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News
List of 5 news stories.
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A New Kind of Nurturing in Samuel House
Read MoreWhen the Grade 8s in Samuel House first acquired a small clutch of chicken eggs to care for, it wasn’t long before jokes started flying. This one was going to be McNuggets. That one was going to be chicken pot pie.Not surprisingly, the chicks won over even the hungriest of students – before they even hatched and revealed their fuzzy, fluffy selves.Early in the school year, Samuel House bought an incubator, and Mila R., a Grade 8 student who lives locally, was able to bring in five eggs, which arrived on September 17. The students learned how the incubator worked, and the incubator was situated in the foyer of the House, where they could keep an eye on it daily.As the eggs incubated, so the students warmed up to their galline guests. Co-House Director Mrs. Rainbow Bartlett watched students kissing their fingers and gently touching the incubator to wish the chicks-to-be good luck. -
Japan Super Science Fair Profile: Coco
Read MoreThe night sky is full of stars, but how does where we live change how many stars we can see? Obviously, cloud cover and air pollution affect the visibility of stars, but even on a clear night in a rural area like Shawnigan Lake, with a large lake and the ocean nearby, the humidity in the atmosphere that is invisible to the naked can be enough to affect how much the light from the stars dims before it reaches the ground.The amount of light and radiant energy that are lost as starlight travels through the atmosphere due to scattering and absorption by molecules and aerosols is measured by the atmospheric extinction coefficient. Grade 12 student Coco I. made it her mission to evaluate Shawnigan’s atmospheric extinction coefficient, and the results of her research are taking her to the highly regarded Japan Super Science Fair in Kyoto later this month.Coco evaluated Shawnigan’s AEC using five different filters on the Observatory’s telescope. -
Japan Super Science Fair Profile: Clara and Matt
Read MoreAnyone who has visited Vancouver Island in the summer will have noticed the vast amounts of yellow-flowered Scotch broom shrubs along the roadside, and often well beyond. While initially pleasing to the eye, that plant is in fact an invasive species that has become the bane of conservationists throughout the region, choking out native plants and spreading increasingly rapidly across the Island since it was originally planted in a Victoria-area garden in the 1850s.Shawnigan Grade 11 students Clara C. and Matt E. turned the ecological menace of Scotch broom into a project they are preparing to take to the prestigious Japan Super Science Fair in Kyoto later this month.As students who care deeply about the environment and who grew up in the Shawnigan Lake area, Clara C. and Matt E. are well acquainted with the ecological menace of Scotch broom. -
Local Focus in Law 12
Read MoreAn incident that endangered hundreds of coho salmon that were in the process of migrating to their spawning grounds near the School provided an opportunity for Law 12 students to examine a local matter and the way the various stakeholders have responded to it.After he learned about the incident, teacher Mr. Galen Loiselle consulted with a developer, the local salmon conservation group, and government representatives at multiple levels to create a case study that he presented to the class. Students then read the article he put together, annotated it, and wrote a response to the incident. They discussed the sometimes-fine line between an unavoidable accident and illegal negligence, and asked if government inspectors got it right when they labelled it a “minor incident,” or if that label reflected outdated priorities? -
Live from Shawnigan!
Read MoreOnline viewers of Shawnigan’s Chapel services may have noticed improvements to the livestream, and it’s definitely not in their imaginations.The AV program has benefitted from some new technology – provided by C.A.S.E. (Communications, Arts, Sciences and Entrepreneurship) – which has upgraded the sound and image quality of the livestreams and given students access to even more state-of-the-art equipment to train on.The recent Chapel upgrades include a new 4K video switcher, a dedicated hard-wired monitoring computer, and a Yamaha TF5 digital sound mixer with a Dante card.“The mixer has improved the Chapel’s sound and gives students experience with digital audio controls,” said Mr. Ben Karegeya, the School’s AV coordinator and Recording Arts 360 (co-curricular arts and activities) instructor. “The video switcher allows them to bring different camera views into the broadcast, while the monitoring computer helps us check the stream throughout the service. Together, these upgrades improve our productions and give students access to equipment and workflows they can build on beyond Shawnigan.”
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We acknowledge with respect the Coast Salish Peoples on whose traditional lands and waterways we live, learn and play. We are grateful for the opportunity to share in this beautiful region, and we aspire to healthy and respectful relationships with those who have lived on and cared for these lands for millennia.
Shawnigan Lake School is an independent co-educational boarding school for ages 12 –18 on Canada’s beautiful Pacific Coast. Our diverse, interdisciplinary and innovative programming helps shape the next generation of global leaders.
