The Connect Charter School, formerly the Calgary Science School, is a Canadian public
charter school
A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...
in
Calgary,
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
; which teaches grades four through nine.
History
The school was established in 1999 as Calgary Science School and moved to its current location, formerly the
Calgary Board of Education's Clem Gardner Elementary School, in 2002.
The school originally conducted placement testing to ensure average academic performance in students admitted to the school, but this is no longer the case. Students can enroll and be granted a spot in the school solely after being selected from the top of the wait list and paying annual enrichment fees, regardless of their academic performance or needs.
In July 2012, the school was granted a 15-year charter from the Alberta Government. The school was renamed to the Connect Charter School effective January 1, 2014.
Today
At the time of writing, there are 104 students each in grades 4-9. Wait lists are held for each grade in the event of students leaving or transferring away.
Fourteen buses, owned and operated by Southland Bussing of
Calgary service CCS, taking the majority of the kids to and from school every school day.
![CSS Library](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/CSS_Library.JPG)
Currently, CCS has over 50 staff members, including janitorial staff, technical staff, office attendants, and those in charge of publications.
Technology
CCS maintains a 1-to-1 student to computer ratio, and it finished the transition from a
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...
to a
Mac base in the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year. Due to an Emerging Technologies grant from
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
Education, in the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school years, each student received their own
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
MacBook. Students continue to be provided an
iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating ...
or MacBook depending on their grade as part of their enrichment fees and the school's efforts to integrate technology into what it calls "inquiry-based learning".
All CCS classrooms are equipped with
SMART
Smart or SMART may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Smart'' (Hey! Say! JUMP album), 2014
* Smart (Hotels.com), former mascot of Hotels.com
* ''Smart'' (Sleeper album), 1995 debut album by Sleeper
* '' SMart'', a children's television se ...
board technology, and every classroom has a
NEC
is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...
projector and a screen. Classes use SMART boards for creative math and science debates/discussions.
The
Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
move was made to fully integrate
Apple's Ecosystem into the CCS technology to have more control and surveillance over the students.
School events
*ConnectED Canada Conference: The Calgary Science School hosted the first and second ConnectED Canada conferences. The conference hosted 156 delegates in the first year and 277 registered delegates from across Canada May 24–26, 2013.
*Innovate West: will be an annual conference held at the Connect Charter School, formerly the Calgary Science School, celebrating a network of forward thinking educators in western Canada.
*Lasers got Talent: Groups of students or single students will audition with pieces of music they make, sing and dance to a song or just show off their talents. The best ones perform in front of the whole school. The latest show was on October 30, 2009 when Chase Hadden showed of his yo-yo skills and Swish Goswami became MJ and performed "
Smooth Criminal
"Smooth Criminal" is a song by the American singer Michael Jackson, released on November 14, 1988, as the seventh single from his seventh album, '' Bad'' (1987). It was written by Jackson and produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones. The lyrics add ...
".
*Laser Idol: Students use their voices to sing just like in ''
Canadian Idol'', but the age requirement is between Grades 4 and 9, rather than between 16 and 28, just like on the show. Just like Laserband, the best singers are picked from the pack and put up on stage to perform for the school.
*Peace Festival: Students enter the gym and circle to many different stations that have different meaning. Since CSS has many races and religions within the walls, most of the stations represent just that. There are stations where you pinpoint on a world map where you're from, there is a station where you get your face painted, and one station in the 2006–2007 peace festival included fictional stories written by grade 8 students, that were designed to be realistic and show some of the problems street children in
favela
Favela () is an umbrella name for several types of working-class neighborhoods in Brazil. The term was first used in the Providência neighborhood in the center of Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century, which was built by soldiers who had ...
s in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
face every day.
*Lego League: The Calgary Science School periodically participates in
FIRST Lego League
The ''FIRST'' LEGO League Challenge (formerly known as ''FIRST'' LEGO League) is an international competition organized by '' FIRST'' for elementary and middle school students (ages 9–14 in the United States and Canada, 9–16 elsewhere).
Each ...
, as they have since the 2003 edition, Mission Mars. Students are invited to participate either at lunch times or in electives.
Courses
From its first creation in 1999, Science Alberta School enforced a compulsory course known as SAS Quest. When the school was renamed as Calgary Science School, the program became Quest. The objective of this course was to familiarize students with everyday problems in the world and how to solve them. This program was removed in the 2004 school year.
For electives (options) there are many choices including: CO
2 Cars, Digital Film Making, Photography, 3-D Design and Modelling, Animation, Outdoor Pursuits, Game Design, First Aid, and Dance.
Students in some classes have the option to do "Explorer Projects". They are able to pick any topic of their liking, and explore the question until answered. Students often have very wide ranges of subjects.
Recently, the plant room was turned into a woodworking shop, and now for grades 6 through 9, there is an elective started by Mr. Scott Petronech called
CO2-powered cars. Students carve and sand wooden cars, load them with CO
2 canisters, and race them.
References
*Stephen, Cindy, "School shares peace message", ''
Calgary Herald'', December 16, 2004. pg. N.1.Fro.
*Lewington, Nancy, "Alberta has 'best-kept secret' in schooling", ''The Spectator'' (Hamilton, Ontario). September 25, 2004, pg. F.08.
External links
{{Commons, Calgary Science School
Official site of Calgary Science School*http://calgaryscienceschool.blogspot.ca
Elementary schools in Calgary
Middle schools in Calgary
Charter schools in Canada
Educational institutions established in 1999
1999 establishments in Alberta