Exemplary Practices 2008

Setting the Bar High

Devon Ross teaches Science 10, Chemistry and Geology 12 at Vancouver Technical Secondary School (Van Tech). Her students have achieved success in each of the disciplines she teaches. Here's why.

In Chemistry, Ross sees 200 students every other day. She encourages a strong work ethic in her students. "I set the bar high and even students who are in a challenging situation can still be successful in the Chemistry 12 course," she says. She attributes that success to a number of factors. Ross and her teaching partner have created strong relationships between students and teachers. They promote the notion that all can be successful and spend a great deal of time helping students after hours.

A culture of high expectations has been created in the course. Daily quizzes reinforce previous lessons and encourage students to maintain their course work. If a student struggles, it is addressed immediately. Additional help is available through an online discussion tool found at www.nicenet.org where students can ask questions while they're doing work at home and get the answers they need from Ross and their peers.

The class is also tightly organized. Ross and her teaching partner went through the entire curriculum. They designed all of the worksheets, quizzes, and labs collaboratively. Expectations are clearly laid out for students and if one of them is away, students will know what to do. As a result, Van Tech's Chemistry students consistently score high on provincial exams and excel in participation rates.

In the early part of the millennium, Van Tech had never hosted a science fair. Now, it hosts one of the largest science fairs in the country with 600 projects annually. Every science student in the school is required to develop a science fair project every year for five years. It demands that teachers and students make a significant commitment in terms of time and effort for it to work. As a result, students have won gold and silver medals at the regional level, have gone on to the Canada-wide competition and have even competed at the international level. Students have had their work published in journals and won scholarships to university. Students gain technical knowledge and skills and have access to resources and help them build a science community within the school while connecting with others through the competitions.

Finally, Ross noticed that the existing science curriculum favoured students who were academically strong in those disciplines. She wanted to reach students at all levels and proposed establishing a Geology 12 course and an Adapted Science 10 class that would be filled with field experiences, hands-on learning and project work. Funding, however, was a serious issue. However, community partnerships were formed and grant money was accessed so every student can afford the course field experiences. In Geology 12, the trip consists of five days travel through British Columbia and Alberta culminating at the Royal Tyrrell Dinosaur Museum in Drumheller. Students see the limestone cliffs of Athabasca Falls and the hot springs at the cave and Basin National Park. "Now they could say they had made snow angels on a flowing river of ice on the Athabasca Glacier," Ross concludes.