CAPSTONE PROGRAM NEWS | OCTOBER 2015

Contemplating Collaborative Contributors

By Jeff Cole
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to participate in a
Professional Activity Day organized by members of the
Boards secondary program team. During the day we
reflected on a specific Ontario Catholic School Graduate
Expectation, namely, that graduates are expected to be
collaborative contributors people who find meaning,
dignity and vocation in work, respect the rights of all, and
contribute to the common good.
Through the first several weeks, my students have shown
me that several aspects of the program provide opportunities
for them to demonstrate, or live out this expectation. I think
this point is worth highlighting in specific detail, and Ill strive
to do so in this issue of CAPSULE, as well as in upcoming
issues. Accordingly, this issue outlines:
Project work by students in the Environmental Inquiry
and Sustainability in Action course;
A review of events held during the programs Friday
Speaker Series in the first half of the semester;
Our partnership with Georgian College through its
Community Project Initiative.
Novembers issue of CAPSULE will feature:
Research for the Orillia Youth Centre, being conducted
by students in the Applied Social Research course;
A synopsis of community service being carried out by
students with various local organizations;
A partnership with Learning for a Sustainable Future
via the Our Canada Project Ambassador Program.
And finally, in December, CAPSULE will highlight:
Results of the VEX Robotics Competition involving
students in the Engineering Science course;
A summary of the #CAPSTONEblog writing and social
media project;
A partnership with the Couchiching Conservancy that
allows students to become better stewards.
We look forward to sharing all of this information and more
with you in the months ahead!

It starts with collaboration: (Top) Early semester teambuilding activities had students working through a game of
human tangle; (Middle) Marshall Murphy and Tye Carnahan
work together in a spoon-and-ball relay; (Bottom) students
race against the opposing team in a hula hoop pass.

CITIZEN SCIENCE:
Monitoring Water Quality in Carden

Our projects goal is to protect globally rare alvar

habitats in the Carden area by analyzing water
quality, and the impact of cattle manure and streamside grazing, in the Talbot River watershed.

By Katie Brown, Makayla Churchill, and Ashley Lee

Located northeast of Lake Simcoe, the Carden Alvar is an outstanding
example of a globally-threatened alvar habitat combining alvar grasslands,
shrublands, forests and wetlands. This habitat is critical to the survival of
globally rare birds like the endangered eastern loggerhead shrike.
Cattle grazing in the Carden area is essential to maintaining the alvar
conditions necessary for threatened and endangered grassland birds to
survive. Yet cattle can be destructive to waterways if not managed
properly. For a decade now, our partner organization, the Couchiching
Conservancy, has been building fences on the properties they manage to
keep cattle out of streams, and then creating alternative watering sources
for cattle to access. They have also been helping other ranchers in the
area to do the same.
The Couchiching Conservancy has invested its heart and soul into
helping endangered birds survive, but what would be the point if they are
just creating a water quality problem for everyone else downstream?
One cow produces about 120 pounds of manure per day, and where
cattle have access to a stream, this manure can introduce pathogens
harmful to both humans and aquatic life. Its not their fault. Theyre just
thirsty, but in the process they trample the stream beds and banks,
causing erosion and hindering the growth of vegetation. The water
becomes warmer and murkier, phosphate levels rise causing algae
blooms, and the potential for faecal coliforms increases.
As a volunteer team of students in the Environmental Inquiry and
Sustainability in Action course, we have committed to long term monitoring
and data collection at local river sites, and have already been involved with
this project since June 2015. Over time, we hope to collect enough data to
measure the effectiveness of fencing cattle out of streams, and determine
the primary sources of contamination to the waterways where cattle
continue to drink from streams.
With the help of staff at Ontario Streams and the Couchiching
Conservancy, we have been trained as citizen scientists. We have learned
how to test the water for temperature, turbidity, total phosphorous, total
nitrogen, pH, and dissolved oxygen. We have also learned how to conduct
benthic macroinvertebrate tests and identification which helps to assess
pollution levels in the water based on the presence (or absence) of aquatic
species. We will also be conducting tests to assess the level of faecal
bacteria in the streams.
By participating in this project, we feel good about the fact that we are
ultimately helping to clean up Lake Simcoe, as well as getting to know
some of Cardens beautiful habitats and waterways on a regular basis. Our
water testing will continue into November, at which time we will begin to
analyze all the data we have collected. We look forward to sharing our
results at the CAPSTONE Conference in December!
Clockwise from top: Katie carefully identifies
macros; Ashley reads the temperature; Makayla
collects a water sample from the stream.

Fridays in CAPSTONE are days like no other! The programs

Speaker Series is dedicated to guest speaker topics that
students want to learn about, and experiential opportunities.

1. Mr. Emmet Mellow,

ICT Consultant, visited
on the inaugural Friday
to give a thorough
introduction to Google
Apps for Education.
2. Students built team
spirit through an
Amazing Race at
Geneva Park.
3. Speakers from the
Climate Reality Project
and Learning for a
Sustainable Future
delivered important
messages about climate
change.
4. Entrepreneurs spoke
about the skills needed
to survive and thrive in
business and social
enterprise.
5. Georgian College Child & Youth worker students
conducted an interactive brainstorming workshop to
further develop Speaker Series topics.
6. Together with Mayor Steve Clarke, two city Councillors,
and naturalist Bob Bowles, students undertook the
Community Walk, examining environmental, social and
development issues from an expert perspective.
7. A forage walk in Scout Valley with guide Ian Faulds had
students appreciating all that nature provides.

The Community Project Initiative (CPI) is a project of

Georgian College that pairs students with local organizations.
Unlike a traditional placement, students work in groups and
are focused on project management. Students are
encouraged to develop projects for these organizations and
see them through from beginning to end. It is an empowering
concept and leads to real outcomes for the organizations.
CAPSTONE is fortunate to have three students from the
Georgian College Child and Youth Worker program assisting
us through their CPI field placement this semester. Jordyn
McPherson, Carla Bell, and Akosua Adanvor conducted a
brainstorming workshop with CAPSTONE students on
October 2nd, and used the information from that interaction to
develop three upcoming workshops for the programs Friday
Speaker Series, including:

For more information, contact:

Mr. Jeff Cole
CAPSTONE Coordinator
Phone: 705.722.3555 ext. 391
Email: [email protected]
Program website:
www.smcdsbcapstone.ca
Program blog:
www.smcdsbcapstone.ca/blog

College Life Experience Tour on November 13

Financial Literacy / Budgeting Workshop on November 20
Gap Year Travel Presentation on November 27
A final special assembly is planned for the entire school on
December 14, that promises to broaden students
perspectives about the world they live in.

It Takes a Community: Georgian College Child and Youth

Worker program students (left to right) Akosua Adanvor,
Carla Bell and Jordyn McPherson present to students in
early October. The team is planning to deliver three
workshops for CAPSTONE students in November, and to coplan a school-wide assembly in December.

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