Parents push CBE to expand options for science schools
With growing demand and long waiting lists for the city’s only two science schools, four more public schools are now considering specialized science programs as early as this fall.
The Calgary Board of Education is asking families interested in science school at two new southeast programs to contact them through an online survey. The goal is to estimate future registration and viability at Valley View School, a K-5 program, and Ian Bazalgette Junior High, a grades 6 to 9 program, both in the community of Dover.
Administrators are also considering Maple Ridge School, a K-4 program, and R.T. Alderman, grades 5 to 9, for science programming in the deeper south of the city, both in the community of Maple Ridge.
Right now, the only two public science schools in Calgary are bursting at the seams — Louis Riel, a K-9 science program in the community of Oakridge, and Langevin School, a K-9 science program in the community of Bridgeland.
Growing demand over the past two years, has seen more than 500 interested students per year applying for the program at Langevin, but being rejected because it’s full.
Parents attending open houses this week said they hope to convince CBE staff to expand science education, adding that skills around science, math and the use of technology are becoming more critical than ever in today’s workplace.
“There is so much science and technology in today’s world. It’s all around us.
We can’t even function anymore without our iPhones,” said Jason Milne, adding that he would love to get his Grade 6 daughter, Colby Deremiens, into a specialized science school.
“I love chemistry,” Colby said. “Just watching the chemicals change and react with each other. It’s really interesting.”
Kamal Buttar also wants her kindergarten-aged son to attend science school, where he can learn to apply scientific skills in the real world.
“It will be a more experiential education, so that when he’s in university, he can do work that’s more hands on.”
Farhat Nouman said she wants her Grade 7 daughter, Noor, to pursue science because she’s not being challenged enough in a regular program. “She loves science and she’s very smart. She wants to become a doctor.”
Mike Nelson, former principal at Langevin School, explained that the CBE’s science programming integrates many elements of the increasingly popular STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education.
“It involves a lot of inquiry-based learning,” Nelson said, explaining that science schools engage students through field trips, group projects and other collaborative, science-based studies.
“It’s about taking questions and solving problems using critical thinking, and then learning the skills to enter a workforce that we don’t even know exists yet.”
Students at Langevin, for instance, have snowshoed in Kananaskis while studying the science of climate change and melting snow, while others are working alongside city planners to help build a new inner-city park while studying urban design.
Dianne Yee, director of Area III for the CBE, says science education is one of many alternative programs within the CBE, including traditional learning, fine arts and second languages, as well as all-boys and all-girls schools.
Alternative programs also provide an opportunity to keep innercity schools open when they can’t fill their classrooms with regular programming.
But some parents say the constant push toward alternative programs is creating a system with too many specialties, raising the question of whether regular programming is robust enough.
“They’ve created so much choice, the model is essentially competing with itself now,” said Barb Silva, spokeswoman for the Support Our Students advocacy group.
“It’s become a rabbit hole of choice.”
Silva argues that putting students in science programming in the primary grades is essentially a choice the parent is making for the child, before there is enough information as to whether a student’s strengths and interests lie in science, math or the arts.
“Why should any of us have to make a choice on subject area so early in our child’s education? It’s merely a projection of what the parents want, not the students.”
Karen Ryhorchuk, spokeswoman for the Calgary Catholic School District, said their science schools were phased out three years ago because of a new push to make science education a priority in all schools.