue to achieve success through the series of challenges,” said Joanne Bénard, Director of Education. “We continue to invest in providing innovative and hands-on experiential learning opportunities for students Kindergarten to Grade 12 and we thank Skills Ontario for their continued partnership. The skills being developed support our focus on equipping all of our students with the skills they need for the future.”

We encourage our teachers and students to enter the excitement by joining in the last 2 competitions:

– Challenge #16 Build a Robot: November 30, 2020- December 14, 2020
– Challenge #17 Cake Decorating December 14, 2020 – January 4, 2021

Holy Cross School Complete Virtual Field Trips

Posted on by Carlee Vendramin

Virtual field trips are a form of experiential learning.  With the internet and technology, the barriers of time, cost and location have been removed making a wide variety of learning activities and experiences possible to students. Virtual field trips allow learners to engage with and to learn about authentic artifacts and to explore places important to their curriculum.

For instance, Ms. Reale’s science class at Holy Cross School is learning about the characteristics of living things and the growth and changes in animals.  What better way to learn and engage students then a trip to the zoo? Dr. Zoolittle and Roberta the Zebra, shared interesting facts about some animal architects such as the black-headed weaver bird, the burrowing owl, the dung beetle, the meerkat and the beaver.  Students traveled safely to the San Diego Zoo and even had time to meet and pet both Shiloh and Justeen, the zoo’s friendly beavers.  Students also learned about leaf art and how to make no bake beaver dams for dessert!

If you would like assistance or more information about bringing virtual field trips to your class, contact Christina Raso, Experiential Learning consultant at:  christina.raso@sudburycatholicschools.ca.

Our Experiential Learning Robotic Kits are Up and Running!

Posted on by Carlee Vendramin

According to Stephen Hawking, “Whether you want to uncover the secret of the universe, or you want to pursue a career in the 21st century, basic computer programming is an essential skill to learn.”

Our Kindergarten to Grade 12 Experiential Learning Robotic kits are designed to introduce students to stem concepts and teach even our youngest children to code! Various classrooms teachers have signed out our robotic kits and our students are having fun learning!

Check out Mrs. Denomme’s Grade 6 class at St. James Catholic School who participated in a Bot Battle. They built and programmed LEGO EV3 robots and then participate in a one-on-one battle outside the classroom that was Zoomed into the classroom, where everyone could safely watch. Congratulations to the tournament champion, Chelsea.

We want to hear from all of our classes on how they are using the Experiential Learning Robotic Kits and engaging students so please send us photos and stories!

Students participated in a bot battle!
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