Local veteran John Forbes will be participating in a commemoration marking the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Holland, taking place in Holland next month. Members of the Gretna Green Elementary School student newspaper, the Gretna Green Times, made this possible. Student reporters Zachary, Bailey and A.J. recorded an interview with Mr. Forbes regarding his wartime experience and submitted it to a national contest sponsored by Friends of Veterans Canada. The submission was a winner and the prize, a trip to Holland for Mr. Forbes.
The recently established Miramichi Rural School Observatory will have its Grand Opening Friday evening April 23rd. There will be displays of student work, demonstrations of robotic vehicles and announcements of winners of several related contests. If the sky is clear that evening then a battery of telescopes will be available for students to lead visitors through an exploration of the night sky. This project has been developed by teacher Adam Hayward with support from the Department of Education through an Innovative Learning Fund grant, Sky-Tech and CanDomes.com.
District 16 students are invited to the Gretna Green Elementary School gym on Wednesday April 14th for 3:30 pm to take part in “Let's Skippit District 16”. This event, expected to last an hour, is open to students of any age from D16 schools and will give participants a chance to learn new skipping tricks with short and long ropes, practice Double Dutch and have a good deal of fun along the way. Skippers could be selected to be members of the District 16 Skipping Demonstration Team. Skipping is recognized as being an excellent activity for the development of aerobic fitness.
First Nation students attending Bonal Law Memorial School in Rexton NB will soon be able to participate in an entrepreneurial program that will allow them to start a business venture, receive support and take advantage of mentoring from local business leaders, made possible by the Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative. An agreement was signed at the school on March 29th 2010 by former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, NB Premier Shawn Graham, D16 Superintendent Laurie Keoughan and Elsipogtog First Nation Chief Jessie Simon.
The young chess enthusiasts, Marley Thompson and John Roberts from Harcourt School, will be representing School District 16 at the Provincial Chess Tournament to be held at the Mathew Martin High School in Dieppe on Saturday April 10, 2010. Congratulations to them and best of luck.
Dozens of District 16 secondary school students put on a well prepared display of their interests in science and scientific thinking at the 2010 science fair at Harkins Middle School Thursday March 25th. The judges were impressed with the quality of the work, attention to detail and the sincerity of the presenters as they visited each of the projects. There was plenty of originality of the scientific questions many of the students attempted to answer through creating and testing their own hypotheses. Other projects displayed scientific phenomenon that students were keen to investigate.
This coming September, Miramichi Valley and James M. Hill Memorial High Schools will be "in motion". The two city schools will benefit this fall from a health and lifestyle promotion initiative called "in motion". School District 16, with the Horizon Health Network and the City of Miramichi, is a founding member of the local branch of this national movement whose aim is to promote healthy and active lifestyles amongst targeted groups in the general population.
In an ArtSmarttm project grade six students at North and South Esk Elementary School are receiving instruction from visual artists as a means of helping them understand character development, storyline and setting as they write short stories which they will develop into brief animated films. Miss Gwyneth Mitchell, a graphic artists, works with the students in the morning to assist with character development and storyboard. Mrs. Jayshree Rai works with the students in watercolour painting for the development of the story's setting in the afternoon. Teacher, Mr. A.
A display of culinary skills took place March 20th at Miramichi Valley High School as students from four schools competed in the annual District 16 Culinary Arts competition which this year was a regional event. Chefs Graham Tricket and Ryan Goldie watched closely as the nine participants peeled, sliced, diced and mixed then boiled, steamed, fried and baked their way to a delicious looking three course meal of salad, chicken and apple cake. The preparations were judged on taste and presentation with first place going to Cheryl Walosik of Bathurst High School.
Organizers of this year's District 16 Elementary School Science Fair, held March 18th, were impressed with the scientific quality of the work presented. In recent years district teachers of science have been working towards helping students understand and apply scientific methodology to investigate and find answers for their curiosities about everyday phenomena. At the fair students showed through the diversity and quality of their projects, they understand what science is and how it works.
Singled out for their work were the following prize winners.
