October —2019—Volume 2 Contact info:

The Town Centre, Unit D4-800 Rosser Ave

Brandon, MB R7A 6N5 Phone: (204)-729-3141

Email: office@btateach.com Deadline for submissions for next issue: Nov 13/19

How I Spent My Summer Vacation - A Trip to the World’s Largest Science Experiment

- Submitted by Christopher Sarkonak This past year was my tenth year of teaching and I had the wonderful opportunity to get back to teaching what I am

most passionate about, Physics! For the previous seven years at Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School I had been

exclusively teaching Mathematics, while always keeping an eye out for an opportunity to teach Physics again. It was a

little nerve-racking getting back into something I’d been away from for so long, but all year I had nothing but positive

responses from my students and colleagues. It felt like I was finally back to teaching what I was meant to and, to cap it

off, I received the tremendous honour of being accepted to attend this year’s International High School Teacher (HST)

Programme at CERN, the home of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland!

Last fall I was looking for different physics resources and opportunities and came across the HST Programme. The

opportunity to see the LHC, a 27 km circular particle accelerator that accelerates two proton beams to 99.999999% of

the speed of light before smashing them together, was something that I had to try for. When applications opened in

December, I knew that I would be competing for a spot against thousands of other applicants from around the world

and I knew it was a long shot, but I worked on the written portion of the application, answering a series of five short

essay questions. In January, five students from my Grade 11 and 12 classes volunteered to help me in staging my

classroom and completing almost twenty takes to get the one that I would eventually go on to submit. On spring

break, I received an email from the coordinator of the CERN high school teacher programs saying that I was accepted

to attend the International High School Teacher Programme 2019 from July 7-20 in Geneva, Switzerland!

With the beginning of summer holidays, I flew to

Geneva and moved into the CERN Hotel, my new

home for the next two weeks. This year I was one

of 45 high school teachers from 33 countries around

the world that would go on an incredible adventure

learning about particle physics, how particle

accelerators work, the Large Hadron Collider in

particular, and why these projects are important.

This year I was fortunate enough to participate

alongside fellow Canadian Sarah Torrie, recipient of

the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) Award

for Excellence in Teaching High School/CEGEP

Cont’d on Page 2... At the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) Experiment as it undergoes upgrades

over the next two years.

...Cont’d from Page 1

Physics for Ontario. Being just the 15th Canadian high school teacher to ever attend in the 21-year history of the program

and the first Canadian to ever be accepted through direct application to CERN is a tremendous honour.

The first week of this program focused primarily on building an

understanding of particle physics and the operation of the particle

accelerators and detectors. Through a series of lectures, presented

by experts working at CERN, and site visits we learned about how to

integrate particle physics and accelerators into our classrooms to

help get our students excited about cutting-edge physics. We also

had the opportunity to see the S’Cool Lab where the team gave a

presentation on budget-friendly, interactive labs and demos for the

classroom. S’Cool Lab develops resources for classroom teachers to

build, most often by 3D printing, lab equipment to be used in the

classroom. The team at S’Cool Lab also ran another session where

we had the opportunity to build our very own particle detector, a

cloud chamber.

The presentation on medical physics was perhaps one of

the most powerful presentations that we got to see

during the program. While CERN is the birthplace of the

internet and the touchscreen was first developed here as

well, most people don’t realize the contributions that

CERN has made to medicine. In 1977 two physicists from

CERN built and operated one of the world’s first PET

(positron emission tomography) systems in Geneva

Hospital. Today, the MediPix, a particle track detector

originally developed for use in high energy physics, is now

being used to create the first 3D colour x-ray images of a

human. We also learned about hadron therapy in cancer

treatments and how this will allow the maximum

radiation dose to be targeted on the tumour with little

damage to surrounding tissue. This technology has been known since 1946, but it is only recently that we have started

...Cont’d on page 5

Group photo of the International High School Teacher Programme 2019.

(From left to right) Myself, Adrian Fernandez of Spain, Chris Bormann of Australia, and Rahul Chatterjee of India as we

build a cloud chamber in the S’Cool Lab.

