Senior School Unveils Mural Inspired by the Works of Emily Carr

Mural-SrSchool_30May2016-1415-2You may have noticed a beautiful new mural that is prominently displayed in the Senior School atrium.

The mural project was spearheaded by Senior School Art Teacher Angela Jurgensen. She was looking for a project that would allow for the three Senior Art classes to interact and collaborate together. According to Ms. Jurgensen, the mural is a celebration of what “sparks” students at York House, their individual personalities, and the strong bonds they share with each other. Thirty-six students, mostly from Grades 11 and 12, worked cooperatively on each of their “puzzle pieces” and created elaborate designs to convey their ideas. Though the overall theme was the works of Emily Carr, the girls incorporated their own individual themes – their life as a York House girl. Any style could be used, as long as that the same colour palette was used throughout.

The mural’s overall design was created by Jessica, Grade 11. Ms. Jurgensen gave Jessica the following criteria: the mural should have flowing borders and not be contained by any particular shape (i.e. square or rectangle). The Facilities Department provided and cut the wood into pieces. The mural puzzle pieces were divided up for the girls to work on individually. Some girls got chose bigger pieces, others smaller ones. The overall goal was that an observer would not be able to tell where one student stopped, and another started. Everyone has enjoyed seeing the final result and the individual pieces each girl worked on are great conversation starters.

View photos of the process here and read the girls’ reflections on their individual pieces here.

Yorkies Win Kwantlen Science Challenge

IMG_6202XOn Saturday, November 28, Grade 11 and 12 students participated in the Kwantlen Science Challenge, placing first out of 30 Senior teams.

The Kwantlen Science Challenge is a day-long competition for high school students from Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island. The competition consists of five, one-hour long practical laboratory activities in Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Geology, Engineering Design, Mathematics, and Physics. The activities are designed to be educational and entertaining. There is also a Jeopardy round that includes questions in all sciences and maths, and a design project that the students build prior to the competition.

12308287_1093033057374139_5900184903511387123_nIn the Biology activity, the girls were assigned two tasks: finding “Patient Zero” and determining what type of vaccine would be most effective in combatting a new virus. In this scenario, the girls were delegates at a WHO (World Health Organization) conference who must try to determine how to handle the spread of a virus that has “caused” a pandemic. Working in their group, the girls are  offered pieces of information to determine which combination of components in a vaccine would be the most effective. York House received one of the few perfect scores in this challenge.

12246983_1093033047374140_1452275010782136047_nFor the Physics challenge, the YHS team had access to a lab that had a pellet gun mounted in a holder. They had to fire the gun (safely) into a gelatinous substance and calculate the speed of the pellets in motion, factoring in variables such as the velocity of the pellets while in gel, drag force, viscosity and more. York House was one of the few teams to complete this challenge.

In Jeopardy, there were two rounds, each with different categories varying from “Made in Canada” to “Nuclear Physics”. Our first team consisted mainly of Grade 11s, who managed to put us in a slight lead. The Grade 12s carried us into the second round. However, it was a tight battle with Collingwood right up until the final question and unfortunately, the final points were awarded to Collingwood.

Kwantlen 2015 2Our total points put us over the 2000 benchmark and scored us with one of the highest point totals of all the teams.

Congratulations to Elizabeth and Kendra, team captains, and team members Gaby, Michelle, Ariana, Fraser, Melissa, Angel and Kira!