Grade 8 Students' Science Research Published Online!

 

Grade 8 Students at AISM explored how scientists use evidence to study the process of evolution. They took part in an academic research process and wrote about what they discovered. This magazine is the result of their efforts. It is 100% researched, written, edited, laid out, and published by students. Take a look and see what they were curious about when exploring evolution. The results will blow you away.

Please click on the image or on this link to see the magazine.

Grade 6 "A Little Bit of Stomp" Performances

 

Grade 6 students have been combining story-telling and the creation of rhythms using everyday objects. It started out as a fairly simple musical project, but the students' imaginations,  creativity and desire to explore and experiment with costumes and props turned it into something bigger and better than the original plan!

Here's the Grade 6 Virtual Theatre showing, for one week only... "A Little Bit of Stomp"!

Amazing Grade 8 Human Rights Essays

For their final summative assignment in Individuals & Societies, the Grade 8 students were asked to produce a formal research essay using criteria adapted from the Grade 12 Extended Essay rubric to explore and evaluate a chosen human rights topics of interest. They were asked to use peer-reviewed academic journals to inform their research as they followed guidelines adapted from AISM's Big 6 Research Planner.

Here are some examples of the work they have produced (click on the images below to go to their work):

Buffalo Voices Podcast - The Grade 11 Core Retreat

Grade 11 students just had a Core Retreat in which they were able to dedicate some time to the Core of the IB Diploma. This is made up of Theory of Knowledge (TOK), the Extended Essay and Creativity, Activity and Service. 

In this podcast, Sam Sherratt finds out more about the retreat, what happened and what impact it had by chatting to Gabriel Di Mauro (IB Diploma Coordinator), Rui da Silva (Extended Essay Coordinator), Colleen Fletcher (CAS Coordinator) and two Grade 11 students, Rylan and Jana.

AISM Radio · Buffalo Voices Podcast - G11 Core Retreat

Mathematical Micro-Inquiry Projects in Grade 8

These mathematical inquiry projects give Grade 8 students the opportunity to transfer the mathematical concepts they have been learning this year into real-life situations.

The one about how much money will you cost your parents is proving to be a popular one!

Which one would you choose to do? Let Francois McCurdy know if you decide to do one of the inquiries yourself and share your findings with him!

MAP Growth Testing Update: Looking at Data

 

We have started two weeks of faculty inquiry into the MAP data - starting with a look at the data across the whole school and then moving on to a closer look at data in grade levels, subject areas and for individual students

The video above - Part 2 in our series of videos about MAP Growth testing at AISM this year - explains some the things we have already seen in the data, gives families some guidance about emotional reactions to test scores, explains where MAP fits in the whole story of assessment at AISM and explains the timeline for sharing reports with families.

If you have any questions about the content of this video, please feel free to contact Sam, our Director of Learning.

Grade 7 are Spoken Poets and Activists!

The current unit in 7th grade Integrated Arts is "Activism in the Arts". We're looking at some of the visual art, music and performance art that has come out of activist movements around the world. All students created a spoken word poem about a cause of their choosing. Spoken Word Poetry has become a popular performance art among young people especially as they share their voices to help change the world and show their own power for good.

Here are some examples of the spoken word poems that Grade 7 students have been producing.

Zara:

Ver no Vocaroo >>

Kate:

 

Francesca:

Raisa:

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

Powerful Poetry by Grade 9 Students

 

Grade 9 students have written, performed and produced videos for a variety of powerful, and personal, poems. These poems have been curated on the AISM Grade 9 Poetry Slam website. 

Click on the titles across the top of the webpage in order to access the pages for each individual poem, and don't forget to click "More" and scroll down the right-hand side of the webpage... there's more amazing poems there too!