At our tour of the Synchrocyclotron with fellow Canadian, Sarah Torrie.

Manitoba Teachers Society 1-800-665-0584

MTS Disability Benefits Plan

1-866-504-9373

Educator Assistance Program Louise Lamont, Western Region

153—13th Street, Brandon 1-800-555-9336

Council of School Leaders (COSL)

1-204-837-3044 cosl@mbteach.org

TRAF

Rm 330, Johnson Terminal 25 Forks Market Rd, Winnipeg

1-800-782-0714

Certification Branch Box 700, Russell, R0J 1W0

1-800-667-2378

The Celebration Continues… The Brandon Teachers’ Association LIFT Committee held the 2019 LIFT Conference on Friday, October 25th. The conference began in the 1980’s when a group of teachers in the Brandon School Division wished to provide quality PD without having to incur the expense of travelling to Winnipeg. Over the years the conference has continued to grow to meet the professional development needs of educators. This year’s conference had over 60 sessions attended by over 1200 teachers from across Manitoba. On-line registration through MTS MyProfile has helped to streamline the process. The LIFT Committee now relies on other outside groups such as Crocus Plains Hockey team to assist with parking and WREA to assist with session check-in. It is this behind the scenes assistance that helps the conference run smoothly and effectively. The Committee has developed many partnerships. The Director of Field Study and Chairperson of the Graduate Studies Program in the Faculty of Education at Brandon University now sits as a member of the LIFT Committee. This partnership now means that students in the Faculty of Education attend LIFT and members of the Faculty are now facilitating sessions for LIFT at Brandon University. This is also the second year the Conference held a satellite session hosted by the Portage la Prairie Teachers’ Association. The magnitude of the conference has necessitated that a half-time Assistant be hired to conduct the daily business. As a result the role of the LIFT Conference Co-ordinator was incorporated into the Executive Assistant position of the BTA and a full-time position was created several years ago. As the LIFT Committee reviews the feedback received from the 2019 conference, and begins plans for the 2020 conference, we thought we would look back at the report provided by the 1987 LIFT Committee Conference and reflect on LIFT’s beginnings….

This annual report of the LIFT Committee is intended to serve as information of the year’s activities. The Committee consists of Norm Brown (as treasurer), Sally Bender (primary), Brenda Hill (intermediate), Donaleen Gilchrist (junior high), Glenn Cockerline (senior high), Allison Bell (resources) , Betty Stewart (past chairperson) and Pat Bowslaugh (chairperson). Without the ongoing expertise and support of our LIFT Co-ordinator, Dianne Fox, you can appreciate the fact that putting together an event of this magnitude would be an insurmountable task.

Cont’d on page 4...

Pension Sustainability Seminar South West Region – Brandon

This is NOT pre-retirement seminars

This is a seminar specific to the long term sustainability of teacher pension and some projections on what it will resemble if some of the ancillary benefits change. DATE: Saturday, November 16, 2019

PLACE: Clark Hall at the University of Brandon

TIME: 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

This session is sponsored by The Manitoba Teachers’ Society. The objective is to help teachers understand aspects of their pension, prepare for retirement, and consider potential changes to the Pension. While the pension is in good shape, the other party to Manitoba teachers’ pension, the Province, has indicated that they wish to discuss the pension and teacher pensions across the country have changed, or are changing. Representatives from MTS and TRAF will be in attendance.

