I have the son of one of my high school team mates in my homeroom. He is not very interested in school, is very capable but prefers to work on his dad’s construction site. Trying to give him a larger buffet of experiences, I invited him to rebuild the microsphere. He rebuilt it without needing a map. He could visualize the pattern and liked working with his hands. I am hoping to build on this success and see if he will do some soldering.

Twice during these holidays, 6 high school students and 2 university students came in for 4 hours each to work on their projects. It was amazing to have the physics lab abuzz with work. There were no distractions, no bells, no requests to go to the bathroom, no cell phones. Just some good classic rock and lots of creativity. All were surprised at how fast the time went. They were in a state of Flow. It was fun enough that they asked to do it again!!!

Having university students mentor the high school kids not only provided confidence that the high school kids were ready for what comes, but they also provided an area of expertise that I did not.

I have a number of science 10 students who need to do course selections that will direct their whole futures in just a few months. They say that they do not need math or science 10 because they are going to do trades. The fastest mental math people I know are construction workers and plumbers.

When asked if they have ever done anything like trades before, they say no. So they are deciding the futures having never built anything, never held a wrench or a hammer. They need a project to help them legitimately pass my sci 10 class, but more importantly help them discover things about themselves to better inform their upcoming decisions.

Thanks to Anglophone East giving us a $500 sustainability grant and Desjardin giving us a $2800 grant, we were able to purchase two bikes. Thank you for 4 other local bike shops for submitting proposals. Explore Velo had the best proposal. The bikes arrived and over the holidays, I spent days disassembling perfectly good and tuned up bikes right down to the frame.

Starting next week, these same students will get to practice using a wrench and reading directions, and research youtube videos to assemble the bikes. Fingers crossed.

After a very successful 2 year secondment to Brilliant Labs, I am back in the classroom. Now I am teaching Science 10- Science for a Sustainable Society. The topics are around chemistry, circuits and power generation. I wanted students to make a tangible difference in their lives, to live a more sustainable life rather than just do a project and write a test. Of course, you should never follow someone who is not willing to go first.

I promised both classes that I would cycle to school every day that it was safe. I have tried to make this school year resolution for the past 3 years and only lasted 2 weeks. Not only did I tell students, but I also told parents. I am committed now.

La Bikery helped me reduce, reuse and recycle my 1990’s mountain bike from my New Mexico desert days. Other than cables, chain and rear cassette, we were able to update from the original parts to a 1×7 format.

So far, it has been 100%, even on the day that it rain so hard the puddles were over my axles. In order to show the students that I am doing it, I put the bike in my classroom. When the snow gets deeper, it will become too messy to store the bike there.

There is an interesting experiment happening. When I get my bike out of the cold shed in the morning, I max out at 5th or 6th gear and it is much more of a workout. However, when I ride home, I take the bike from the nice heated school and I easily travel in the 7th gear. It has been -10oC and 20 cm of snow. We will see what happens when it gets really cold!