University of Toronto Schools

How can immersive eco-theatre make it easier for students to explore ecological issues such as climate change in class and reduce anxiety or despair?

For the final performance of the M3 (grade 9) drama class at the end of the school year, students took their original environmentally themed plays to the grounds of University of Toronto’s Robarts Library. From their relationships to trees as children, the cycle of life, their connections to seasons and much more, their plays used immersive theatre techniques to involve the audience and incorporate sensory experiences such as smell, sound and taste, while using the great outdoors as their theatre.

One group invited the audience to eat fruit, another gave flowers to wear and a third led a mini-rave. “They used sensory elements to try and get the audience to really experience feeling connected to nature, whether it's the seasons or outdoor space,” says UTS Drama Teacher Dr. Chistine Balt, also the research and innovation associate at the Eureka! Research Institute at UTS, one of a few research institutes based on site at a school in Canada.

The eco-theatre performances formed the basis of research underway by Dr. Balt and drama teachers Melissa Shaddick and Gabrielle Kemeny, through the Eureka! Research Institute at UTS, with funding from the Canadian Association for Independent Schools’ School Innovation Grant.

“We’re exploring how drama can be used to connect students to environmental topics,” says Dr. Balt. “When we talk about issues such as climate change and the environment in class, it can sometimes seem scary for students and shut down the conversation. We explore environmental topics in different ways by focusing on Indigenous land-based relationships, and connections to land.”

While the research is being compiled, anecdotal evidence from students on the day showed it’s a lot of fun!

University of Toronto Schools is beyond thrilled to announce that Jacob Tsimerman '06 has been awarded the 2026 Fields Medal, the highest honour in mathematics, for his work proving the André-Oort conjecture, a problem that stood unsolved for nearly 40 years. The medal was founded by the late John Charles Fields, also a Canadian scholar and math professor at U of T. Jacob is the first Fields Medalist based at a Canadian institution and the second Canadian to receive the award.

While at UTS, Jacob won two gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad, including a perfect score in 2004. He calls mathematics a "team sport," built on collaboration, friendship, and curiosity rather than solitary genius. From UTS to U of T, then a PhD at Princeton, and now back at U of T as a professor of mathematics and Fields Medal recipient — his path has come full circle.

Congratulations, Jacob. The entire UTS community is so proud of your incredible accomplishments!

Photo: Jacob Tsimerman '06 working with the UTS Math Club in 2015 on Euler's Formula.

Watch a feature on Jacob's journey, and read U of T's announcement.

https://ow.ly/zoSt50Zs5zm

https://ow.ly/xtab50Zs5zp

University of Toronto Schools (UTS) students are proving that innovation doesn’t need to wait for high school graduation. During the 2025-26 school year, UTS high school student S5 (grade 11) Edlyn successfully pitched a business on Dragon’s Den. S5 Rhiya spoke at the United Nations about the TerraWash Machine, an electricity-free washing machine she created to alleviate time poverty for women and girls in Guyana and around the world, who spend hours of their day doing laundry by hand. S6 (grade 12) students John and Declan continued to work in their innovative VFX special effects and animation business, flying to Los Angeles and New York City to consult on projects.

For these students, innovation begins with looking closely at the world around them, identifying challenges and opportunities, and imagining new ways forward.

Read their stories on the UTS blog:

https://ow.ly/OMKg50ZoAPX

Robotics is thriving at UTS in exciting and collaborative ways!

The UTS Robotics co-curricular program experienced major growth in the 2025-26 school year, with team members increasing from about 20 the previous year to about 80. In the fall, UTS hired a robotics program director – Owain Jones – and gave students a dedicated room to build their robots. The support for the program paid off. Four teams competed this year: the UTS A and B teams, a middle school team and a dedicated girls’ team, with the UTS A team and the middle school team taking it all the way to the VEX Robotics World Championship in St. Louis, Missouri this April!

The world championships became a true team effort. A month before Worlds, UTS Team A Bello Bello! decided to wipe the slate clean and create a completely new robot design, calling on the strength of the UTS Robotics team to make it happen. The team came together in true collaborative spirit, working around the clock to get ready in time for worlds and about 40 team members went to St. Louis and experienced the excitement of this incredible competition. Team co-president Emerson says: “For us the accomplishment is getting there because we know how hard it is to do that, and doing our best to constantly improve and perform well on the world stage. We're grateful that we've been able to go for three years in a row.”

