Local students take up a “Challenge for Change”

Nov 19, 2009

Roughly 180 grade 7 and 8 students involved in the three Limestone District School Boards Challenge Programs will be participating in the “Challenge for Change - The Antipathy to Apathy”, a symposium that will take place on Wednesday Nov. 25 at the Queen’s University Faculty of Education’s McArthur Hall.

The symposium evolved from last years Environmental Sustainability symposium held at Loughborough Public School, in which students participated in workshops and developed projects that included community action plans and art projects geared towards informing the community of the subject of environmental sustainability.

This year the Symposium has evolved into a joint venture that includes all of the students from the three Limestone District School Boards Challenge Programs currently running at Loughborough, Calvin Park and Odessa public schools.

The Challenge programs have existed for over a decade and was designed to meet the needs of gifted and academically advanced students in the LDSB who are seeking new and innovative ways of learning.

As described by Alan Macdonald, one of the Limestone teachers involved in coordinating the symposium, this year’s symposium is composed of two facets: the first is a series of workshops led by a roster of 13 innovators including artists, professors, poets, engineers, musicians, writers, videographers and community action leaders who will share their knowledge of affecting positive change in the world.

Students will choose 3 workshops from a possible list of 13, will “provide students that have a desire to affect change with the mechanisms to move forward,” Macdonald said.

The second facet will see students taking their new found knowledge and applying it to a project of their own creation in a format of their own choosing.

Presentations can take the form of an arts/media presentation, experimentation, innovation, research project or community action. The finished projects will be put on public display in February.

On Wednesday night there will be keynote performances by “Theatre Complete”, spoken word artist Greg Frankson and a presentation by CBC broadcaster Jowi Taylor, who is renowned for building the Six String Nation Guitar.

For Alan Macdonald the Challenge for Change symposium “brings validity to the creative process for children raised in a knowledge based society that doesn't often allow time for such thought.

“Our students will meet innovators who use the creative process as they problem solve to create better communities…We want to give students the tools to put creativity in motion and the permission to use those tools.”

For more information about the upcoming Challenge for Change symposium please contact Alan Macdonald at Loughborough Public School (613) 376-3848.