Students the grade nine MaST drama class attended a performance of "My Name is Asher Lev" adapted by Aaron Posner from the novel by Chaim Potok. The class additionally participated in three workshop sessions facilitated by two wonderful artist-educators from Studio 180, focusing on themes from the play: family, tradition, culture, faith, honesty and the search for identity.

During the workshops, in addition to a number of lively discussions, the student actors were challenged to take a stand on a continuum of ideas, respond in character, and role play to justify a variety of different viewpoints. Using the techniques of improvisation, hot seating, tableaux and mime, participants explored realistic and abstract expressions of the themes and concepts in the play. 

At the end of the sessions, the guest artists praised all of the students for their collectively strong active participation and collaboration, their willingness to take risks onstage and for the level of commitment and care paid to each activity they undertook. MaST Drama students your efforts continue to make DCTI proud!

On Sunday November 26 th , Anamika , Menna and Maeashah went to an all-day event at Ryerson
University where they hear from three different tech founders who shared how they came to
produce their businesses. They are pictured here with with Dr. Karam who is the inventor and president of Tactile Audio
Displays Inc. and a Senior Visiting Research fellow at Kings College London UK.

"One of the founders mentioned that in order to have a business you need know its market, cost,
what is being sold and how you would have to convince people to buy your product and know its
value. In order to do so you would need a great pitch. This was very useful because it benefits
me with the program/project I am currently working on (Zero To Startup)." Menna

"I would recommend events like this to anyone wanting to get inspiration for future projects, or
even just to see the different up and coming tech projects." Anamika

"I found the event to be useful because it gave me a chance to network and speak with the creators. Talking with Dr.Karam was really inspiring and she encouraged us to contact her if we ever need her help. This also helped me start thinking about sci tech projects and overall I really enjoyed it and it was a very informative" Maeashah

The YOUth Conference, organized by the WISE (women in science and engineering) group was a really beneficial event. What I found to be the most useful to me was the panel with the undergraduate students who advised that "life is not a spectator sport", we must get involved. They encouraged us to definitely talk to our professors and search for lab opportunities, to not be picky at first about which labs we get, but to just gain transferrable skills, which we can apply later on. (I will definitely look into that now during my time at university.) Their advice was very practical and applicable.

On Wed/ October 18 at lunch, students and teachers were invited to room A76 to view and vote for their favorite roller coasters built by the Grade 12 Engineering Design class. There were nine different roller coasters and the winning coasters - popularity and technical merit -  were Wario and Crime Scene which feature loops, funnels, switchbacks within great themes. Wario was built by Evan, Maisha and Sam P. and Crime scene was built by Jack and Susheen. The video was made by Maria and Farhan. 

Frank Nguyen and Andre Bertram(both MaST graduates 2015) appeared on Dragon's Den on October 19th looking for      $100 000 of funding and to partner with one or more Dragon's on their invention, the HeartWatch.

Not only did they get the full $100 000 in funding, but every Dragon went in on the deal to partner with them!  Check out their appearance below:

For more information about the HeartWatch and Andre and Frank's company, please visit their website:  http://helpwear.ca/

On Saturday September 30, 22 Danforth students from grade 9 to 12 attended the WISE Design Challenge at U of T. This is run by the local chapter of Women In Science and Engineering, to encourage more female high school students to consider STEM careers. It was an intense afternoon of competition and collaboration. Here is what three Danforth girls had to say

 “We were given three different challenges that we could try to find a solution for. After a few hours, we then presented our solution to a panel of judges and all the other groups in the room. I found that this event helped improve my cooperation, creativity, and presentation skills. I was very much impressed with the other groups’ ideas and it was interesting to see how there are multiple solutions for every challenge. I have decided to join the WISE High School Mentorship program again as I found last year’s program was great. I’m looking forward to the future WISE events.” Alison W.

“We decided to tackle was how we would go about surviving on an overheating deserted island, where the surrounding water is contaminated, all the other people with us are wounded, and the only things we were given were Tupperware, mirrors, and string. My group separated what we needed to do into four categories, water, food, shelter, and healthcare. Overall my team worked really well together, coming up with our ideas and presenting. I enjoyed taking part in the challenge and would love to do it again next year.” Claire D.

“My group decided to design an app for healthcare, the app would be able to tell you where you need to go, ie hospital or walk in clinic, and based on your symptoms and then direct you to wherever you have to go. The app also had your full medical history, that could be edited by your doctor. Doctors could also find you profile by scanning your health-card. It could be used at home or in a hospital waiting room, so that doctors could know the patients symptoms before they saw them. The app would also automatically alert certain contacts if you had an accident and we’re in the hospital.” Taylor B.

“My experience at the WISE design challenge was amazing. It was fun to learn and work with high school students of different ages, I also found it inspiring to talk with university students about their areas of study. Overall it was great!” Maxine S.

On Tuesday September 19th the grade 9 MaST classes participated in team building and environmental activities at Adventure Valley Outdoor Education Center.

Getting ready for a team building activity

On a nature walk to a salmon spawning ground