November 29th, 2025

Angela Xi

After completing the biology unit in the grade 10 TOPS science class, the class participated in a hands-on and educational experience involving the dissection of a frog. Students were able to identify and study the frog’s body systems up close. They learned how to properly begin the dissection and identify different structures in the body. Many students were frightened, while others enjoyed partaking in this activity. What a great way to wrap up the biology unit!

November 21st, 2025

Rohaan Khan

This week, the Grade 12 TOPS AP Physics 2 class began learning about electricity and electric fields. Students learnt to calculate the magnitude of the electrostatic force, electric field strength and electric potential energy. They derived their equations by making connections between electricity and gravity. As they did so, electricity travelled through their neurons into their paper and electrified the space around all of them! 

November 3rd, 2025

Harithra Kumaresan

The grade 10 TOPS science class is starting to discuss and dive into microscope calculations with their newest lab experiment. With renewed excitement, more papers, and curiosity, these talented individuals are blending both math and science to explore the world beyond the naked eye in DNA. Overall, the TOPS students are learning that the tiniest things can cause the biggest headaches, but also lead to some cool discoveries. 

October 25th, 2025

Haniah Saeed

The Grade 10 TOPS math class is wrapping up their quadratics unit with an innovative and fun challenge: building and mathematically analyzing their very own Angry Birds levels! Students combine creativity and analytical thinking to design complex structures and model distinct parabolic flight paths, each with a unique critical element. This assignment highlights their deep understanding of quadratic functions while keeping math fun and engaging!

October 24th, 2025

Rohaan Khan

After finishing a unit about the equations of lines in 2D and 3D space, the Grade 12 TOPS Linear Algebra class moved their equations into a new dimension and learnt about equations of planes in 3D space! Students built upon their understanding of vectors and matrices in order to find and convert between equations of planes and discuss the relationship between planes and points. Encountering problems such as finding the distance between a point and a plane really revealed some truths!

October 12th, 2025

Angela Xi

To start off the school year, the grade 10 TOPS students went to the annual YMCA Camp Pinecrest trip for 4 days and 3 nights. The grade 10s experimented with soil, water, and temperatures of the wilderness. They also participated in fire building, camping, hiking, and many other team-building activities. While camping, students cooked their own meals over a campfire and had a great time telling spooky stories and stargazing. What an interesting experience they had!

June 13th, 2025

Angela Xi

The semester is coming to an end, and the grade 9 TOPS students are back with some more forms of technology! This assignment teaches students on the pre-production, production, and post-production of creating a stop motion using various techniques and equipment. They get creative freedom and are able to create a stop motion using clay, lego, pixelation, and much more! This rotation was more hands-on and included more work periods, which encourages students to be productive, procrastinate less,  and have a good sense of time management.

June 12th, 2025

Nevetha Arullinkam

This week, TOPS students, alumni, family, and prospective students all attended TOPS Night 2025! Organized each year with great effort by the TOPS grade 11s, TOPS Night is an event where students showcase their creative talents and represent their grades in their grade skits, videos, and acts. Many beloved teachers also took to the stage to offer advice and recall fond memories. Whether it be highlighting vibrant trips, late nights studying, or everyday fun (and fighting procrastination) from game shows to Shakespearean twists, the students certainly left the audience spellbound!

June 11th, 2025

Lillian Li

This week, the Grade 12 TOPS Biology class dissected sheep brains! Each group was given their own brain to examine, hold, and eventually cut open. Students examined structures like the corpus callosum, white and gray matter, and the different lobes and cortices of the brain, such as the frontal lobe and the prefrontal cortex. After getting the chance to touch all the structures they’d learned about in diagrams, was everyone ready for the nervous system test the next day?

June 7th, 2025

Rohaan Khan

This week, many TOPS students across MGCI attended the annual Clubs Banquet—a night dedicated to celebrating the amazing clubs MGCI has to offer. The night featured awards, student guest speakers, live music, and lots of delicious food! It was a chance to recognize the efforts made by all the clubs this year. This year was an amazing year for clubs and there’s plenty of excitement for what the next has in store.

