Talented offerings for Programs in the Sciences TOPS ON bLOOR Welcome to the TOPS on Bloor presentation. I am Kathleen Craigie, the assistant curriculum leader of the program. A little about the history of the program in this building....seven years ago Bloor was chosen to be the second site of the very successful TOPS program that was pioneered at Marc Garneau CI. The TDSB was looking for a school that had experience with enriched curriculum, established partnerships in mathematics and science enrichment and was easily accessible for students in the west end of the city. I was part of the initial planning of this program at Bloor along with many of the teachers you met in classrooms this evening. Many people ask, what is the difference between the two programs beyond geographical location? Both programs are enriched and accelerated in course content however, as with any course of study—it is not identical—as we modulate our courses based on the strengths and interests of our students and staff and the opportunities that are presented to us. While MGCI has a partnership with the Canadian Space Agency and are close to the Ontario Science Centre, we have partnerships with the Department of Mathematics at U of T and the Perimeter Institute and we are a 10 minute subway ride to U of T and many other educational institutions in the downtown area. Our partnerships have helped to enrich our students learning experience and prepare them for the transition to post secondary education. Talented offerings for Programs in the Sciences

Grade 9 TOPS Courses English ENG1D3 Math MPM1D3 Science SNC1D3 Geography CGC1D3 Computer Science ICS2O3 (0.5) Comm. Tech TGJ2O3 (0.5) French FSF1P/D/2D Healthy Active Living PPL1OF/M Current Optional Course Offerings: Visual Art, Drama, Instrumental Music or Vocal Music. So what does a grade 9 in an enriched math and science program take in grade 9 anyway? Well it looks a lot like what you would take at any high school. The exception is that at Bloor you will take your Core classes (English, Math, Science, Geography, & Computer Science) exclusively with other TOPS grade 9 students. This allows us to enrich the curriculum and challenge the students in the content areas.

Other Required TOPS courses Grade 10 English 2 Maths Science History Careers and Civics Grade 12 Biology, Chemistry &/or Physics (at 4U or AP level) GLS (study and lab skills course for AP sciences) Grade 11 English Math (Functions) Minimum 2 of Biology, Chemistry &/or Physics (at pre AP level) Computer Science or Design Technology (AP) AND ONE OF AP Calculus AP English (2017) AP World History As you move along to grade 10,11 and 12, students will continue to track together in their TOPS cohort as they will take the core TOPS courses listed above. You may notice that in grade 10 and grade 11 students are taking 2 semested math courses per year. This allows students to take a first year mathematics course at University of Toronto as a grade 12 student if they wish– in the past we have had students taking MAT157—the calculus for math majors course. This year there are students taking linear algebra. The acceleration of the math content is not just to take a first year math course in grade 12 but the skills that they have learned by the end of grade 11 are essential for success in the Advanced placement calculus based physics course that we offer in grade 12.

Science Enrichment Enriched curriculum Field trips Workshops Guest speakers Competitions At Bloor the science curriculum is enriched so that some of the skills and topics from senior grades are brought down to the intermediate classes. The course content is enhanced by relevant field trips to places like the ROM for minerology labs, the Ontario Science Centre, Sick kids hospital, and the Perimeter Institute. Often our students are invited to participate in science workshops. Some of the workshops we have been involved in over the past year have been the Science Extravaganza at Sick Kids, Mini medical school mentorship at Sick Kids, Stem Cell Talks at MaRS, Med Tech workshops, Ryerson days of science, and other like Quantum Fest at Perimeter Institute. As part of our courses, we often have specialists in a field come to speak to our students to talk about ground breaking research in their areas that is relevant to the curriculum that we cover in our program. Some of our students are very competitive and we prepare our students to participate in various contests at the various grade levels. Last year we had several grade 11 and 12 students participate in the U of T National Biology competition—one of our grade 11 students finished in the top 100 of the 3000+ students in the competition. One of our grade 12’s finished in the top 1% and was offered an admission scholarship to U of T and a cash prize of $300. At the grade 9 level we have all of our TOPS students participate in a local science fair as part of the culminating activities in their science course. With the guidance of our grade 9 science teachers, students learn about inquiry and experimentation so that they may create their own experiment and investigation on something that interests them. Over the course of 5 months they prepare their science fair project. In February we have a local school science fair where the students are interviewed by external judges and then selected to particiate in the regionals.

