Throughout the months of January, February, and March, 15 grade 8 students from Landmark Collegiate studied the body system with a greater goal in mind. They wanted their learning to be impactful beyond the classroom, so the devised a hockey tournament to raise awareness of heart health. The students were given different roles and responsibilities within the organization of the tournament and the results were exciting for all.
Isaac described his experience like this, “The process of creating our project involved lots of class meetings, arguments, agreements and lots of great ideas. First, we had a class meeting of who was doing which job and what their impact on the tournament it would have. Joe and I were then assigned the role of making the pamphlet with information on how to tell the difference between strokes, heart attacks, and cardiac arrest, along with what to do if you’re in a situation when you or someone else is having a heart attack. Our pamphlet also includes information on the teams and the bracket for the teams.”
Another student, Brendan, had a different role in raising awareness, “Our class decided to do a floor hockey tournament for heart fundraiser, we were tasked with making a powerpoint presentation to spread the word about our fundraiser. The first thing that we did was brainstorm what information we were going to present in our presentation. We decided to research what heart attack and stroke are and some symptoms and preventions of a heart attack and stroke. We split up the research and I was supposed to research about symptoms and preventions of a heart attack and stroke. When it was time for us to present it went pretty smoothly. I usually don’t find it easy to talk in front of people and present but I actually found doing the presentations easy and fun.”
Chloe and group used their artistic skills to help raise awareness before the tournament, “This unit I was in a group with two of my classmates and we created a sculpture to show the parts of a heart and where the different blood vessels are located. We also mentioned what each of the blood vessels and chambers did in your body. After this we made a backboard to go along with it. The backboard showed all of our work and understanding of the circulatory system, the blood flow in the heart, and what is what in the heart.”
Brayden summarized the group’s thoughts on the success of the tournament, “Overall I think the fundraiser turned out really well. We raised $234.55 through selling food in the canteen such as cookies, floats, drinks, and brownies! The hockey games were pretty fair. We started with the grade 9’s and 10 teams for the first hour with their 4 teams. For the second hour, we had the grade 7 and 8’s who also had 4 teams, so it worked out really well. We also had live entertainment which was Isaac, Avi, Danika, and I. The length of the tournament felt perfect, not too long but not too short. I’m happy how it turned out and it was fun doing something different than a normal way of showing our learning. We sent the money we earned from the fundraiser to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, which I think is a good cause for our money to go to.”
The students demonstrated fabulous collaboration, critical thinking, and character skills throughout this unique learning process and it was a highlight for both students and staff.