...Cont’d from page 3

The first task this committee undertook was to establish job descriptions for the Co-ordinator which is a position apart from the duties which Dianne Fox performs in the position of Executive Assistant for the Brandon Teachers’ Association. In addition we established job descriptions for both the LIFT Committee Chairperson and committee members. It is essential to point out that the members of the LIFT committee should really be appointed from various school Professional development representatives. The committee then sent out forms to all Brandon schools to solicit information regarding topics that the teachers wanted addressed at this Conference as well as volunteers to present sessions. In addition letters were sent to Superintendents of surrounding divisions seeking suggestions for presenters from their respective divisions. This worked very well. We received many excellent leads for presenters as well as numerous unsolicited compliments. Once the process of confirming the names and topics of presenters was in place Dianne prepared the booklets which were sent to the schools in early August. The cover design on the booklet was done by Bruce Brinkworth. Our appreciation goes to Jay Neufeld for his cooperation in arranging for the printing of these materials plus many other requirements in the Brandon School Division #40 print shop. Registrations, with fees of $10 for Brandon Association members and $12 for other entrants, were received at Manitoba Education by Maryann Sparrow. Sincere thanks to Maryann for receiving these and forwarding them to Dianne for processing. The registrations were processed on a firt-come, first-served basis. When registrations were confirmed and the sessions were in place the committee members then contacted Brandon teachers to serve as liaison persons for each session. The liaison workers introduce and thank the speakers, distribute and collect evaluation forms and expense vouchers, and act in an assisting capacity as required by the presenter. Prior to the Conference details such as location of sessions, equipment acquisition, making arrangements for coffee, making signs, accommodating commercial displays and a “million” intricate details must be addressed. This year sessions were held mainly at Vincent Massy School. Other venues were New Era, Crocus Plains, George Fitton Riverheights, and Riverview Schools plus the Brandon School Division Office and Teacher Activity Centre. In addition t here were two on site locations namely, Riding Mountain Park and Sprce Woods Park. The variety of locations used was in order to meet the varying needs of presenters. Special thanks to the staffs of these schools whose cooperation in providing accommodation is greatly appreciated. At this time not all the expense vouchers are in. The committee reviews each voucher to approve the expenditures for travelling, meals, accommodation, printing expenses and honorariums of $50 per half-day session. A final financial report will not be available until all the bills are in and paid. The committee has received many positive reports regarding the conference. For this a tremendous amount of credit goes to Dianne Fox who is an absolute mastermind at attending to details. In addition, I am proud of the committee members for their inspirations, devotion to tasks and cooperation. As an Association I think we can be proud of our leadership in education via this Professional Development commitment. In closing there are two things I ask of the Membership at large. If there were any areas where you could suggest points to improve our program and/or delivery, please put these in writing and submit to myself or Dianne Fox and secondly, the LIFT Committee is an exhilarating and rewarding experience which deserved your consideration of serving on it. Thank-you for allowing me the opportunity of serving as your LIFT Chairperson. Respectfully submitted Pat Bowslaugh, Chairperson

Deadline for submissions to the Joint BTA/BSD PD Fund

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2020

Please review the funding criteria before forwarding your application.

NOTE: Documents and criteria can be found at:

Divisional Documents:

https://portal.bsd.ca/Documents/BSD-BTA%20Joint%20PD%20Forms Portal Group – BSD/BTA PD:

https://portal.bsd.ca/Groups/bsdbtapd/pages/default.aspx BTA website:

http://www.btateach.com/btateach/docs.html

Please submit your PD applications to: office@btateach.com

...Cont’d from Page 2

treating cancer patients in this way. However, we have since found even better methods of cancer treatment with carbon-ion

therapy and anti-positron therapy.

To top off the first week, we had an incredible tour of the CMS Experiment! This is one of the two major experiments at

CERN, the other being the ATLAS Experiment, as 4300 particle physicists, engineers, technicians, students, and support staff

from 42 countries work to make new discoveries about the universe. The CMS detector is 21 metres long, has a diameter of

15 metres, weighs 14 000 tonnes, and produces a magnetic field 100 000 times stronger than the Earth! That photo of me

standing next to this behemoth in my red hard hat does not even begin to convey the sense of wonder that passes over you

as you walk in to the cavern and see this thing for the first time.

Our second week started with learning about the data processing and analysis that goes on at CERN as they try to organize

information from the 40 million particle collisions per second that occur when the LHC is fully up and running. Our final site

visit of the program was one of the most fascinating as we got to see the Antimatter Factory and the LEIR (Low Energy Ion

Ring) where they produce antimatter to be studied. We then finished up the lecture portion of the program on Thursday with

talks on the engineering challenges at CERN and the possibility of future accelerators. Can you imagine that they might next

build an accelerator 100 km in circumference?!

