On Thursday, October 7, students in the new Grade 9 Integrated Program at Aldershot High School held a Cross Boomerang Competition. Each student built their own boomerang and competed by whirling their colourful boomerangs across the blue sky.  

The focus of the Grade 9 Integrated Program is to enhance students’ learning through providing a hands on authentic task for the students in the area of woodworking and linking some of the key curriculum learning strands in science, math and English courses. The advantage of this integrated approach, the school says, is it helps students to make more “meaningful connections” between the given subjects by conducting an authentic task.

The Boomerang unit consisted of following blueprints and building a cross boomerang along with the literacy component embedded in the project in which students had to complete a diverse research project on the Aboriginal origins of the boomerang, says teacher Marian Start, who also works alongside Paul White, Communications Technology teacher to administer the program. To work on key literacy skills, Start created assignments that supported the construction of the boomerang. Students completed a visual journal of steps in building a boomerang, along with a health and safety booklet.

“This was a much more motivating way to develop literacy skills,” says Start.

Each student was part of a leadership team that worked together to prepare for all aspects of the Boomerang Competition Day.

“It was a great day as the students learned a lot while having fun,” says Start.

The rationale for the Integrated program was to create a more engaging way of reaching Grade 9 students who were reluctant learners in the traditional classroom setting, Start says. It gives these students opportunities to “shine and/or work to their strengths but to also engage them better in further developing their literacy skills” through physical tasks, adds Start.

What’s next for the students?

The program is now undertaking a marketing research unit. Students will create a marketing research project for a grocery store. They will conduct field research and create a media presentation on their product research.