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The Grade 9 science class is focusing
on understanding DNA. Girls work in collaborative groups to
build models to simulate the structure and replication of a
short strand of DNA. They will translate their nucleotide codes
into peptides, which then form proteins. Students will then
introduce different types of mutational damage to the DNA strand,
and compare the original peptide sequence with those resulting
from each mutation. Resulting damage to somatic cells will be
compared with damage to reproductive cells.
Our Grade 10 mathematics curriculum is geared
towards preparing students for their tomorrow. It must equip
them with essential mathematics knowledge and skills that
will help them compete in a global economy. The students are
currently studying the unit on Financial Applications of Sequences
and Series. Today they will determine the value of any term
in an arithmetic or a geometric sequence, using the formula
for the nth term of the sequence.
The Grade 11 Latin class is continuing their understanding
of unadapted Latin texts. This unit is entitled “The
Only Good Woman…” and the reading concerns a grave
inscription for a woman named Claudia. Students translate
the inscription into English and discuss the female virtues
ascribed to the dead woman by her husband (filial pity, production
of male offspring, marital fidelity). They compare this grave
inscription with another epitaph, containing praise by a woman,
Fabia Paulina, for her dead husband. This comparative study
allows girls to study male Roman accounts of women in various
genres of Latin literature in order to discover what positive
and negative idealization of women existed in Rome. Through
this study they will also come to see how many of these idealizations
are still at play in our own world.
Grade 12 students are completing a unit
on biologically important molecules. They are discussing the
importance of enzymes and their role in homeostasis. Students
are also learning about women scientists and the study of
DNA.
Some of the other Grade 12 students are
currently studying the Russian Revolution (1917). We have
reflected on a comparative matrix that provided a model for
understanding the causes of the revolution. Today, students
examine pre-revolutionary Russia from a class-based perspective.
Students will read How Much Land Does a Man Need? by
Leo Tolstoy or The House with the Mansard (An Artist's
Story), by Anton Chekov, and discuss how art and literature
was/is used as a form of political protest. Students will
be creating a story, picture, painting, or collage that follows
the style and purpose of Chekov and Tolstoy. Their piece can
critique pre-revolutionary Russia or examine the current political
climate in the U.S or Canada.
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