SATEC@WA Porter CI

To my colleagues on the staff of SATEC@W.A. Porter Collegiate Institute in Toronto

Hard to believe that summer is almost over … I trust that yours too was enjoyable and restful. Looking forward to my second year at SATEC, I am very fortunate to be teaching alongside excellent staff and amidst such an extraordinary student body. Thank you all so much.

As you know, SATEC celebrates 50 years of community education in 2008. I’m very pleased to be on the Fiftieth Anniversary Committee. A very eager group of alumni are looking forward to the modest participation of enthusiastic staff and students. For example, a commemorative DVD has been proposed – students can learn a great deal by helping in various ways with the production of the DVD.

I am also on our ECO Canada Sector Council Committee looking into new ideas for additional environmental programming. I stress in class that “students making connections to make the world a better place” is really what education is all about. There are many exciting connections between an anniversary celebration and SATEC’s future role in the community.

It is my hope that every staff member at SATEC will become involved in the anniversary celebration in some small, yet significant, way – what better way than to encourage our students to purposefully link our community’s hard-working past with its promising future.

And which tree? Really, any tree. Could be the maple – the subject of the song, “The Maple Leaf Forever”, written by Scarborough teacher, Alexander Muir, over a century ago. The maple has also been used symbolically as the cultural link for one of Scarborough ’s immigrant groups (www.beamccowan.com/james.htm). Or the pine, crafted into so many kitchen floors in Scarborough ’s old farmhouses. Or the cedar, transformed into the rail fences strung across the very fertile fields of glacial clay deposits. Or the birch, carefully sewn into a brilliant invention – the canoe -- by our first Canadians. Or just any tree – they all have incredible stories to tell (www.beamccowan.com/floraand1.htm)

Learning connections so far: creative writing, immigration, artistic expression, architecture, construction technology, transportation, landform, food production. Indeed, the tree offers an abundance of opportunities for student thinking and creativity, some of which may seem to be rather dominant…

Of course, the dominant learning opportunity is, undoubtedly, the profound role of the tree in oxygenating the air we breathe. We could argue that global warming and climate change may be the real target topic -- the topic we could or should focus on in a top-down sort of way. But the tree is much more hands-on, something we all see and touch every day. The tree gives us simple ways to clearly model important aspects of our world. Many of these models can be carefully woven together by educators to deal in practical ways, one view at a time, with the big issue, global warming. Quite literally, the tree is a down-to-earth bottom-up approach to teaching about climate change.

SATEC’s ECO Sector Council Committee vision is that SATEC will become preeminent for producing graduates with a huge head start in the environmental and energy industry sectors. I’m sure you’ll hear much more about these sustainability education initiatives in the coming months.

As part of the ECO Sector Council effort, I have drafted a Technological Design program that revolves around the life cycle of the tree – from composting to erosion control to bio-fuel appliances. Here’s a very high level view of the grade 11 Tech Design course that I will be teaching this year. You will notice some solid co-curricular possibilities.

Unit	Basic Description
Tools of Design and Modeling the Design Process	CAD, AutoDesk Inventor, major concepts of tech education, design by thinking, shop safety, rapid prototyping, the 9 HRSDC essential skills, design team leadership roles, design portfolio management, product improvements and the broad-based technology workplace sectors. (Some of these topics will be addressed on an as-needed basis during the course.)
Modular Composter Design and Construction	Using materials that would otherwise be treated as waste, the class will design and fabricate composters as well as instructions for using them in the SATEC composting program.
Materials and Resources	Energy and the life cycle of a tree
Art-Techo	Using natural materials felled by the August 2 2006 tornado, the class will design and fabricate a monument to the tree for permanent and prominent installation in SATEC. This monument could be the emotional and physical rallying point for both the fiftieth anniversary celebration and SATEC’s new ecological and environmental program.
Erosion Control and Woodlot Restoration	The class will design a protocol to help a local church deal with an erosion problem. Perhaps also volunteer physical effort (for community hours) – salvage some fallen trees, plant new trees and perform related tasks.
Tornado Recovery and Woodlot Management	The class will design a protocol to respond to tornado disasters, yielding value-added outcomes. Government has over-estimated the quantity of timber that is “ready for harvest” and under-estimated the quantity of timber that becomes available by natural causes, i.e. falls down without human involvement.
Structural Design	The class will design and fabricate a truck-mounted winch frame to be used to salvage trees that were felled naturally by tornados otherwise.
Pedal-Powered Appliance Design	The class will design and fabricate a pedal-powered power-takeoff unit, drive interface and a wood chip / brush grinder attachment. After completion, this energy conversion machine can be installed and commissioned for use by any student or staff that can ride a bicycle.
Independent Study Unit (ISU)	Individual students will design a pedal-powered energy application device – an attachment matching the drive interface on the power takeoff unit above. Eg a paper towel shredder.

