Students delve into climate change data in Vaughan

York Region hosts second event for students on using data

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 30, 2019
Dina Al-Shibeeb

Dozens of students from nine schools went through real-life data Sept. 26 to understand what’s happening with climate change in their own communities.

It was the second time York Region hosted a data event. This time it took place at Vaughan city hall.

"At the region, we have a ton of open data that we can provide publicly, and it’s a great resource for the students to interact and learn about data," said Brian McPhail, open data program specialist at York Region.

After seeing Durham Region hosting students for data events, McPhail contacted Christopher Tucker, a curriculum consultant at York Region District School Board, to "put an event together so students can learn and interact with real-life data."

This first event was last November, when students learned more about connected autonomous vehicles and "what the region is doing to adopt those."

At the Sept. 26 session, students learned about climate change and how York Region is collecting data to hone its adaptation and mitigation.

Janice Baek of Thornhill Secondary School didn’t "realize how much data that York Region was actually collecting and analyzing."

Some parts of the session she had learned from school, "whether that’s in science or geography, but a lot more of the analytical portion today has really surprised me."

The students were shown a small sensor called a puck that can track weather and measure salt on roads.

"They brought in the temperature guns and the sensors and they showed how it works and showed us a map of where they are located within the town and the city," Baek said.

Kenna Agbakwa from Thornlea Secondary School learned how collecting data can help. "I didn’t know about climate change adaptation and mitigation, and the idea of how they really focus on collecting data to improve different areas being affected."

Agbakwa also sees how knowing more about data can be "implemented in our community and everyday life."

The session was part of the students' specialist high skills major program. The provincial program allows students to focus their learning on a specific economic sector, while meeting the requirements for the Ontario secondary school diploma.