Image credit: @mgci.captures

June 6th, 2025

Selina Yu

Who loves baking? The Grade 9 TOPS students! What could be better than a mouthful of chemical reactions! The Grade 9 TOPS students baked chocolate cupcakes in their skilled trades class. Excited to ice them, they gathered as the timer rang. But gasps erupted—one batch looked “inverted”! Ms. Gunn explained that the baking soda to baking powder ratio was off. The bizarre treats looked more like culinary crimes than desserts. Laughter and disbelief filled the kitchen. Maybe next time, they’d measure more carefully!

May 30th, 2025

Mariam Mirza

With the end of the school year nearing, the TOPS Grade 11 students in Ms. Maharaj’s Physics class are finally starting their last unit, Electricity and Magnetism. Tackling problems involving compasses, they learned about magnetic fields and various principles, one being Oersted’s Principle which states the shape of a magnetic field around a straight conductor. Let’s wish the students luck on their upcoming exams!

May 30th, 2025

Lillian Li

As shown in the picture, pushing a bar magnet in the right direction seemingly created a current in the Grade 12 TOPS AP Physics C class by magic. To figure out what was going on, the class synthesized their Electricity and Magnetism unit, where they explored how electric fields, magnetic fields, electric force, and magnetic force work together and differ with bar magnets, current-carrying wires, solenoids, and more.

May 23rd, 2025

Kribakari Venkatesan

Grade 9 TOPS science students carefully dissected owl pellets and uncovered different bone parts and structures from tiny animals. The lucky ones even found skulls and ribs! Using detailed bone charts, they identified animals like rodents, shrews, and birds, gaining a deeper understanding of food chains and predator-prey relationships through this hands-on exploration.

May 16th, 2025

Rohaan Khan

This week, the Grade 11 TOPS Indigenous Studies class took a field trip to Petroglyphs Provincial Park. On the site, the students received a guided tour of The Teaching Rocks, the largest concentration of Indigenous rock carvings in Canada. Students got the opportunity to view these carvings up close and learn about what some of them mean. The Teaching Rocks contain various teachings from religion to medicine, and many more which have their exact meaning unknown. 

May 10th, 2025

Eileen Kuang

This Friday, the Grade 12 TOPS English class enjoyed an unexpected final visit to Stratford! After roaming the city for lunch, they watched a pre-season showing of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in Avon Theatre. Between school-bus karaoke, blooming magnolias, and scoops of gelato, this trip was a sweet ending to the TOPS '25 Stratford four-peat!

May 9th, 2025

Mariam Mirza

This week, the TOPS Grade 11 Biology class continued their foray into genetics, taking a deeper dive into topics such as chromosomal mutations and heredity. Using what they learned, they worked on an activity called Beaker Babies to determine traits they could pass on to their offspring based on their own genotypes (genetic makeup) and chromosomes. WIll the baby have brown, green, or blue eyes? Only genetics can tell.

May 9th, 2025

Haniah Saeed

This week, the Grade 9 tech classes had an exciting trip to the Skills Ontario Competition at the Toronto Congress Centre! Students explored a wide range of skilled trades and technologies—from culinary arts to aircraft maintenance—while watching live competitions and visiting interactive booths. It was a fun and inspiring experience that gave them a glimpse into potential future careers in the skilled trades and tech industries!

May 2nd, 2025

Nevetha Arullinkam

The Grade 11 TOPS Biology class is decoding the mysteries of genetics. This week, they studied mutations and manipulating the genome! The students combined sources of information and nucleotides in their virtual labs and paper activities on recombinant DNA. In addition to this, they revisited some familiar concepts to strengthen their base knowledge. The mitosis oreos (which were divided up and consumed faster than you can say “anaphase”) were a particular favourite!

May 1st, 2025

Angela Xi

The grade 9 TOPS technology class R3 is back with some more confectionary delights! To ease their way into the routine and habits within MGCI’s one and only kitchen, the class created some delightful chocolate cupcakes. They created a chocolate batter for the cupcake base with a variety of ingredients. Next, they began the decorating process of the cupcakes and used a variety of different colours of American buttercream that brought the cupcakes to life. This was a great skill for the students to acquire as well as a great team-building experience.