Several interesting outdoor education field trips and related experiential learning are entirely possible and will be requested. More later regarding my program, Technological Design for a Sustainable Society – a work in progress.

Yes, our school was first conceived five decades ago as a response to a need. Or, rather, the needs of the community were the product of 150 years of socio-economic development and evolution. As an amateur historian, I can assure you that the history of this part of Toronto has an absolute host of cross-curricular educational possibilities. Digging into history – finding an issue, taking a stand, arguing a point -- is a great way to teach students critical thinking. And I would argue, the best way. This web site – www.scarboroughrecord.com – is loaded with resource materials for community studies. The Education Resources start at www.beamccowan.com/subject.htm.

The Fiftieth Anniversary celebration is a great opportunity to kick off a scholarship and student prize campaign for SATEC. We can use the Anniversary year to promote SATEC’s environmental, technological and computer programming vision to parents and, at the same time, show them that we can fund scholarships associated with all SATEC programs. Two projects proposed below lend themselves very well to fundraising – the school play about local historic figures and hosting a book launch for the Photobooth book. These two projects can both be widely promoted to the public in connection with our Anniversary celebration and scholarship fundraising program.

A play about important local figures in the history of the immediate area could be a feature of our Anniversary year and one way to get more staff and students involved. The major purpose of the play would be to help kickoff a public fundraising drive for scholarships.

The original SATEC geographic area included the 100 acre farm immediately north of SATEC. For over half a century it was owned / operated by James Whiteford McCowan and his sons, George and Alexander.

Alex McCowan was the founder of the organization of Scarborough farmers that evolved into the “Dairy Farmers of Ontario”, formerly the Ontario Milk Marketing Board. This is of national significance. (Some information is at www.beamccowan.com/milk.htm). I understand that the Dictionary of Canadian Biography will include an entry about Alex McCowan in their next volume. It would be very fitting if some history students at SATEC will write that biography.

One scene in the play could be about the school bullying endured by a local farmboy who stuttered at the turn of the century. This would have been in the one-room school at Eglinton and Birchmount, the closest rural-era school to SATEC. The boy, David A. McCowan, later invented the Phototeria in 1928. This was one of the first photo booths in the world -- a book will be released shortly (American Photobooth: The History and Art of the Photobooth in the U.S. and Canada ). David was born at the southeast corner of Warden and Eglinton on the farm of Alex and Mary McCowan. The Phototeria is an excellent learning resource – one more-or-less complete Phototeria has survived. (Some information is at www.beamccowan.com/mccowan%27.htm.)

SATEC stands on the old Heron farm, another early Scarborough family. We have dozens of the interesting First World War letters (1916-18) of Captain John B. Heron and his wife, Ruth McCowan. Several sample short extracts are at www.beamccowan.com/learning_unit_transportation.htm. Captain Heron’s Boer War letters are at the National Archives.

GECO was the second world war munitions plant just north of SATEC. Many local people have stories about GECO.

So there are at least four very unique and valuable chapters in Canadian history right here in the local SATEC neighbourhood. These true stories can all be told through a school drama production, weaving together a good number of Ontario curriculum expectations:

1. The 1892 founding of the organization that later evolved into the Ontario Milk Marketing Board, the business group largely responsible for the survival of the family farm in Ontario .

3. The 1928 invention of the Phototeria by the young man who had, growing up, “stammered lamentably”.

And of course, a fifth act in the play could be SATEC’s future role as a great institution for sustainability education.

Nakki Goranin’s new book “American Photobooth: The History and Art of the Photobooth in the U.S. and

Canada

” includes a section on the Phototeria, invented by the young man who had, growing up in this neighbourhood, “stammered lamentably”.

The author is very supportive of the idea of a book launch hosted by SATEC for scholarship fundraising purposes and has stated that she can be present.

Oral history interview projects are a great way to immerse students in the community – to learn about what it took to make the community what it is today. A number of oral history interview projects have been prepared as noted below.

A number of the following additional ideas link our local past with our new future in sustainability education – several using the tree metaphor. Some of these ideas below focus on the tree as a multi-curricular learning tool. And most of the remainder comprise valuable lessons from the local Scarborough past in a variety of interesting ways.

Regardless, all of these ideas can be useful additions to programming at SATEC – the Scarborough Academy for Technological, Environmental and Computer Education. I suggest an assembly in September 2007 to introduce ideas to the student body. Perhaps every SATEC student could commit to performing 10 hours of community work in connection with Fiftieth Anniversary projects.

