I haven’t made a blog post in a few months so bare with me here, I am doing my best. 

Why did the prospector get kicked out of the pub? It’s illegal to sell alcohol to miners.

This past project was about the BC gold rush. We also went more Into detail about the different groups of people in it, but i’ll get to that. The first thing we did for this project was actually all the way back in June of 2022. We started this project but ended up scrapping it because of the spring exhibition. This time around we are a grade older so it was much different, but still a fun beginning. 

The project was originally called “GOLD⛏” but was changed it to be called “Gold Digger” which I found to be funny. We were also put with a new PLP teacher that none of us knew. We got to know her a little bit but the only thing that most people remember about her is that she has a lot of shoes. But onto the actual project.

The driving question to this project was “How did the discovery of gold shape our province and its people?” We got introduced to this thinking by watching a short video named “Gold Fever” that re-introduced us to the gold rush. Then by watching a documentary named “the edge of the world” that was also about the gold rush. We then went to the royal BC museum website to learn more about the gold rush then answer discussion questions.

Shortly after learning about the gold rush, we were presented with what the final product would be for this project. It was going to be a character card about a group of people who were involved in the the gold rush, and a short story. So of course we went over some different types of story telling that we had already learned in years prior. But also a new one named “The Three Act Structure”. The three-act structure is a model used in narrative fiction that divides a story into three parts (acts), often called the Setup, the Confrontation, and the Resolution. We then practiced using that and pointing it out in different short films. One that we watched was a H & M Christmas Add that was directed by one of my favourite directors, Wes Anderson. https://youtu.be/aXLO2dFfwLE 

We then started with our keystones. 

Keystone 1: How did the Gold Rush shape BC?

This keystone went over some things that we had already done in the past. For example, we were re introduced to Cause And Consequence, we even used the same PDF as last year. But to complete keystone 1 you had to complete a PDF “Cause and Consequence” form. In the middle the event was “The Fraser River Gold Rush”. For the causes, we had to consider both human agency as well as underlying conditions. For the consequences, we considered both immediate and long-term. Then write a summarizing paragraph to accompany it. I found this to be a great first keystone because we got back into writing paragraphs and it got us thinking about the good and the bad parts of the BC Gold Rush. 

Keystone 2: The “Characters” of the BC Gold Rush

This keystone made us focus on one specific group of people in the BC Gold Rush. There were many to chose from. For example, western Canadians, eastern Canadians, Europeans, Chinese people, African Americans, etc. I ended up choosing Europeans then changed to Chinese people because I couldn’t find much info about them. I studied the way that they travelled to get here, the things that they brought, what they did when they got here, etc. Then put it onto a character card template that we were given. This keystone was actually pretty fun. 

Keystone 3: Story Planning

This keystone brought us back into writing stories, which we hadn’t done in a few months. We were told to write a story using the “Three Act Structure” about the group that we used on out character cards. Now it’s all coming together. This took me a while to complete due to the fact that I wanted to add as much info into it as I could. I also had to make it as real as I could, and I also didn’t want it to drag on for to long. But eventually I finished it. This keystone was more fun than I thought it would be. I’ve always liked writing stories, but I didn’t know I’d enjoy writing one that came out to be pretty sad. 

To conclude this blog post, I’d like to say that it was more fun than the “GOLD” project that we started last year. It was definitely a great project to start the year off with. It ended up being much more fun than I would have thought. But one thing that was weird is that everyday when we randomly generated groups, 80% of the time I was put with Ariane. I don’t know why.