April 24th, 2025

Lillian Li

This week, the Grade 12 TOPS AP Physics C class spent two days figuring out new equipment in a rotational dynamics lab. They used a pulley and disk system to measure angular displacement and velocity so that they could find the relationship between angular acceleration and torque. With spinning rods and disks and falling weights, this lab synthesized much of what they’ve learned this past year!

April 14th, 2025

Harithra Kumaresan

The TOPS TAS: R2 Hospitality students wrapped up their second rotation with a delicious-looking, creative pizza-making project, going from learning food safety, food preparation, and baking techniques throughout the rotation to putting it all to use on a masterpiece pizza. They started by kneading the dough and picking their unique toppings, where each student designed a unique pizza showcasing their talents and their personality. Some said yes to the classic, while others tried amazing and fun shapes. The activity satisfied both the TOPS students' appetites and celebrated the joy of their cooking through some hands-on experience. 

April 11th, 2025

Nevetha Arullinkam

The Grade 11 TOPS Physics class has reached the apparent end of Dynamics. The room was full of energy as groups presented their demonstrations of Newton’s laws of motion. Students showcased unique activities involving rolling chairs, back-to-back balancing, precariously placed pennies, and more. With little to slow them down, the class is now rolling straight into circular motion and banked curves, but who’s to say what their ideal speed really is and what direction they will be taken from here?

April 6th, 2025

Rohaan Khan

This week, the Grade 11 TOPS Biology class, as part of their unit on biodiversity, was taking a look at the various kingdoms of life. Among these were the elusive protists, a catch-all kingdom for organisms that aren’t plants, animals, fungi or bacteria. As part of their lessons, the students got to see one variety of these protists up close under a microscope.

April 4th, 2025

Don Tran

For the past two weeks, the Grade 12 TOPS Chemistry class has been hard at work deducing their five “mystery ions.” From a selection of nine different cations and six anions, students narrowed down their options with the use of solubility rules and dozens of experiments. With even a single drop potentially being the difference between success and failure, attention to detail was absolutely essential.

April 3rd, 2025

Haniah Saeed

This week, the Grade 9 TOPS Science classes began their physics unit with a hands-on lab where students observed the interactions between charged and uncharged objects to determine the type of force at play. They recorded whether there was attraction, repulsion, or no interaction, then identified the charges based on previous interactions. This activity provided a practical, interactive way to explore fundamental physics concepts, while offering a fresh start to the unit!

March 28th, 2025

Mariam Mirza

This week, almost half of the Grade 11 TOPS students, alongside many other members of the TOPS family in other grades, participated in HOSA’s Spring Leadership Conference. HOSA is a healthcare competition ripe with a multitude of events, ranging from ones related to health professions (EMT, Physical Therapy, Dental Science, etc.) to those purely knowledge and trivia based (Medical Terminology, Medical Math, Nutrition, etc.). This year, we had many outstanding performances to applaud, with 20 students placing in the top 10 and several qualifying for the International Leadership Conference in Nashville in June.

March 24th, 2025

Eileen Kuang

This week, the Grade 12 TOPS English class welcomed Marvin Karon from Shakespearience to deliver a workshop on interpreting and studying Shakespeare's work. Whether they were declaring one another as "pigeon-liver’d, rump-fed runion"s, practicing iambic pentameter, or dramatically reciting an excerpt from Macbeth, students were encouraged to thoughtfully and enthusiastically engage with Shakespeare's legacy. This workshop was certainly an unforgettable introduction to their imminent exploration of Macbeth!

March 21st, 2025

Nevetha Arullinkam

This week, the Grade 11 TOPS English class is putting together lessons from Storyworks and Narrative and conveying their own with the unit’s Creative Writing Assignment. While learning from Indigenous authors, students are crafting their own stories and polishing them through peer review and teacher conferences. No matter the format, the sky’s the limit for their imaginations (or perhaps as per the story of Skywoman, just the beginning!).