We also had an incredible day of workshops from the Perimeter

Institute, a research institute for theoretical physics that houses

some of the greatest physicists in the world today and that happens

to be based out of Waterloo, Ontario. Dave Fish and Laura Pankratz

walked us through resources on climate change, introductory

quantum physics, relativity, the principles of dark matter, and the

basic processes of science that are offered through the Perimeter

Institute’s outreach program and are ready to be implemented in

any high school physics classroom. It is through meeting and talking

with them that I have found a tremendous new opportunity as I

return to Canada, that of being a new member of the Perimeter

Institute Teacher Network. As the Perimeter Institute seeks to

expand its outreach across Canada and build teacher networks in

each province, I will be working with them to build the teacher

network here in Manitoba and provide official Perimeter Institute

Professional Development opportunities to my colleagues in the

province, starting this fall with my presentation at SAGE in Winnipeg Cont’d on Page 6…

(From back to front) Dave Fish of the Perimeter Institute, Jason Williamson of the USA, Theresa Rudnick of the USA, Oksana Pasichnyk of Ukraine, and myself in a section of the decelerator at the Antimatter

Factory.

...Cont’d from page 5

Throughout the program there was also group work that resulted in our final reports and presentations on Friday.

With each topic that we learned about in the program a different focus group was assigned to put together a report

and presentation on how we can bring that information back to our classrooms. One of the most amazing parts of this

program was being able to speak and collaborate with colleagues from around the world that are every bit as

passionate about teaching Physics as I am. Sharing stories about our classrooms, ideas, and resources has had a

tremendous impact on what my physics classroom will look like from this point forward. I look forward to continuing

to collaborate with some of them on bringing coding into my Physics classroom, working with one of our presenters on

integrating concept maps into my courses, and collaborating with the S’Cool Lab on some hands-on projects and demos

for the classroom.

Coming back after this once-in-a-lifetime experience full of

new ideas and opportunities, I feel invigorated to share my

experiences with students, colleagues, and the general

public promoting STEM and the incredible work done at

CERN. I hope that more Physics teachers will pursue this

incredible opportunity in the future and that Canada may

look at one day becoming a member state so that we too

can contribute to the amazing work being done there!

Standing beside a section of LHC dipole on permanent display

with a view of the Swiss Alps in the background.

Please note the following important dates: Oct. 24, 2019 Fab 5 Conference Oct. 24, 2019 BTA Meet & Greet Event 5:00—9:00 p.m.—Houstons Oct. 25, 2019 LIFT Conference 2019 Oct. 26, 2019 GRIEVANCE HEARING—FINAL ARGUMENTS 10:00 a.m.—Victoria Inn, Bdn. Nov. 13, 2019 Substitute Teacher Meeting 4:15 p.m. Crocus Library Nov 16, 2019 Pension Sustainability Seminar 1:00 p.m. Clark Hall,BU. Nov. 28, 2019 BTA Council Meeting 4:14 p.m. Vincent Massey

Celebrating 100 Years! Brandon Collegiate Institute Staff—Picture taken April 30, 1922 prior to performance of “Diaspora”

NOTICE

Substitute Teacher Meeting

Wednesday, November 13, 2019 4:15 p.m.

Crocus Plains High School Library

If you have an item for the agenda, please contact the BTA Office at:

office@btateach.com no later than November 7, 2019. Please share this information with your substitute teacher colleagues who may not be on the BTA email list.

The BTA held their 2019 Meet and Greet Event on Thursday, October 24, 2019 at Houston’s. World Renowned Comedian, Big Daddy Tazz took to the stage for a night of laughter and fun . A special thank-you to the BTA Public Relations Committee for organizing a membership engagement event to welcome new teachers to the Association as well as returning teach-ers to a new school year. A survey will be sent out shortly seeking input on the next membership engagement event.

Big Daddy Tazz!