Maple, Ontario

Maple is a high-growth suburban community, part of the city of Vaughan, Ontario in York Region, northwest of Toronto. As an unincorporated area, it does not have clearly defined geographic boundaries, but it grew around the former village of Maple, centred at the intersection of Major Mackenzie Dr and Keele St in Vaughan.

Geography

The west branch of the Don River rises to the northwest and flows 1 km west of Maple. Several creeks are to the east and the Black Creek begins slightly west of Vellore. The Oak Ridges Moraine is to the northeast which supplies a lot of water to the Greater Toronto Area.

Black Creek flows in the west, the Don River flows to the northern and the eastern part. York University Keele Campus lies to the south of Steeles Avenue, within the city of Toronto.

Climate

Maple has a continental climate moderated by the Great Lakes and influenced by warm, moist air masses from the south, and cold, dry air from the north.

Transportation

Maple is accessed by its central cross streets, Major Mackenzie Drive and Keele Street. The nearest major highway exit is 3 km west at Highway 400 and Major Mackenzie with access also at Highway 400 and Rutherford Rd.

Ontario

Ontario (ⁱ/ɒnˈtɛərioʊ/) is one of the ten provinces of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province by a large margin, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all Canadians, and is the second largest province in total area. Ontario is fourth largest in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are included. It is home to the nation's capital city, Ottawa, and the nation's most populous city, Toronto.

Ontario is bordered by the province of Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay and James Bay to the north, and Quebec to the east, and to the south by the US states of (from west to east) Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. All of Ontario's 2,700 km (1,678 mi) border with the United States follows inland waterways: from the west at Lake of the Woods, eastward along the major rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes/Saint Lawrence River drainage system. These are the Rainy River, the Pigeon River, Lake Superior, the St. Marys River, Lake Huron, the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River, Lake Erie, the Niagara River, Lake Ontario and along the St. Lawrence River from Kingston, Ontario, to the Quebec boundary just east of Cornwall, Ontario.

Maple

Acer /ˈeɪsər/ is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple. There are approximately 128 species, most of which are native to Asia, with a number also appearing in Europe, northern Africa, and North America. Only one species, Acer laurinum, extends to the Southern Hemisphere. The type species of the genus is the sycamore maple, Acer pseudoplatanus, the most common maple species in Europe.

Morphology

Most maples are trees growing to 10–45 m (33–148 ft) height. Others are shrubs less than 10 metres tall with a number of small trunks originating at ground level. Most species are deciduous, and many are renowned for their autumn leaf colour, but a few in southern Asia and the Mediterranean region are evergreen. Most are shade-tolerant when young and are often riparian, understory, or pioneer species rather than climax overstory trees with a few exceptions such as Sugar Maple. Many of the root systems are typically dense and fibrous, inhibiting the growth of other vegetation underneath them. A few species, notably Acer cappadocicum, frequently produce root sprouts, which can develop into clonal colonies.

Maple syrup

Maple syrup is a syrup usually made from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees, although it can also be made from other maple species. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before the winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in late winter and early spring. Maple trees can be tapped by drilling holes into their trunks and collecting the exuded sap. The sap is processed by heating to evaporate much of the water, leaving the concentrated syrup.

Maple syrup was first collected and used by the indigenous peoples of North America.The practice was adopted by European settlers, who gradually refined production methods. Technological improvements in the 1970s further refined syrup processing. The Canadian province of Quebec is by far the largest producer, responsible for about three-quarters of the world's output; Canadian exports of maple syrup exceed C$145 million (approximately US$130.5 million) per year. Vermont is the largest producer in the United States, generating about 5.5 percent of the global supply.

Science fair

A science fair experiment is generally a competition where contestants present their science project results in the form of a report, display board, and models that they have created. Science fairs allow students in elementary, middle and high schools to compete in science and/or technology activities.

Although writing assignments that take a long time to complete and require multiple drafts are fairly common in US schools, large projects in the sciences (other than science fairs) are rare. Science fairs also provide a mechanism for students with intense interest in the sciences to be paired with mentors from nearby colleges and universities, so that they can get access to instruction and equipment that the local schools could not provide.

In the United States, science fairs first became popular in the early 1950s, with the ISEF, then known as the National Science Fair. Interest in the sciences was at a new high after the world witnessed the use of the first two atomic weapons and the dawn of television. As the decade progressed, science stories in the news, such as Jonas Salk’s vaccine for polio and the launch of Sputnik, brought science fiction to reality and attracted increasing numbers of students to fairs.