March 7th, 2025

Mariam Mirza

This week, the Grade 11 TOPS Biology classes kicked off their second chapter with a microviewer activity designed to help them learn more about helpful versus harmful bacteria. After a short lesson on prokaryotes, they viewed bacteria slides and learned the differences between different bacteria, bacterial illnesses, and more. To end off the week, they prepared wet mount slides with yogurt and viewed them under microscopes in a quest to find different shapes of bacteria.

March 9, 2025

Kribakari Venkatesan

The grade 9 TOPS students put their science skills to the test in a hands-on density lab! Rotating through stations, they measured wood blocks, experimented with graduated cylinders and overflow beakers, and used digital balances to find mass. The better part was identifying mystery metals using only density calculations and a reference chart. With teamwork and problem-solving, science became the best.

February 28, 2025

Nevetha Arullinkam

This week, the TOPS Grade 11 Physics class accelerated through the first chapter of kinematics! The students derived the big five kinematics equations using their knowledge of calculus from the previous semester, then applied them to situations like plummeting pennies and crashing cars. Finally, they put all their learning together for a lab, setting up ramps with low-friction carts to analyze their movements with ease using ticker tape.

February 28, 2025

Harithra Kumaresan

This week, the grade 9’s TOPS Science class became real detectives in the lab, using chemistry to crack the case of  5 mysterious solid, white substances! They uncovered each substance’s true identity by testing their solubility, acid reaction, and crystal shapes. With hands-on experiments and careful observations, students made science a living reality in the classroom lab. Overall, it proves that the most ordinary-looking white powders, small cubes, and hexagons have secrets waiting to be discovered. 

February 24th, 2025

Eileen Kuang

As the Grade 12 TOPS Chemistry class begins their rates of reactions unit, they've certainly sparked up some knowledge! Since preparing for their heat test with calorimetry labs last week, they're now able to calculate the heat of a reaction through Hess's Law, standard heats of formation, and bond energies. This week, the class began understanding various rates of reactions. Most notably, Ms. Woods displayed a fiery procedure, demonstrating the importance of surface area in speeding up reactions.

February 9th, 2025

Rohaan Khan

To end semester 1 on an exciting note, the Grade 11 TOPS students all took a trip for the final time to YMCA Camp Pine Crest. They engaged in activities such as tubing, broomball, cross-country skiing and so much more, all while building quinzhees—igloo-esque structures to be slept in during the final night—and toboggans! On the final day, the students raced their toboggans down a hill and said goodbye to the camp that brought them many memories across 3 years. 

February 7th, 2025

Lillian Li

To kick off semester 2, the Grade 12 TOPS AP Physics C class reviewed everything they learned in AP Physics 1 last year with an intense game of physics pictionary! The class divided into 2 teams—Sheep and the Smart Smellas—and Ms. Maharaj gave them prompts like angular momentum, Newton’s laws, and torque. In the end, Sheep won by one point with their winning term being elastic potential energy!

February 7th, 2024 

Annabella Pang

This week, the 27ers started their first science lesson with Mrs. Bhandarkar. They kicked off their learning journey with a Grade 9 review unit test, and so far, so good! The class is excited to dive into new topics, and everyone is returning to the rhythm of scientific thinking. With a strong start, the 27ers are ready to tackle the wonders of science!

February 6th, 2025

Angela Xi

New year, new semester! The grade 9 TOPS technology class with Ms. Turnbull has been actively learning about the imperial measurement system and operating woodworking machines. They will learn and discover the wonders of hand tools and machines to create fantastic projects to explore this technological area in the career field. To introduce this topic, they are currently developing their knowledge on safety measures when operating these machines and assignments on wood markings. What an interesting and fun class to be in!

January 17th, 2025

Nevetha Arullinkam

This week, the Grade 11 TOPS Calculus AB class is retracing their distance travelled as they review everything they’ve learned in preparation for the upcoming exam. They spend their remaining days testing themselves on the seemingly unbounded range of topics this semester has swiftly thrown at them (now calculate the area under that curve!). With limits, complex chain rule contraptions, optimization problems, and more, this is definitely a point to maximize their time!