NOTE: Neigh the Front: Exploring Scarboro Heights is a publication of the James McCowan Memorial Social History Society. (www.beamccowan.com/reviews.htm)

a) Take the main lead in Oral History Interview Projects: write the questions, transcribe, translate, interpret individual interviews and then link them / analyze them together as a published community collection. (www.beamccowan.com/oral.htm)

d) The influence of Robert Burns’ poetry on western society, in particular, Burns’ views on social sustainability.

i) Founding of the Milk Marketing Board movement. (Farming here was very “green” – much more green then than it is now elsewhere. Sustainability of an important economic sector – agriculture – an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work.)

iii) Heron / McCowan letters (life on the farm; safety / the freedom and security aspect of sustainability)

a) Assist with Oral History Interview projects. I am very pleased to be helping with the new Celtic Studies program at Subway One Academy in Toronto (www.fletchersaga.net/LWCAD1.html). (My modest contribution thus far is a feudalism paper and student exercises on www.beamccowan.com/feudalism.htm.) Oral history was a major feature of Celtic culture. Perhaps SATEC and Subway One Academy can cooperate on oral history interview projects – several examples below. Many Celtic peoples worshipped the tree.

a) Build an old-style cedar rail fence around the composting area and add informative signage

c) Take long-term ownership of the composting project including community cooperation in the gathering and processing of wood and other green waste

a) Write a biography of Alexander McCowan for the Dictionary of Canadian Biography

b) Transcribe several existing audio tapes of David A McCowan, inventor of the Phototeria

d) Pre-history: The Robert Ashbridge McCowan and William Harold McCowan Collections of native Canadian artifacts include the earliest known evidence of human occupation in Toronto, approximately 8,000 BC (www.beamccowan.com/8000bc.htm)

b) The Story of St. Andrew’s Cemetery: infant mortality, deaths during childbirth; how health care has changed since over the past 200 years

a) Write the script for the part of the school play relating to the letters written by Captain Heron and his wife, 1916-1918

b) Policy Development: Version 1 of a draft policy document for student ownership of a safe and effective learning environment was written in 2006-2007 by Tech Design students. Civics students could make improvements for a Version 2.

d) Design signage and maps for some Scarborough portions of the Waterfront Trail

i) p. 87: public service and civic duty; the war effort on the home front (1916-18); civics and gender equity -- women getting the "right to vote"

a) The significance of trees in the development of the SATEC community: log cabins, barns, potash production, furniture making, vehicle manufacture, fancy wood trim for farmhouses

a) Plan and host a Canadian book launch for Nakki Goranin’s new book about Photobooths (including the Phototeria)

b) Document the school play for the commemorative DVD to be produced for the anniversary

a) Use an empty shell Phototeria to make a digital photobooth for use at the Photobooth book launch, the school play and during the fiftieth anniversary reunion

a) Produce the commemorative anniversary DVD, including photographs, the entire script of the play and the outcomes of many of the learning opportunities listed here

a) Design a piece of public art for the main hallway (using part of a tree felled by a tornado) (www.beamccowan.com/public.htm)

b) Produce illustrations for the DVD regarding the anniversary and community history (scenes from the play for example)

c) Produce signage and maps for the Scarborough portions of the Waterfront Trail

a) Write the script for the school play Act relating to the founding of the Ontario milk marketing movement

ii) p. 38: wages; rate of inflation of land prices; exchange rates (pounds sterling / dollar)

iii) p. 87: founding of the Ontario milk marketing movement, a profoundly important business institution

c) Write the script for the school play relating to the research and development of the Phototeria in 1928

b) Math and the Phototeria: gear ratios, pulley ratios (a physical Phototeria is available for “reverse-engineering” by students)

c) Math and Economics / Profitability: the price of milk and cost of running a dairy farm, 1892 and today

ii) p. 38: wages; rate of inflation of land prices; exchange rates (pounds sterling / dollar)

b) The narrator for the Phototeria act of the play could be in the role of a past employee of McCowan Manufacturing Ltd., founded by David A. McCowan of Scarborough

a) Promote the school play, the goal of which could be to start a scholarship fundraising drive

a) Help write the script for the schoolyard bullying scene in the Phototeria Act of the school play

a) Create a special reference section for the anniversary / local history with promotional posters and a display outside the library

a) Promote SATEC’s future role in preparing a new generation of sustainability workers

a) Help write the script for the schoolyard bullying scene in the Phototeria Act of the school play – the bullying victim stuttered

James Whiteford McCowan (www.beamccowan.com/a11.htm), owner of the 100 acre farm immediately north of SATEC, was the second son of James McCowan, bankrupted Coalmaster and farmer from Lanarkshire , Scotland (www.beamccowan.com/winners.htm). Some of J.W. McCowan’s descendants made significant contributions to Canadian society:

David Bruce McCowan, P.Eng., BASc., B.Ed.
Technological Design Teacher
SATEC@W.A. Porter Collegiate Institute, Toronto
www.beamccowan.com/communit3.htm

PS: The Porter Alumni website, with info on the Fiftieth Anniversary reunion, is www.waporteralumni.com/. The SATEC@WA Porter CI website is www.satec.on.ca/.