Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to highlight the work of a young Frame Lake constituent. Ms. Jazzy Hans is a 10-year-old student at J.H. Sissons School and she has taken the occasion of the annual Heritage Fair at her school to follow her Olympic dream.
Jazzy decided to do research about her role model, Christine Sinclair. After Ms. Sinclair’s performance at last summer’s Olympics, hopefully Members know that she is a spectacular Canadian Olympic soccer forward, that she plays for the Portland Thorns Football Club and is captain for the Canadian National soccer team.
Jazzy has been hard at work writing letters to various people in Yellowknife, including me, her MLA, and members of the soccer community in the NWT. As part of her research, she’s also asking Ms. Sinclair to come and visit Yellowknife. Jazzy’s Heritage Fair activities are a great example of project-based experiential learning, learning that positively engages our students.
Heritage fairs in the NWT are coordinated by the NWT Heritage Fairs Society, and the society is a volunteer-based organization dedicated to encouraging young people to explore and share the history of their family or their community, as well as the heritage of people and places of the Northwest Territories. The opportunity to take part in a heritage fair is enriched when students explore a personal connection to their heritage, like my young constituent, Jazzy Hans, has done. Heritage fairs present opportunity for students to create projects about persons, places, events and traditions of the Northwest Territories or Canadian history, culture and heritage.
These projects encourage students to develop good research skills using a wide variety of sources. Projects are intended to encourage students to pursue topics that have a meaningful connection to their lives. Research that goes beyond the use of books and the Internet is encouraged and it may involve various skills such as interviewing, collecting artifacts, photography and so on, including writing letters.
Over the years, heritage projects have proven to be a very engaging way to make learning meaningful. Families, multi-generations of community members and students all benefit from the conversations and the resulting projects and displays.
Students can participate at three different levels of fairs. The first is class, school or community, the second level is regional, and the third level is territorial. Jazzy, by taking part in any one of these, can be considered for the territorial showcase, which will be held this May in Fort Smith.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
I ask all Members to join me in wishing Jazzy good luck with her Olympic soccer hero Heritage Fair presentation. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