January 12th, 2025

Don Tran

Is light a particle? Or is it a wave? Trick question! It’s both. This week, the Grade 12 TOPS Physics 2 class delved deep into higher-level concepts, including Ionizing Radiation, Quantum Mechanics, and Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity. From topics such as Quantum Key Distribution to Time Dilation, it’s up to the class to teach each other all they have spent the past month researching.

January 9th, 2025

Rohaan Khan

After a long semester of tests, quizzes, labs, and assignments, the Grade 11 TOPS students are wrapping up their chemistry course with a final unit on stoichiometry. After a hasty introduction, the students were thrown into several labs, one of which tasked them to create a precipitate. How much should the precipitate weigh? How much does it actually weigh? How do you get these 2 numbers as similar as possible? Only stoichiometry (and maybe some instructions) will tell.

December 20th, 2024

Mariam Mirza

The Grade 11 TOPS students spent much of their time this week immersed in writing multiple tests and quizzes. After much hard work, they finally found a chance on Friday to get together and have fun in the form of a cohort-wide potluck hosted by Ms. Chan. With a variety of food, games, props, photoshoots, and many many laughs, they ended the year with a memory to remember fondly. The Grade 11s wish you happy holidays and a pot of luck for next year!

December 20, 2024

Kribakari Venkatesan

After much hard work, this week, the Grade 9 TOPS English class had an engaging class party! Students built catapults with popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and spoons, aiming to hurl a marshmallow the farthest. Everyone was very engaged in the activity and worked hard to design creative and efficient catapults. Then the teacher gave out certificates like “Social Butterfly”, “Role Model,”  etc. to highlight everyone’s unique traits. The class got to eat delicious snacks and treats. Overall this party promoted leadership skills, teamwork, and fun.

December 13th, 2024

Nevetha Arullinkam

Apart from winter break, final exams, and the upcoming potluck party, the Grade 11 TOPS Calculus AB class is zeroing in on the roots of tricky polynomials! After optimization pushed them to solve classic problems like minimizing time and maximizing profits by locating critical points, the students investigated how to solve when all else failed: algorithmically approximating using Newton’s method.

December 13th, 2024

Haniah Saeed

This week, the Grade 9 TOPS English classes kicked off their persuasive argument unit with a sweet task—cookie reviews! They applied ethos, pathos, and logos to create strong arguments supporting their preferences. By balancing facts, credibility, and emotion, the students developed thorough reviews of their selected cookie. Through this activity, they not only enhanced their critical thinking skills but also enjoyed sampling a variety of delicious flavours!

December 13th, 2024

Lillian Li

What does the colour red symbolize? Desire? Risk? This week, the Grade 12 TOPS English class wrapped up their film analysis group presentations. Each group chose a movie—from La La Land to Arrival to The Truman Show—to watch, picked a scene from that movie, and analyzed various aspects of the scene, such as themes, lighting, or mise en scène. By the end of all the presentations, everyone had a list of new movies on their next-to-watch list!

December 5th, 2024

Rohaan Khan

This week, the Grade 11 TOPS Physics class put their equations into practice and did a lab investigating the physics behind collisions. Using low-friction carts and force sensors, they tried to get their experimental results to match their theoretical results. This resulted in a wide variety of setups, trials, and collisions happening simultaneously—truly a collision of minds and resources!

December 3rd, 2024

Harithra Kumaresan 

This week, the Grade 9 TOPS class immersed themselves in the world of data management, tackling mean, median, and mode. They began by analyzing the 2023 TDSB Student Census graphs and concluded with a quick test. Along the way, the students participated in lively discussions and collaborative group activities, making the learning process both engaging and enjoyable. Overall, it was an exciting and insightful journey into the fundamentals of data analysis.

