Global Studies Department News

Celebrations in Global Studies
Posted on 02/03/2020

Our Global Studies Department is seeing many changes from first to second semester.  We sadly are saying goodbye to Ms. Kate Sparrow who has taken a position at LCVI.  She has played a vital role in the Global Studies Department, through her countless contributions in the Geography courses as well as in the Social Sciences: creating courses such as Fashion Design, Nutrition and Health and Working with Children and Adolescents.  She was never one to shy away from a challenge.  We wish her well in her next adventure and thank her for her valuable contributions to BSS.  The dept is also welcoming back Mr. Greg Cusson who will be in Law with the hopes that he will be back in History as well.  New to the department are Ms. Liz Dearborn (teaching Nutrition and Health), Mrs. Marie Demspter (teaching Fashion Design) and new to Bayridge, Mr. Erik Rutherford (teaching Geography and Drama).  We look forward to having these teachers are part of Global Studies team.

As second semester begins, it is time for students to think about and choose their courses for next year.  For a student to be prepared for today’s world, one must be a skilled critical thinker, problem solver, talented researcher and an active citizen therefore BSS Global Studies courses are a must!   As reported by both first year Commerce and Engineering students, mandatory classes include Human Geography to introduce students to worldview perspective.  Furthermore, many college and university programs combine many disciplines together (Engineering or Business with a Humanitarian perspective); concentrating on communication and teamwork skills and Global Studies courses will prepare students for these post-secondary options.  There are always some new ideas on offer as well as courses being combined with cooperative experiences.  As well, please remember that the specialist high skills major (SHSM) program in the Environment is only on offer from Bayridge.  If students have taken Gould Lake programs and are interested in Environmental Science and/or Geography courses and/or being involved in Ecoshools at BSS, this SHSM is for them!  Questions, please email [email protected]

 

Within the Careers classes, several guest speakers visited.  Thank-you to guest speaker Dan Cardinal from Skills Ontario who came into the careers class January 17th to share opportunities in the Skilled Trades.  In addition, Kiera Vanraay-Vesnaver from the Canadian Coast Guard came in to share unique opportunities to achieve a university degree while working for the Coast Guard.  Both opportunities were well received by the Bayridge students.  Also every student in careers embraced the challenge of completing a first-year postsecondary budget according to their selected pathway to assist in their financial planning as well as setting a career goal for their future.  Thank you to Ms. Brennan for offering these opportunities. 

 

The grade 11 and 12 Working with Infants and Adolescents class continued to enjoy their weekly placements at Bayridge Public School in the Grade 1 and Kindergarten classes.  Through participating in reading buddy programs and organizing activities within each class, the students have greatly valued this real-world experience.  As reported to teacher, Ms Kate Sparrow, students expressed that the placements were the highlight of their weeks.

 

Looking at local citizenship projects and how students can make a difference in their local community, the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative project in the Grade 10 Civics classes continues to be a huge success.  Students research a local, grassroots, social service charity – learning about the needs of their local community and attempting to have their charity be the recipients of the $5000 donation.  In our 13th year, BSS students, by actively participating in this program, have donated $65,000 into local Kingston charities.  The semester one classes were active citizens and over 75% of all student groups visited their charities.   Charities visited include Partners in Mission Food Bank, Maltby Centre, AMHS, Dawn House, St. Vincent de Paul, Kingston 4 Paws, and Kingston Youth Shelter.  For the two classes, presentations occurred In November and January respectively and we are excited to announce the finalists.  These groups will participate in the finals during the first week of May where a $5000 donation will be given to the winning charity in Kingston.  The following finalist groups are YPI winners: St . Vincent de Paul: Harry George, Tyler Jespersen, Ozzy Allen and Rayne Burgess and St. Vincent De Paul: Brooklyn Underhill, Sophie Dubblestein and Burke Overvelde.  We have one group who is the runner-up and if either of these two groups are unable to participate from first semester: Partners in Mission Foodbank: Nolan Lalonde and Aleck Simms.  Congratulations to these finalists.  Thank you to teacher: Ms. Scarlett and Semester 2 teachers: Mr. McLagan and Mrs. French for offering this program to the students. 

 

Geography classes were busy informing the rest of the school of the Sustainable Development Goals and students in grade 9 picked one goal which was most important to them.  Through a display, these students were trying to raise awareness of the SDG goals to the rest of BSS.  Furthermore, watch for more details regarding a development project connected to one of these goals in the coming months.

 

As well, the grade 9 geography classes and grade 10 civics class were active citizens and completed the BSS Waste Audit with Dan and Cedric from Limestone Education Centre at the end of November.  This is part of the Ecoschools program and students learned about changing their everyday choices to be more eco-friendly.  Many observations were made and discussed as to how we can engage the Bayridge community to be motivated to properly dispose of their waste.  Results will be shared at the assembly in February by the Ecoteam.  Thanks to Mr Gambicourt and Ms Scarlett for providing this real-life experience. 

Finally, the Grade 11 Law class participated in a mock trial dealing with the controversial Shafia Case in Kingston.  Students were highly engaged and motivated throughout the trial as the sides were presented to the judge and jury.  Thanks to Mr. Dave Dwane for providing this opportunity for the law students.

If you have any questions or would like to be involved, please feel free to contact Brenda Scarlett at the school.