News and Announcements

Students received their semester two mid-term report cards on Tuesday April 29th.

Parents/guardians are encouraged to review the marks, attendance record and learning skills that are commented upon in the report card.  Parents/guardians are invited to contact the subecjt teacher, the guidance counsellor or a vice-principal if they have any questions or concerns.

Mackenzie has three teams with a total of over 100 dedicated students from grade nine to twelve who have been meeting during lunch to prepare for several programming contests.  26 teams of four students each competed in three Canada wide DWITE programming contests to determine the top three teams (one all girls) to represent the school at the board level this spring.

These teams participated in the Toronto District School Board’s contest for the Educational Computing Organization of Ontario (ECOO).  All of the teams placed high enough to go on to the Regional competition April 26 and the two senior teams have advanced to the Provincial ECOO Competition May 10th at York University.

We are very proud of our students and their achievements – we wish the two senior teams the best of luck as they compete at the provincial level next weekend.

Kind-hearted and nebbish Seymour Krelborn works in Mushnik’s flower shop on Skid Row. While his boss bemoans the lack of business, Seymour seeks a way of bringing the shop — and himself — fame and fortune. He has purchased a strange plant from a street vendor and names the plant after his co-worker and crush, Audrey, an equally kind-hearted young woman with an abusive dentist boyfriend.  Gradually, Seymour learns to his horror that “Audrey II” craves blood and flesh. As Audrey II becomes increasingly demanding, Seymour must scare up human food to satisfy the plant’s appetite.

Mackenzie is proud to present this year’s musical production “A Little Shop of Horrors”. The show will have a two night run on May 8th and May 9th with the performance beginning at 7:00 p.m.

Tickets are available at lunch in the school store or at the door:

Students & Seniors:  $8.00                      Adults:  $12.00

Parent/guardians are invited to attend our next school council meeting which will be held on May 7th at 7:00 p.m. in the staff lounge.

Toshiba and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) announced this week that students at William Lyon Mackenzie C. I. (TDSB) placed second in the 22nd annual ExploraVision National Competition.  ExploraVision is the world’s largest K-12 science and technology competition designed to build problem-solving, critical thinking and collaboration skills.

The grade 10 students Ricky Chen, Dan Timonera  and Ingridi Musa created a new technology that uses light signals to boost optical computing, recognizing that computer power can no longer maintain its rapid exponential rise using standard silicon technology.  Their project titled Low Transistor Count High-Density Turing Machine (LTCHDTM) using Photonic-Saturation Optical Transistors (P-SOT), describes a technology that uses less power to transmit signals over long distances, resulting in computers that are lighter, smaller, faster and more energy efficient.

As national winners, each student will receive $5,000 in Canada savings bonds that they can put towards their higher education. They will also receive an expenses-paid trip with their family and coach (teacher) to Washington during June 4 – 7, 2014. In Washington they will have the opportunity to visit Capitol Hill to meet with members of Congress and participate in a Science Showcase to display and demonstrate their winning ideas. The highlight of the Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision weekend will be a gala awards banquet and ceremony where students will be formally recognized for their creativity and accomplishments.

• ExploraVision National Winners: http://www.exploravision.org/winners/
• Student’s website: http://dev.nsta.org/evwebs/2014104/
• Toshiba Canada Press Release: http://www.toshiba.ca/News/Ontario_Students_Among_National_Winners_of_2014_ExploraVision_Competition/
• Toshiba USA Press Release: http://www.exploravision.org/pdf/ExploraVision+National+Winners+Release+2014.pdf
• FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=666213410098851&set=a.195625393824324.72928.177333532320177&type=1&theater

Recently, twenty four Mackenzie students participated in the Michael Smith Challenge, a science contest that is open to students across Canada in grades 9 or 10.

We are pleased to announce that 13 Mackenzie students placed in the top 25% of all contest participants.

Honourable mentions go out to to Lande Du and to Sloane Kowal who finished in the top 10%!

Special congratulations go out to Sejin Kim and Gajani Nirthanarajah who placed in the top 3%!

We are very proud of all of our students who participated in this national contest.

Culturama, Mackenzie’s annual celebration of food, music and dance from around the world, will take place on Thursday April 24, 2014.

All are invited to come out and sample the delicious treats at 6:30 p.m with the performances starting at 7:00 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased at the door for $4.

Congratulations to Lior Levy (Grade 10 MaCS Student) and Roi Levy (Grade 9 MaCS student) for their Gold Medal win at the annual Toronto Science Fair. They will represent Toronto in the Canada-Wide Science Fair 2014 in Windsor from May 10th – 17th. An abstract of their project ” One Little Cell, A World of Possibilities” is below.

Abstract: Cultivating Coccolithophoroid algae has significant potential in CO₂ sequestration. We designed a novel, high efficiency, modular, portable, closed photobioreactor panel to optimize algal growth and optical density. Our investigation yielded the optimal growth conditions necessary for large scale cultivation, biofuel, biomass and CaCO₃ production, enhanced CO₂ bioremediation and climate regulation.

The National Day of Silence is a day of action in which students across the country vow to take a form of silence to call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools.

Students have the opportunity to sign up to participate.  Participating students will receive a “rainbow” pin and a speaking card that explains that they are participating the Day of Silence.  In the last 1/2 hour of school on April 10th, students that have participated with be invited to a musical performance in the cafeteria to “Break the Silence”. 

Founded in 1996, the Day of Silence has become the largest single student-led action towards creating safer schools for all, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. 

The International Day of Pink is a day of action, born when a youth in a high school in Cambridge, Nova Scotia was bullied because he wore a pink shirt to school. His fellow students decided to stand up to bullying; hundreds of students came to school wearing pink to show support for diversity and stopping discrimination, gender-based bullying, homophobia and transphobia.

The goal of the International Day of Pink is to bring this message across the world, through an international day of action that anyone can take part in. Please wear pink on April 9th in support of diversity and to challenge gender stereotypes, homophobia and transphobia.