The Grade 8 students have been working on Data Management with M St. Amour. Their studies become more exciting and engaging when they learned they would be collecting and organizing data based on a Social Justice issue of their choice. Thereafter, they were expected to display the date using charts and graphs of their choice (and best suited for the task/type of data). Lastly, they would need to make convincing arguments about their data, applying appropriate tools and strategies. The results were unbelievable!

Students selected issues that were near and dear to their hearts. They spent a great deal of time compiling their data and producing various charts and graphs. Nevertheless, it was their ability to analyze these components that blew the task out of the water! Some students chose to tinker with the App Explain Everything ($2.99):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZxHYyC0_Bk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn5TQBHw7T8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS2fdTbfc1M

Regardless of their chosen “sharing” method, there were many shocking conclusions that were indisputable – needless to say, the students and teachers learned a great deal from each other.

M St. Amour was so proud and impressed with their analysis that he couldn’t help but talk about it with other teachers. Mme Madeley caught wind and started to think of ways to share their successes with others.

Mme Madeley was able to connect with Ms. Horst, a Grade 7 teacher at Sir Ernest MacMillan Public School, in Burlington. Her class had just started to work on debates… but what could possibly be the “link”?!? Their debates were all based on key Social Justice issues!

Mme Madeley shared this information with M St. Amour, and asked if she could present the connection to his students. She was looking for student volunteers who were interested in sharing their findings with the Burlington students via Skype.

The classes connected, and after a jittery start, the students shared their data and analyses one-by-one. Ms. Horst’s class posed some excellent questions, and commended our students on their efforts. Like their peers, the Grade 7 class was quite surprised by several findings.

Thanks again to M St. Amour and his students, and to Ms. Horst and her students for making this incredible opportunity happen!