St.

Patrick Fine Arts School

LAUNCH Exploratory Courses in

Grade 4,5,6: Fearless Fun for the
Future

To complement our mandatory courses in grades 4, 5 and 6, our teachers have created hour-long
courses that run over 6 weeks to introduce students to specific areas of the arts, physical pursuits,
technology, stewardship and plenty of creativity. These all align with at least one Occupational
Cluster:Area defined in Alberta Educations Career and Technology Foundations (CTF) curriculum,
which is technically available to students in grades 5-9. At St. Patrick Fine Arts, we have included
grade 4s in these multi-aged, multi-ability classes. Career exploration in CTF helps grade 5 to 9
students make connections between areas of interest and develop skills, knowledge and technologies
in various occupational areas. CTF can assist students in making informed CTS (Career and
Technology Studies) course selections in grades 10-12.

LAUNCH reflects a borrowed creative process acronym that stands for Learn, Ask Questions,
Understand, Navigate, Create, and Highlight (1). In this design, students jump into the course at
different places and then create something new and share their learning in a variety of ways. To
assess students progress, teachers will provide them with a simple rubric of outcomes connected to
the CTF ones. Both students and teachers will do an assessment, and then a copy will come home to
parents, much like a typical report card issued at the end of each LAUNCH term.

For more information, please talk to your childs teacher or visit http://albertactf.ca/wp-
content/uploads/2015/08/CTF-Organizational-Structure.pdf or https://education.alberta.ca/career-and-
technology-foundations/program-of-studies/.

Course Title: Instructor:

Outdoor Education Kerri Lynn Haney-Vanderberg

CTF Occupational Cluster-Area:

Resources

Description and Learning Objectives:

Throughout this course, students will have hands-on experiences with nature and the outdoors.
Students will learn to appreciate and understand their natural environment through hands on
experiences. Through various challenges students will develop the skills and attitudes required to
both enjoy and excel in the outdoors. The programs ultimate goal is to support students in acquiring
knowledge, attitudes and values that support their development as successful members of their
community.

(1) Launch: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student by A.J. Juliani and John Spencer.
2016