All posts by John Polanyi Collegiate Institute

I Tawt I Taw an Awtropoda Twap

I did, I did taw an awtropoda twap!

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Hey Petri! You’re just “winging” this selfie thing, eh!

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Does this thing dispense bird seeds?

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You wanna talk about the birds AND the bees?

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A selfie inside a selfie.

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I look better from the side. Do my cheeks look green?

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Petri the Green Cheek Conure (Pyrrhura molinae) and the Grade 11’s @ John Polanyi CI want to thank BIO for the great opportunity to study the arthropod diversity on our school grounds. Though we are sad to see the trap go, we are excited to get the results in a few short weeks.

Hope we win the selfie contest!

Tweet out 😉

Wild & Wacky Weather in T.O.

It’s been a wild and wacky week in Toronto weather-wise. Wednesday experienced virtually all the seasons in one day. The high winds and mixed precipitation have caused our tent to collapse three times, resulting in a loss of some collected specimens. Although we are a bit disappointed and frustrated, this is certainly a teachable moment. Science is not perfect and the students at JPCI are getting first hand experience in learning this reality. We have had some lively discussions on how best revise the set up of our trap. The students have decided to re-position the straps and pegs and have applied extra anchors to help the trap withstand the wind, rain, snow, and, hail.

We are happy to report that the trap stayed standing Wednesday night and we have topped up the collection bottle fluid. Fingers crossed that it stays up and the bugs keep coming.

Next week, the students have decided to move the trap to a slightly less exposed part of the garden to try and reduce the weather-related disturbances. Stay tuned. We hope that other groups are having a better luck with their bug collections.

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JPCI’s Garden – “The bees knees”

JPCI’s Grade 11 Biology students have decided on the perfect location for our Malaise Trap…. the school garden! After a survey of the school grounds, the students voted unanimously that this location would likely have the highest insect traffic. The garden is currently being prepped for spring planting activities. Both the students and the PACT Grow to Learn program staff are “bugging” out with excitement to learn more about the insect diversity in the garden.

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http://www.pactgrow2learn.ca/search/label/JPCI

Stay tuned for more photos on deployment day!

COUNT DOWN: 7 DAYS!

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Why do bees hum? Because they can’t remember the words.

How do snails fight each other?    They slug it out.

Two flies are on the porch. Which one is an actor? The one on the screen!