Students Create a Buzz about Bees

This past year students at Laurier Macdonald CLC (an IB School in Montreal) learned about the decline of the global bee population and became aware of how the disappearance of pollinating insects  impacts our global food supply.

Prompted by this knowledge, Secondary IV leadership students developed a concrete response to support the local bee population - a perfect example of student participation in "real-world" community service activities.

LMAC partnered with Alvéole, an organization that helps people install and care for urban honeybee colonies.  The students knew better than to install a beehive on a school roof without addressing concerns of students, families and local residents, so they developed a communication campaign.

The rental of the hives also came at a cost, so the LMAC governing board loaned money to the students that will over time be repaid through the sale of honey collected from the hives. Delicious!

How Did They Do It?

Secondary 4 Leadership students were divided into different "Public Relation" committees responsible for educating local stakeholders about the purpose behind the installation of the two honeybee hives through social media, posters, presentations to elementary students, and promotional films.  

According to LMAC teacher, Michael Penning, this experience “helped students to develop skills in communication, leadership, and project management”.

The CLC approach is all about developing school-community partnerships. The CLC coordinator has been working closely with Alvéole to manage logistics and the students ensured the humans of LMAC knew about the bees and their role in the school.  

You can find more information about LMAC Bees on twitter @lmacbees

Up Next Recordings

James Lyng CLC is an Urban Arts School in Montreal which has over the last 3 years developed exciting school-community partnerships with organizations led by members of Montreal’s vibrant hip hop scene, and students have recently launched their very own record label: Up Next Recordings.

“Between W.O.R.D. (an extra-curricular Hip Hop literacy program), a curated  multi-media art exhibit, a student-centered music program and school choir, there is an amazing amount of high quality music created at our school. The students saw a need to promote our school's music and decided to create a record label and release a mixtape entitled "Up Next Mixtape #1” comments James Lyng CLC teacher Nathan Gage.  

Nathan,the music and entrepreneurship teacher points out "Artists like Drake got their start by releasing mixtapes which fans could download for free.”

"Through community partners and our partnership with McGill's Department of Integrated Studies in Education, my students have developed working relationships with amazing and inspiring adults. I have seen my students benefit greatly from these interactions".

The CLC approach of school-community partnerships develops the supports and conditions for students to contribute to projects that have a life outside the confines of the school and helps provide authentic opportunities for students to engage with their school community.

Reflecting on the impact of the project, Nathan observed that  his students "have benefited by seeing their hard work come to fruition and be recognized.”

How did they do it?

The class was divided into 4 groups

1.     social media and website

2.     communications and media

3.     marketing and accounting

4.     art and advertising (poster, graphic design)

I asked Nathan how he managed the class and kept a record of student learning.  He used a different binder for each group, and students logged what they did each day.

Specific tasks included:

• Creating a budget
• Creating a website
• Setting up a social media presence
• Designing posters
• Designing a logo
• Designing cover art for the mixtape
• Helping a professional studio engineer record the James Lyng choir
• Assigning track order and song transitions for the mixtape
• Creating CD copies to give to students involved in the project
• Writing a press release
• Writing a one sheet
• Emailing radio stations across the country
• Contacting local media

You can hear more about the project from a great interview on CBC Montreal's Daybreak and the CBC radio program Cinq à Six.

Check out the Montreal Gazette article about James Lyng's Urban Arts Initiative here.