Regional Science Fair Since 2010 12 bronze 8 silver 5 gold subject specific awards (chemistry, geology, engineering, and environmental science) 3 National Science Fair representatives Silver at 2015 National Science Fair in Fredricton, NB Scholarship to Western Every year since 2010 we have sent between 4-7 students to regionals from Bloor CI. As you can see our students have done extraordinarily well for the past three years every student who has been selected to move on have earned a medal in their entered category. In some cases they have also earned subject specific awards from various institutions such as the Canadian Association of Chemists, Ryerson Engineering, and the Department of the Environment of the Province of Ontario. In addition we have also had 2 students represent Ontario at the National science fair.

Science competitions 2014-2015 Avogadro Chemistry Contest – 97th percentile Canadian Association of Physics Teachers Contest – 2nd place OVERALL Sir Isaac Newton Physics Contest – 10th place OVERALL University of Toronto National Biology Competition – 2 National Scholars with Distinction (Top 100 overall)

Mathematics at Bloor 100% of TOPS on Bloor 9’s scored level 3 or 4 on the EQAO in 2014 Students extend their learning through bridge, chess, robotics & engineering clubs. Math contest preparation and formidable results Frequent guest speakers from Fields Institute and Waterloo as well as field trips Senior AP Calculus course Partnership with U of T Mathematics allows students to take 1st year mathematics courses in grade 12 At Bloor we have a tradition of rigorous mathematics programming that well prepares students for their post secondary education. In grade 9 100% of the TOPS on Bloor students score a level 3 or 4 on the EQAO in both 2013 AND 2014. We vertically integrate our curriculum so that our students are able to accelerate the Ontario mathematics curriculum and finish it in 3 years. This allows our students to participate in the Advanced placement calculus class and potentially earn a first year mathematics credit at U of T as grade 12 students if they so choose. The math program at Bloor is more that just problem solving, we have many field trips, guest speakers and even mentorships for students in senior years.

Mathematics Competitions 2014-2015 Pascal Contest—Top 0.1 % Cayley Contest—Top 2 % Fermat Contest—Top 2 % Canadian Intermediate Mathematics Contest—Top 0.1 % of total global contestants Canadian Senior Mathematics Contest--Top 6 % of total global contestants As with science, our mathematics department has students competing in many competitions at all grade levels. Our students have done consistently well and are recognized as exceptional mathematicians—to the point that some of our students are invited to mathematics camps at U of Ottawa, U of T, and Waterloo in the summer.

Other Enrichment Course specific enrichment and field trips Guest speakers Partnership projects Workshops Theatre Contests Clubs Teams While you have heard a lot about the science and math enrichment at Bloor it is important to note that our other core courses also provide enrichment in both content and in experience. Our students have the opportunity to participate in trips like the Stratford trip, Hot Docs film festival, Canadian Opera Company, Sunnybrook teen health partnership in media studies, geography contests, history contests, Youth Philanthropy Initiative, many clubs and teams like our debate club and internationally competitive DECA business team. Often our TOPS students bring their passions and interests and create their own clubs. This was how our DECA club formed...a small school where the voices and interests of a few motivated TOPS students could make a difference. They started this club 3 years ago and within weeks of beginning had already competed and made it to provincials and eventually to Nationals....in that year it was in Salt Lake City, the next year they were off to Anaheim and this past year it was New Orleans. While students come to Bloor for an enriched math and science program, the small, safe and caring enriched atmosphere where they can explore their interests often see them trying new directions.

Experiential Education & Core Trips Grade 9 Camp Pine Crest Orientation Trip Grade 10 Wanakita Biodiversity Survey One of the most important areas of enrichment for our TOPS students are the core residential trips that they do every year. In grade 9 they head out at the beginning of the year to get to know each other—you will hear more about this from students who have been to Pine Crest as both grade 9’s and as leaders. In grade 10, they do a science trip known as the Wanakita biodiversity survey.

Experiential Education & Core Trips Grade 11 Geneva Park Leadership Development Grade 12 Washington D.C. Scientific Heritage Trip In grade 11, they go to Geneva Park for a leadership development workshop and finally in grade 12 they go on a scientific heritage field trip to Washington to visit the smithsonian museams.

Please welcome to the stage—Shangbing Jiang a TOPS on Bloor junior leader and Shopnil Rahman a senior leader and the photographer who took this picture at Pine Crest this fall to tell you a little about the grade 9 experience at Pine Crest. Camp Pine Crest

Communication

Leadership

TEamwork

Friendship

Camp Pine Crest 2015 Thank you Shangbing and Jessica. Now may I please introduce our vice principal. Reiko Fuentes, to tell you about the Advanced Placement program at Bloor CI.