November 29th, 2024

Mariam Mirza

The Grade 11 TOPS Chemistry class wrapped up their solutions unit this week with a series of titration labs. Titration is the slow addition of one substance to another, the goal being to achieve a perfect light pink colour in the mixture (which can be ruined with a single drop more of solution). The students titrated substances like vinegar with sodium hydroxide to find the concentrations and molar masses of various acids. With multiple trials and only a few coming to pink-y fruition (amidst many fuschia failures), titrations were certainly a lesson in patience for this chemistry class!

November 27, 2024

Angela Xi

Over the course of this week, the Grade 9 TOPS English class has been actively participating in book clubs! There were five classic dystopian novels that they could choose to read and discuss. As part of their reading assessment, the class will use critical thinking skills to make inferences and observations throughout the book. They will then discuss with their peers and share their opinions on the books. Overall this is a great activity that can empower a deeper reading comprehension and interest in books!

November 27th, 2024

Don Tran

QUICK—how many committees can you form from  20 students and 5 teachers, if there must be at least 2 teachers? (Hint: use cases!) Earlier this week, the Grade 12 TOPS Data Management class completed the dreaded Combinations test, ending the unit with a mind-boggling question that had them racking their brains as they were pushed to perform calculations even their calculators couldn’t handle!

November 22nd, 2024

Nevetha Arullinkam

This week, the minds of the Grade 11 TOPS students were supersaturated as they looked at solutions of all kinds. They created a solubility curve of potassium nitrate by observing the temperature of crystals forming in test tubes. Then, they had to focus as they tackled their final activity of the week, calculating the molarity of different components in the classic rum and coke! How would you measure the students’ level of concentration?

November 15th, 2024

Mariam Mirza

What is limiting reagent between chemical A and chemical B? That is the question the TOPS Grade 11 students worked to find the answer to in this week’s Limiting Reagents Lab. Adding calcium chloride and sodium carbonate into distilled water and filtering the solution, they measured the difference in mass after leaving the filter paper to dry overnight to determine which one of the two were the limiting reagent (the lesser chemical).

November 14th, 2024

Lillian Li

This week, the Grade 12 TOPS Linear Algebra class finished their unit on conic transformations and returned to matrices! This time, they’re multiplying matrices to perform rotations, reflections, and shears on various graphs. During class, they observe the commutativity of these transformations and recently figured out the difference between “dilation” and “dilatation” (yes, they’re different)!

November 8th, 2024

Eileen Kuang

As the Grade 12 TOPS English class continues to work through their Inform and Explain unit, students are preparing to analyze the world around them. This week, they read a variety of nonfiction texts such as “Sludge or Gravy” to understand consumerism and brand marketing, as well as “Weapons of Math Destruction” to learn about the impact of misleading algorithms in society. Students will also begin working on their current events project.

November 8th, 2024

Nevetha Arullinkam

At what speed is the student running towards the goldfish crackers when t=8:55 am? The Grade 11s in TOPS Calculus AB are working on related rates. From power to inverse: using implicit differentiation and all the derivative rules they've learned so far, they solve problems involving the speeds of separating ships, expanding bubblegum volume, and more, in all dimensions. At the rate they're going, there are certainly many more topics to come!

November 1st, 2024

Eileen Kuang

This week, the Grade 12 TOPS Data Management class ended off their statistics unit with a bang—a Halloween potluck! Throughout this unit, they’ve learned about choosing measures of central tendency, applying standard deviation, and working with normal distribution curves. After a fierce battle to "race to review" the content in groups, students enjoyed a relaxing end to their week with a Halloween party. If ghosts don’t scare them, maybe Chebyshev will!

November 1st, 2024

Mariam Mirza

With a spooky spirit engulfing the school this week, the Grade 11 TOPS Chemistry class’ lessons took a turn for the mathematical as they entered their third unit: Moles. With a name that wore the costume of a certain blind animal (moles!), the unit involves lessons on Avogadro’s Number, how to convert between molecules and atoms, and empirical and molecular formulas of compounds. Wish them luck as they prepare for their test on this unit about small, burrowing anima— topics like molar mass and more!

