The TOPS Program, located at Marc Garneau C.I. (Toronto, ON), is a special high school program for students interested in enrichment in the maths, sciences, and language arts. TOPS offers a strong leadership program and encourages students to reach their utmost ability.
The AP Physics students worked on their first experiment of the year: an investigation of the behaviours of cans of soup with various consistencies, when rolled down ramps of varying inclinations. Students explored lab equipment such as sonic rangers to optimize the collection of data, which they will analyze to study the cans’ energy and fluid dynamics.
This week, the grade 10 computer science class began writing programs using Java. Students learned the basics of the computer language through programming on the “Ready to Program” application. They utilized their knowledge to create a variety of programs and will continue to further their knowledge in weeks to come.
The grade 11 calculus classes began their first unit: a review on functions. They blazed through transformations, composite functions, piecewise functions, and function families, reviewing everything they had learned in math last year in just two weeks. Students will write one final test on these concepts before their next unit on limits and continuity.
This week, each grade was in the midst of making their TOPS video for the upcoming TOPS night. For grades 9 to 11, it is a video they make as a farewell to the graduating seniors. For the grade 12s, the video will reveal the university each student plans to attend.
For their science summatives, the grade 10 students presented their findings from the Algonquin expedition. Each group analyzed a specific aspect of the park; examples of topics included dissolved oxygen, soil type, water pH, birds, mammals, trees, soil pH, water ions and others. They communicated their findings through a formal scientific paper and a 15-minute presentation to the class in …
This week, the grade 10 history students presented their history summative project. Students each chose a topic and put together a visual timeline of its evolution in Canada throughout the past century. Topics that were presented include technology, immigration, and the economy.
