Journey North International Plant Study

Journey North Tulip Project at Glace Bay High School

Armed with a large technology grant, teacher Sandra LeBlanc, at Glace Bay High School, in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia partnered her 10th grade science students with the local 4th grade class to participate in the Journey North International Tulip study.

Planning, Teaching and a Snack

A 10th and 4th Grade planning session.

Tenth graders equipped with homemade puppet shows, Power Point presentations, posters and board games set out to teach the 4th grade students at the Glace Bay Elementary School about the Journey North project. The games and presentations were to teach the students about the tulip project and to prepare them for the planting they would do on their school grounds later that month.

Here is what Ms. LeBlanc shared with us:

"As hosts of the grade fours, the grade ten students needed to plan and prepare a small snack for them. When the grade tens visited the grade fours for the planting, the snack was reciprocated.
Each grade ten student was matched with one grade four student and each team planted one bulb.
The day after the presentations, the grade ten students prepared a ten-minute debriefing to describe what it was like to work with the grade fours. Some of the grade tens had never worked alongside students with severe disabilities like those present in the grade four class. All of the grade tens voiced their enjoyment of working with the younger students and were glad they had the opportunity to experience people of different abilities. They were much more comfortable than they had expected and experienced very positive feelings from it. The grade tens then emailed their partners to remind them of why we planted the tulips the way we did (each email sent is copied to me for marking).


Tulip planting day.	Glace Bay 4th Graders on planting day.	Out of the wheelchair for some serious planting!

" Since we are semestered, I have had to transfer the partners from one grade ten class to another just this past week so that now the grade fours will be working with other grade ten students when we start monitoring the emergence and blooming of the tulips.

"When we complete the project, the grade ten students will prepare T-shirts with photos silk-screened on them: the photos will be of the partners working together with the tulips and will be designed to portray the best aspects of working with younger students."

Even their principal, vice principal and the Superintendent of the school board planted bulbs! The whole project was photographed and published in their local paper.


Principals, Jack Ettinger and Mary Passerini get into the planting, too.	Even the Chief Education Director is out on planting day!