October 26th, 2024

Lillian Li

The entire TOPS family took their annual trip to Stratford this week! They saw Twelfth Night, the musical Something Rotten!, and Wendy and Peter Pan. In between shows, the TOPS students relaxed on the streets of Stratford at restaurants, cafés, and shops—they even met William Shakespeare during the intermission of Wendy and Peter Pan. Given the amount of singing that went on during the bus ride home, songs from Something Rotten! will certainly be stuck in their heads until Stratford 2025.

October 25th, 2024

Nevetha Arullinkam

The Grade 11 TOPS Chemistry class revisited some familiar topics as they transitioned into the Chemical Equations unit. The students first completed their unit test on bonding as they anticipated the opportunity to bond more on their trip to Stratford close ahead. Until then, they have the opportunity to perform combustion, neutralization, and other types of reactions while balancing and identifying their evidence: colour changes, precipitates, and bubbling gas (or was it excitement?).

October 18th, 2024

Mariam Mirza

As the weather took a turn for the chilly in the past week, Ms Chan’s Grade 11 Calculus AB class concluded their second unit with a lesson on Chain Rule, a method used to find the derivative of composite functions. Tackling questions that ended in footlong solutions, they learned that this Rule is "all about the base" (Meghan Trainor’s surprising appearance in the realm of calculus!).

October 11th, 2024

Nevetha Arullinkam

As the end of the week approaches, the Grade 11 TOPS Calculus AB class is approaching their next assessment—currently, on derivatives. From first principles to the power, product, and quotient rules, they solve questions involving many new concepts. Unlike some of the solutions, however, there is no limit to what kinds of problems can be thrown at them. At what point, if ever, will the tangent line to their learning slow down?

October 11th, 2024

Eileen Kuang

What has magnitude, direction, and Grade 12 TOPS students’ racking their brains? Vectors! To better understand and manipulate vectors, this week, the TOPS Grade 12 Linear Algebra class explored linear dependence and independence. They also revisited a comforting grade 10 concept (line segments) and applied their more recent knowledge to extend their comprehension.

October 4th, 2024

Mariam Mirza

As an intro to their Chemical Bonding Unit this week, the Grade 11 TOPS class grew copper sulfate and aluminum potassium sulfate crystals in a thrilling three-day experiment. The train of experimentation started by first dissolving the chemical powders in heated distilled water and then letting the solutions cool overnight in Petri dishes. The copper sulfate formed perfect crystal parallelograms, while the aluminum potassium sulfate  solution transformed into miniscule hexagonal crystals!

October 4th, 2024

Eileen Kuang

In preparation for their upcoming unit test, the TOPS Grade 12 Data Management class challenged their skills in a furious round of Family Feud! Earlier this week, they explored how to create, refine, and analyze theses in preparation for their final summative project. Ending it off with a battle between sides of the classroom and seat rows, some teams certainly managed to come out on top!

October 1st, 2024

Andy Zhou

Recently, the grade 10 TOPS students wrote a diagnostic test to review their knowledge from the previous year, and their teacher, Ms. Elamad, is teaching plenty of new material to the class. Some of the new content the grade 10s are learning include linear and non-linear systems of equations and challenging word problems. 

September 27th, 2024

Nevetha Arullinkam

The Grade 11 TOPS class is ending an electrifying month of chemistry by solidifying their sleuthing skills. As they wrap up quantum mechanics, the Matter unit reaches its boiling point in a positively puzzling set of games identifying mystery elements based on brief clues. Students enter the next chapter completely in their element in a lab investigating ionic and molecular substances, highlighting conductivity, melting point, solubility, and other characteristics!

September 27th, 2024

Lillian Li

To brainstorm potential personal essay topics for the narrative unit and university applications, the TOPS Grade 12 English class took various prompts like “a behaviour that stems from your early programming you’re ready to change” and spun them into 5-minute quickwrites. They also analyzed various excerpts from memoirs like “The Glass Castle” and “In My Own Moccasins” to understand what makes a good narrative.

