Applause! is the monthly recognition of significant achievements and contributions by staff, students and community partners at a York Region District School Board Public Board Meeting.
Recognition of achievements is based on alignment with the organizational goals outlined by the Trustees’ Multi-Year Plan in combination with the criteria set out in Staff Awards and Student Awards policies.
2018-2019 Applause Recipients
Markville Secondary School Places Second in Provincial Envirothon
October 2018
A team of students from Markville Secondary School placed second in a province-wide Envirothon hosted by Forests Ontario.
The competition had a total of nearly 200 participating schools, with only 21 moving on to the provincial competition at the University of Waterloo. The Markville SS team, named Plant Daddys, took first place in the regional competition in April, advancing them to the provincial competition where they finished in second place.
Students applied and expanded their knowledge of the environment in a variety of team-based tasks and workshops, designed to prepare students for future green careers.
The Markville team of students consisted of:
- Winnie Lin
- Alena Parkinson
- Rachel Ruffo
- Florence Sy
- James Yuan
Local Students Receive National Recognition for Science Projects
October 2018
Four York Region District School Board students placed among the top young scientists in Canada at a national science fair.
Six students from the Board were selected from the York Region Science and Technology Fair to attend the Canada-Wide Science Fair. Held in Ottawa, Ontario, this event brings together 500 young scientists to showcase their solutions to global issues.
At the Canada-Wide Science Fair:
- Harry Parmar from Maple High School won a gold medal and the Innovation Award for his project: SYN-VIOLA: The Power of Novel, Designer Bacteria in Real World.
- Kamron and Sabrina Zaidi from Richmond Hill High School won a silver medal and the Nutrients for Life Award for their project: The Effect of Surface Tension on Plant Growth in Fogponics.
- Austin Wu from Richmond Hill High School won a bronze medal for his project: A Novel Approach to Combat Cancer by Altering Levels of Sphingomyelin in the Cellular Membrane.
Both fairs are a valuable opportunity for students to expand and apply their learning. Students combined their scientific knowledge with their problem-solving skills to come up with innovative solutions to global issues.