Volume 13
Excursion: Cana Island
On Friday, May 3rd, students visited Cana Island to tour the lighthouse and the associated historic buildings. They even got to climb to the top of the lighthouse! Students were surprised by how clear Lake Michigan was and how far they could see. The group also hiked the beach and forest of the island and cheered on their peers in a lightkeepers relay.
Psychology: Mental Health
Jasmine, a freshman, is working on a project about mental health. She is looking at eight common disorders, which are:
- Clinical Depression
- Anxiety Disorder
- Schizophrenia
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Bipolar Disorder
Jasmine is also looking at medications, talk therapy, and psychotherapy. She is exploring the nurture vs. nature debate and the science behind it while also learning about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Lastly, Jasmine interviewed Cathy Peterson at Prevea Behavioral Health to get expert insight on the topics of mental health.
Aquaculture
Parker, a 7th grader, has been doing a project this year about aquaculture ecosystems. At the beginning of the year, he set up the tank and started testing the waters and measuring the pH levels. Parker tested the tank with a fish from the aquaponics unit. The test was successful. After that, he got fish for the tank: two guppies, a bottom feeder, and ten little fish. The guppies had babies and then did not stop having babies. Now, Parker is researching how to stop the fish from having more babies and prevent overpopulation. He enjoys seeing how successful it has been. Parker has a 100% survival rate.
Schwartz Lake Micro Excursion
A small group of students went on a micro-excursion with Adam. They went to Kellner Fern in Sturgeon Bay and went on a hike through the park. They then went to Shivering Sand and they went wading through the swamp. They saw a big river and kept getting stuck in the mud. Overall they had a great time and were more exhausted than they thought.
Exploring Stars
Willow, Tommy, Rachel, and Lillian are doing a project about stars and zodiac signs. Rachel is looking into the personalities associated with each zodiac sign and color-shifting stars. They have made a presentation and interactive activities about zodiac signs, stars, and the sun to share at the Project Showcase. Tommy has enjoyed taking notes and the English portion of the project. Willow has enjoyed making the slides about the zodiac signs.
Upcoming Events
- After School Movie @ the Algoma Public Library May 3, 2024 3:00 PM
- Senior Awards Night May 17, 2024@ Algoma Elementary Schools PAC
- AVA End of the Year Project Showcase May 22, 2024 4:00 PM-6:00 PM
- Graduation May 26, 2024 2 pm
- No School May 27, 2024
- Last Day of School May 31, 2024
Student Spot
This volume’s featured student is…
Braeden Leist
Braeden is a sophomore in AVA. We have been very impressed with his commitment to his projects this year! Braeden is currently working on a Sports Podcast where he is discussing current local and professional sporting events with friends. He also is looking into the history of specific sports, going above and beyond to learn about additional sports to advance his learning. Braeden has also dedicated his time to a project that focuses on lifting and advancing his knowledge in the weight room. It has been great to see Braeden step out of his comfort zone and explore his interests this year! We can’t wait to see where he goes next year.
World News
Why is Canada having so many wildfires this season?
Written by: BBC on Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Thousands of people in western Canada are facing the wrath of wildfires this week amid severe drought.
Some six thousand people were told to evacuate Fort McMurray, Alberta, where 90,000 residents were forced to flee during the 2016 wildfires.
More than 3,000 others were ordered to leave Fort Nelson, British Columbia, where a fire is burning 2.5km (1.5 miles) from the town.
Evacuation alerts were also issued in the provinces of Alberta and Manitoba.
Smoke from the fires has triggered air quality alerts in Canada and the US.
Here’s what to know about the fires.
Where are they?
There were several fires burning across Canada as of Tuesday, with a few dangerously close to towns and cities.
One is near Fort Nelson, a town in the north-eastern corner of British Columbia, about 1,600km from Vancouver.
Some 3,400 people live in Fort Nelson and the Fort Nelson Indian Reserve. Most of them have since been evacuated due to the Parker Lake wildfire that is burning nearby.
On Tuesday, hundreds of people were also forced to evacuate near Fort McMurray in northern Alberta due to a fire burning 13km from the city. A 2016 wildfire in Fort McMurray destroyed 2,400 homes.
Residents in the city itself and other surrounding neighbourhoods are on an emergency evacuation alert, meaning they could be asked to leave at any moment if the fire grows.
In Manitoba, 550 people were evacuated in the north-west of the province due to a wildfire that started on Thursday near the community of Cranberry Portage.
The wildfire had grown to 31,600 hectares (316 sq km) as of Tuesday afternoon – nearly the size of Manitoba’s largest city, Winnipeg.
It spread at an unprecedented speed over the weekend, officials said, and could take weeks to be put out.
“I’ve been working in wildfires for 40 years. I’ve never seen a fire move like this fire moved,” Earl Simmons, Manitoba’s wildfire director, told reporters on Monday.
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre estimates there are 135 active fires across the country and 39 of those are out of control.
How did the fires start?
The Parker Lake fire near Fort Nelson began after high winds knocked over a tree and it crashed on to a power line and caught fire, Rob Fraser, Mayor of the Northern Rockies Municipality, told CBC News last week.
British Columbia officials listed the fire as potentially human-caused, without elaborating.
The blaze in Cranberry Portage is believed to have started after a lightning strike, CBC News reported.
It’s unclear exactly how the fires in Alberta started.
What causes wildfires?
There are two common sources of wildfires in Canada: lightning and human beings, Gordon McBean, a geography and environment professor at Western University, told the BBC.
Paul Kovacs, executive director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction at Western University, noted that if a large storm is moving across Canada, the storm can cause lightning in one place that starts a fire and then in another place that starts a separate fire.
But Canada’s vast land and warming temperatures because of climate change are also playing a part, Prof McBean said.
Warming temperatures in particularly dry regions of Canada, like the north-west provinces, can make those areas “more vulnerable and likely to have fires occur”, he said.
Is this an early start to the season?
For years, Canadian wildfire season started in July or August, but in the past 20 years the wildfire season has been starting earlier and earlier in the year, Mr Kovacs told the BBC.
This year’s wildfire season comes as the country reels from its worst fire season on record in 2023, when roughly 18.5m hectares of land had burned – an area about the size of North Dakota. On average, just 2.5m hectares typically burn in Canada each year.
Mr Kovacs noted that while the wildfires have started early again this year, as is becoming normal, last year at this time there were more fires than there are right now.
“Last year was extraordinarily early start,” he said.
But Mr Kovacs predicted this year would not be as bad as last year.
Federal government officials warned earlier this year of the possibility of another “catastrophic” wildfire season due to warmer-than-usual weather.
But wildfire season depends heavily on weather conditions as summer progresses.