If that’s not enough, Robotics co-presidents Anson, Emerson and Daniel launched March Break and summer Robotics camps that give a VEX Robotics crash course in just one week, and also dedicated some of the places to underrepresented groups.

Read the story about the UTS Robotics Program on the UTS Blog:
https://www.utschools.ca/news/2026-07-10/robotics-program-thriving-at-uts-two-teams-at-worlds-new-camps-and-incredible-teamwork-in-a-crunch

The love of learning fostered at UTS thrives in the world of academia. The Academia Issue of The Root, the UTS alumni magazine, features several of our alumni at the vanguard of higher education – from deans steering their faculties through a sea of change to historians seeking a deep understanding of the past to shape a better future.

In the age of artificial intelligence, they stay true to their very human mission of educating the next generation with wisdom, integrity and commitment.. The timeless values they advance are paramount to our future: critical thinking, open discourse, collaboration and innovation.

Read their inspiring stories in the latest issue of The Root, and learn how deans and historians are shaping the future through their enduring commitment to the power of education.

https://www.utschools.ca/uts-community/alumni/the-root

Take a dash of curiosity, a pinch of ingenuity, stir it all together with UTS students and Ms. Jack and you’ve got the UTS Cooking Club!
“Cooking is the bridge between human survival and human culture,” shared UTS Cooking Club executive student Maya. "Shared meals shaped cultural identity. Most UTS students develop their friendships during breaks like lunch time, where they eat with each other.”

Along with Ms. Jack, the students have convened at Nella Cucina and together they have learned safe knife skills and food handling, recipe adjustment and tried their hand at creating pickles, decorating cookies and making tacos.

“Being able to actually learn from real chefs and get that hands-on experience with a stove, learning how long and how much effort it actually takes to make actual meals – all of these things are important to truly learn how to cook,” continues Maya.

We can’t wait to see what the UTS Cooking Club cooks up next!

We bring news of another illustrious Classics Conference! Your stalwart UTS Classics Contingent, hoisting aloft the banner of Legio UTS, trained with determination and dedication, their sights set on translation contests, creative workshops, fashion shows, skits, archaeology activities, track and field events and chariot races.
None of it happens without months of heart behind the scenes. Preparations began back in September, with veteran students mentoring newcomers and our incredible executive team keeping everything running all year long. To the 40+ students, dedicated teachers and chaperones who carry on the and the tradition of excellence at the Classics Conference, we salute you.

How do we evaluate students when it is so easy for them to use Generative AI to produce their assignments? Which truly human skills can we help students cultivate? How can we fundamentally reorient how we think about achievement and skills, and shift towards assessing the process instead of the product?

Earlier this year, the Eureka! Institute at UTS gathered a small group of UTS teachers together for a conversation about the existential questions on the minds of educators in the AI era. The synthesis of this conversation became the basis of a research paper presented in April at this year’s American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference in Los Angeles by Eureka! Director Dr. Kim Mackinnon, Research and Innovation Associate Dr. Christine Balt and AP Research and Biology Teacher Alan Kraguljac.

We are a community of practice, and the Eureka! Institute brings a unique vantage as one of a few research institutes on site at a school in Canada, positioning teachers as key contributors to public knowledge and education. Along with the presenters, the paper was also co-authored by UTS Drama Teacher Melissa Shaddick, UTS Lang Innovation Lab Program Director Natalie Cannistraro and former UTS teacher Isabella Liu, and shared at AERA as part of the session, ‘AI and Action Research: Coding Robots, Literacy, Youth-led Assessment, Tensions and Possibilities.’

“The presentation synthesized those initial big questions that teachers have about how they might change the way they assess students now that GenAI can now do all the things that a supposedly good student can do,” says Dr. Christine Balt. “The question becomes: ‘What can a human do that GenAI cannot do well?’ We identified skills such as listening, critiquing, and empathizing, and then entertained how assessment would need to change to appraise students’ demonstration of these capabilities.”

Shifting from product to process in assessment comes with its own set of challenges, says Dr. Balt. “How do you assess things like listening and empathy? That’s the next question.”