Multicultural Club Visits the ROM

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America, the largest in Canada, and attracts more than one million visitors every year. Thanks to Kids Up Front, a group of newcomer youth from Bishop Marrocco / Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School's Multicultural Club visited the ROM and spent a wonderful afternoon there!

Through our visit, we learnt about the history of the museum. We got to see the famous Rotunda, which is a mosaic ceiling made from countless little squares of Venetian glass. 

The Rotunda

The natural history part of the museum was a lot of fun! We got to take interactive photos with the "live" T-Rex at the ROM.

The T-Rex came alive!

There were lots to see at the museum. We even got to go inside an ancient Egyptian tomb replica!

This after school program run by CultureLink and West Neighbourhood House is a wonderful means for us to get to know other newcomers. We get the opportunity to learn leadership skills, practice English, get to learn more about Toronto and Canada, and also get to make new friends. 

To find out more, contact youth worker Lynda Young at lyoung(at)culturelink.ca

Trip to Ontario Science Centre

It was a hot summer day, but we were headed for the cool (cool-looking and indoor temperature-wise) Ontario Science Centre!

T-Rex model inside the Science Centre

There were so many exhibits to explore, we didn't know where to start!

Checking out the "Question of Truth" exhibit

Fun times at the Science Centre!

Thanks Kids Up Front for the tickets! We had a great time!

Youth Argos Outing

What a beautiful day to be out! And we are very thankful for the opportunity to watch the Argos play at the BMO Field.

For many of us, it's our first time watching a football game!

Excited about watching the Argos play!

What a game!

Fun time with friends!

Amazing time! Thanks Kids Up Front!

Thanks Kids Up Front for the opportunity!

What our Youths say about our program

Wendy Zhang:

The CultureLink youth program is a program for youth an newcomer to Canada,also it is one of the programs I have been to and liked

Wendy (far left) and her friends attending a dance performa

I have joined it for a short time, but I learned many things

For instance, with the staff who works for this program introduced my friends and me to go to the Global Roots Garden to volunteer each Monday. Not only we can get some volunteer hours for helping the senior participants who are in the gardens, we also learn some things about planting.

Wendy with the other youth gardeners of Global Roots Program

The youth program is an interesting and fun program. I wish more and more people can join this program!

By: Wendy Zhang

Raptors 905 Game

Thanks to Kids Up Front, we got some awesome tickets to see the Raptors 905 play against the Mad Ants today! It was a wonderful way to spend the first day of March Break!

We had so much fun at the @Raptors905 vs Mad Ants game today. Thanks @KidsUpFrontTO! pic.twitter.com/5Nyjrk3I0u

— CultureLink Youth (@CLinkYouth) March 14, 2016

Some of us got the royal treatment being seated in the executive suite!

The rest of us still had a ton of fun nonetheless!

Watching the games with popcorn and snacks!

What a TREAT!

Home team winning the game, made better with the company of good friends!

Thanks KidsUpFront for the lovely experience!

The ROM Museum

Thank you Kids Up Front for the ROM tickets

Community Day at the Ontario Science Centre

      Sunday, CultureLink’s Wintegration Program took us to the Ontario Science Centre for a visit. It was a community day and entrance was free, so the place was really crowded, and most of the exhibits and equipment were good to go.

After a long bus ride, we arrived at the Science Centre. One interesting thing was the water-based musical instrument at the gate of the museum. For me, it was a nice place to play some music when washing my hands! After we entered the museum, the first thing we did there was a quick half-an-hour activity which is more like a competition. Lynda, the Youth Program Worker from CultureLink, set us in the Earth Sciences section, and handed out a set of questions to finish. Although some of the equipments needed for us to answer some of the questions were, I quote, “We are working on it”, the science questions were still a piece of cake for the team of me and Paula. I managed to get the first place in the competition, with a little prize from Lynda. After that, we took a picture with a turtle. That was interesting because I actually played as that turtle! (The link for the photo is here https://twitter.com/CLinkYouth/status/384404095949627392/photo/1)

After that we were free walk around and explore more. There were lots of interesting things at the Science Centre, but the most interesting one I found was that there was a little radio station on Level 4 in which I could see what the daily life of a HAM is like (A ham means a radio transmission lover who sends and receives radio messages as a hobby rather than a job).When they told me that they got a chance to talk to the International Space Station, I kind of felt like that when I get a stable job and settle down (maybe on the dark side of the moon), I’d be a HAM in my spare time.

We also saw the astrology section and the genetics section, and they both got something to teach me.

Although it’s like little kids’ level science to me, it’s good that you take a breath from the things you learn and recall the memory of a kid. When I was young, about ten years old, my favorite places were the science centres around the world. I’ve been to science centres in China and Germany, and I’ve been looking for a science centre in Toronto. Thanks to CultureLink, I finally accomplished one of my dreams and got to meet new people and get new ideas. And thank you, Kids Up Front for the tickets! 

Written by: Richard Ren

Edited by: Lynda Young

Posted by: Jessica Wang

Note: Thanks to Kids Up Front for the Community Tickets! Even though we didn’t get to use them because it turned out the Sep 29 was a Community Day at the Ontario Science Centre, so admission was free for all, we would not have gone if not for Kids Up Front! So, thank you!

Visit to Ontario Science Centre

   We went to Ontario Science Centre on September 29.2013. Everyone met at Pape Subway Station. Then, we spent around 15 minutes on TCC bus number 25.

   

   We firstly got a hand-out which was the activity we would be doing. The worksheet was about living earth, science arcade and human body which were all the stuff that is related to our surroundings, and the living beings surrounding us. We were given 30 minutes to fill out the worksheet. That was too short a time, so I didn’t finish even half of it! However I got to try out some of the interactive exhibits, such as the machine to test the initial pH of rain, three different water fountains for you to try which groundwater would be safer, and also walk through a humid man-made rain forest, which also had three kinds of poisonous frogs with neon colors on display. For this challenge, the winner was Richard, as he got the most correct answers. Congratulations!

    

   We got to walk around and look around the Science Centre after the activity. We went to see an exhibit about all the different kinds of trees in the forest. We also went to the Space exhibit, which was pretty cool. We also went to see a huge inventive display which was beside the KidSpark, a playground for younger children. There were several metal balls rolling around across each gear by going in different ways. That was such a masterpiece! The people who made it must have spent so much time putting it together!

   Through visiting the Science Centre, I had a lot of fun. I not only got to see the modern developed technologies on science, but also I learned a lot from the worksheet activity,  as well as all the displays that we got to see and try out.

   It was a really enriching trip! Thanks KidsUpFront for the opportunity!

Written by: Jessica Wang
Edited by: Lynda Young
Posted by: Jessica Wang

Note: Thanks to Kids Up Front for the Community Tickets! Even though we didn’t get to use them because it turned out the Sep 29 was a Community Day at the Ontario Science Centre, so admission was free for all, we would not have gone if not for Kids Up Front! So, thank you!