September 23rd, 2024

Shiloh Zheng

Everybody knows that graphs can be a useful way to inform people of statistics. But what if you wanted to misinform them? This week, in Data Management, the Grade 12 TOPS class learned all about the different ways that graphs could be manipulated to misrepresent the data they contained, and what key information to look for when checking the validity of a study.

September 22nd, 2024

Annabella Pang

The Grade 10 TOPS students travelled to Pinecrest, where they participated in various activities, such as hiking, engaging in science experiments, group camping, and the Grade 10 Amazing Race. The race put their fire-making, navigation, and general knowledge to the test as they competed for first place. Fortunately, the weather was perfect, with no rain in sight!

September 21st, 2024

Mariam Mirza

This hot week, after many lessons on atoms and quantum mechanics, the Grade 11s in Ms. Woods’ TOPS Chemistry class conducted an experiment with chemical compounds and fire. Using T-pins and a Bunsen burner, they held individual crystallized compounds in flame and observed the various colours produced, resulting from electron activity in metal ions. Some of the colours they saw were bright orange, salmon pink, vivid red, green, and lilac purple.

March 8th, 2024

Lillian Li

After hunting for themes and annotating cryptic short stories like “Kustuka” and “Risk,” the TOPS Grade 11 English class began writing short stories from the perspective of a side character in a song or image of their choice. There were stories about broken relationships, people on fire, infections, car rides—you get the point. As March Break begins, the students are conferencing with Ms. Lajeunesse, hurriedly wrapping up their editing, and identifying craft moves they used.

February 23rd, 2024

Nevetha Arullinkam

This week, the Grade 10 TOPS class balanced quizzes, labs, and equations as they transitioned further into chemistry and different types of reactions. They combined their knowledge and broke down reactants to perform the classic vinegar and baking soda experiment, balance various chemical equations, and determine the states of different compounds before ending the week with a solid game of lab equipment bingo.

February 14th, 2024

Paul Shur

With the end of the first semester giving rise to the start of a new one, the TOPS Grade 12 Biology class tackled their first unit in the field of biochemistry - just in time for Valentines Day, making the unit more important than ever. Instead of others' hearts, students dove into the world of isomers, hydrocarbons, and electronegativity. Additionally, they performed labs to demonstrate the properties of water. 

November 31st, 2023

Lillian Li

To wrap up the solutions unit and begin learning about gas laws, the TOPS Grade 11 Chemistry class performed experiment after experiment for a full week. They did multiple titrations to find the molarity of various acids, including calculating the percent of acetic acid in vinegar. Most recently, they worked on experiments such as weighing air and measuring pressure that investigated gas laws.

November 3rd, 2023

Nevetha Arullinkam

This week, the Grade 10 TOPS English class, currently immersed in the Inform and Explain unit, began to craft their media projects. Delving into topics of rising interest including the Cost-of-Living Crisis and the use of AI in Education, students battled bias and synthesized their deep learning to present un-inflated facts in the form of a blog post, short video, or comic. 

October 22nd, 2023

Lillian Li

After being tossed into assignment after test after quiz for over a month, the entire TOPS family took an annual two-day trip to Stratford, where they watched 3 shows: King Lear, Rent, and Frankenstein Revived. They also had the opportunity to explore the restaurants and shops in downtown Stratford as well as enjoy a Scavenger Hunt. Although hotel room lights were meant to dim at 11:30 PM, did the TOPS students sleep?

October 6th, 2023

Shiloh Zheng

After a lesson on subatomic particles and the Bohr model of atoms, the TOPS Grade 11 chemistry class split off into their lab stations to conduct tests on different salts. The compounds were heated above a bunsen burner, and the light released by electrons moving energy levels turned the experiments into a colorful display of flames. Students then used their observations to identify ions in mystery compounds. 

October 6th, 2023

Nevetha Arullinkam

This week, the Grade 10s stepped out of line and into the region of linear programming. They plotted inequalities to answer pressing questions including, "How much chocolate and raisins can one pack to minimize a backpack’s weight?" The objective answer: all chocolate, of course. Sometimes the optimal solution is none. Sometimes everything points to one. Others extend forever. The possibilities are unbounded!