Calgary Science School

Calgary Science School
It's never just an ordinary day!
Address
5915 Lewis Drive SW Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Information
Superintendent	Dr.Garry McKinnon
Principal	Darrell Lonsberry
Vice principal	Phil Butterfield
School type	Charter
Grades	4-9
Language	English
Mascot	Sean Thuna walking around in a bikini during competitions...
Team name	Phazorz (recently changed in 2011)
Enrolment	600 (January 8, 2007)
Homepage	CSS

The Calgary Science School (CSS) is a Canadian public charter school in Calgary, Alberta; which teaches grades four through nine, with classes of four of each.

Today

During the 2006 summer break, the school's storage was emptied, and turned into the art room, and the old art room was turned into a classroom. The drama room was also moved, into the old board room. At the time of writing, there are 100 students each in grades 4-9.

Over the 2009 summer break the drama/dance room was moved into the old computer lab. In the 2010 school year the school built an Indoor Activity Centre where some dance and gym classes are held.

Ten buses, owned and operated by Southland Bussing of Calgary service CSS, taking the majority of the kids to and from school every school day. They operate from the far north of Calgary to the far south. Some morning stop times are as early as 7:00 AM, and school starts at 8:45. One of the drivers is a World War 2 veteran, he retired in late 2006.

The library at CSS

Currently, CSS has over 40 staff members, including janitorial staff, technical staff, office attendants, and those in charge of publications.

Calgary Science School has a large ethnic and racial diversity throughout all 6 grades that it houses. The graduating class of 2004/2005 became the first group of students to move from grade 4-9 in CSS.

Technology

CSS maintains a 1-to-1 student to computer ratio, and it finished the transition from a Windows to a Mac base in the beginning of the 2006-2007 schoolyear. Due to an Emerging Technologies grant from Alberta Education, in the 2006-2007 as well as the current 2007-2008 school year, each student will receive their own Apple MacBook. The laptop is theirs until grade 9 and they will then pay a $75, and keep the laptop until it is rendered useless, it breaks, or they get a new one. The laptops are complete with built-in video camera, 1280x800 widescreen 13.3-inch glossy LCD screen, Apple's AirPort Extreme, and up to 3 hours of battery life. Every student receives a laptop to research on subjects in school, allowing a inquiry based education to flourish.

A lab of G5s at CSS

Many CSS classes are equipped with SMART board technology, and every classroom has a NEC projector and a screen. Those classes with SMART boards, use them for creative math and science debates/discussions. Recently, some more classrooms, as well as the music room were outfitted with the most recent smart board version. CSS also houses a lab of 26 Apple G5 desktops, another lab of 26 Apple eMac desktops, and 100 Apple iBook G4s on carts of 25 around the school. All teachers have been given Macintosh laptops when they started working at CSS, and depending on when they came, some teachers have Apple PowerBook G4s, and some, those who joined in the 2006-2007 school year, have Apple MacBook Pros.

School events

• Lasers got Talent: Groups of students or single students will audition with pieces of music they make, sing and dance to a song or just show off their talents. The best ones perform in front of the whole school. The latest show was on October 30 2009 when Chase Hadden showed of his yoyo skills and Swish Goswami became MJ and performed on Smooth Criminal.
• Laser Idol: Students use their stunning voices to sing just like in Canadian Idol, but the age requirement is between Grades 4 and 9, rather than between 16 and 28, just like on the show. Just like Laserband, the best singers are picked from the pack and put up on stage to perform for the school.
• Peace Festival: Students enter the gym and circle to many different stations that have different meaning. Since CSS has many different races and religions within the walls, most of the stations represent just that. There are stations where you pinpoint on a world map where you're from, there is a station where you get your face painted, and one station in the 2006–2007 peace festival included fictional stories written by grade 8 students, that were designed to be realistic and show some of the problems street children in favelas in Brazil face every day.

• Lego League: The Calgary Science School periodically participates in FIRST Lego League, as they have since the 2003 edition, Mission Mars. Students are invited to participate either at lunch times or in electives.

Courses

From its first creation in 1999, Science Alberta School enforced a compulsory course known as SAS Quest. When the school was renamed as Calgary Science School, the program became Quest. The objective of this course was to familiarize students with everyday problems in the world and how to solve them. This program was removed in the 2004 school year.

For electives (options) there is a choice between Rocketry, Robotics (FIRST Lego Robotics)See Lego League above, Digital Film Making, Photography, 3-D Design and Modeling, Claymation, Film study, Book club, Outdoor Pursuits, French, Spanish, Dance and many others.

Students in some classes have the option to do "Explorer Projects". They are able to pick any topic of their liking, and explore the question until answered. Students often have very wide ranges of subjects.

Recently, the plant room was turned into a woodworking shop, and now for grades 6 through 9, there is an elective started by Mr. Scott Petronech called C02-powered Cars. Students carve and sand wooden cars, load them with C02 canisters, and race them.

References

• Stephen, Cindy, "School shares peace message", Calgary Herald', December 16, 2004. pg. N.1.Fro.
• Lewington, Nancy, "Alberta has 'best-kept secret' in schooling", The Spectator (Hamilton, Ontario). September 25, 2004, pg. F.08.

External links

• Official site of Calgary Science School