Book Choice, First Predictions and Challenge!

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Grade 10. Wow, I’m old. Anyways. So, for my first blog post of this year, I will be talking about a project we just started in humanities. The driving question is ‘ How do authors use text to teach us more about ourselves?‘

Beginning this unit, as you’ve probably guessed due to the question, we had to read a book. But, because in grade ten we are supposed to ‘read for enjoyment’, which I do anyways, we had several options in which book to choose. The books are as follows:

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Don’t Get Caught by Kurt Dinan

The book that I chose for this was Don’t Get Caught. It’s about a kid who is looked over in high school. Then one day, he gets a note from this group called the chaos club to meet at the local water tower. I won’t say anything more, just in case someone hasn’t read the book. 

For a prediction in the book, I think that the chaos club is going to get really mad and accidentally give themselves up. 

Every Tuesday and Friday in class, we have these mini book challenges. For the first one, I worked with my group Jamie, Lucas and Daniel to create this video to show some important parts in the first 5 chapters in the books! Here’s the video.

https://youtu.be/KCfSABFkUL4

Bye for now!

Spring Exhibition, otherwise known as; Blue Sky

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I really like semicolons. Ok.

Every year in PLP, we have two exhibitions. In the first exhibition, otherwise known as the winter exhibition, the topics vary. This year we did Star Wars, and last year we did the environment. The second exhibition is the spring exhibition. This, this is Blue Sky. 

Blue Sky was a concept created by 3M, where people were given time to find a problem and fix it. So, that is what we do. But, we had a few restrictions. The grade nines (pertaining to the fact that this project was multi-grade) had to find a problem within a department. My department was kitchen.

Using the launch cycle, I created an amazing product. And that’s how this blog post is gonna go!

Look, listen, learn

I didn’t really get to choose my department, because I was away while we chose, so I had to really think hard for something to make. But, then, I got it! 

You know when your looking after kids, and cooking, then you have to go check on the kids, and you bring you utensils, then leave them there, and it’s a mess? Well, that was the problem I was trying to fix. 

Now that I had my idea, I wanted to get some perspective. So, I started emailing people. 

Ask tons of questions

First, I researched several cooing stores in North Vancouver. I then proceeded to email several of them, including Cook Culture and House of Knives.

House of knifes got back to me very quickly, and I was able to ask them several questions. They gave very detailed responses, and it was great to talk to experts about this.

Cook Culture also contacted me back soon after I emailed them. They also answered my questions, and I was able to figure out more of a direction for my product.

During these interviews, the main question I was asking was

“Do people often come in asking for storage for utensils while cooking?”

This was due to the fact that I needed to find out if my problem was an actual problem. Both places said that those were a big seller!

Understand the Problem

With the information I got from my interviews, I was able to get a better angle on my problem. I realized what exactly the problem was, and some barriers it would have. For example, I would have to make sure nothing dripped. Also, the design would have to be food safe.

Navigate Ideas

Now that I understood my problem, I had to figure out what I was going to do for this. I decided I wanted it to create an apron that had pockets for tools. For this, I had to figure out what the most useful tools would be. So, I went back to my interviewees, and asked their advice. They said that the top sellers for utensils were; wooden spoons, chef knives, whisks, and spatulas. I wanted to make pockets for each of these things on my apron. So, I got to prototyping!

Create a Prototype 

My first prototype was digital.

As you can see, I chose to have places for many tools other than just the ones that were recommended. All these tools we’re going to have Velcro straps on them that had magnets, so it would be easy to put the utensils there. The straps would also have magnets, so it would be accessible for people of different sizes.

I got a lot of feedback from this. First, most people didn’t recommend having knives on it. Something about safety, and dying. Anyways. Also, dripping wasn’t exactly taken into consideration for this draft. So I kept my main idea, and moved on to the next step.

Highlight and fix

For the second draft, I created a digital model.

But then created a physical model. I took out nice place, and was trying to figure out some sort of drip tray.

So, I took this draft to Cook Culture, to get feeback (no pictures). Anyways. The manager really liked my idea, but thought I could take it another direction. See, kitchen aprons haven’t really changed since they were invented. I took this feedback, and changed my driving question to

“How can I make an apron that is more modern and can  store utensils?”

So, I can up with my final model. Again, I first made a digital model.

This model still carried utensils, but utensils that wouldn’t drip. It also had a phone pocket, because most people have their phone on them while cooking.

This model also had an adjustable magnetic strap, which I think is pretty awesome.

Launch to an audience

Now, the exhibition night. But, this started even before then, because the teachers had to 8s, 9s and 10s into groups for the night. There were 5 groups in total, based on the grade 10s project. The grade 10s we’re finding ways to solve the UN’s sustainable development goals. I was in the ‘Sustainable Consumption and Production’ group.

We had to figure out how to turn our space- the back of the library- into something that reflected our goal. We worked together to find food, drinks, and decor that fit.

And I think it turned out really well. I got to show my project to tons of people, including the new PLP kids! Someone even was interested in purchasing my thing! It went so well.

I am very proud of my work this exhibition. The project was something that I was interested in, so I was motivated to do a good job. I also learned a bunch about interviewing, and got to work on my people skills. This was an awesome project, and I’m so glad it turned out well!

Peter Verigin and the Doukhobors

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https://youtu.be/CpFNgdIrz3A

Yup. So that was that.

We started off this unit by reading Chester Brown’s ‘Louis Riel’, a comic-strip biography. Each part, pertaining to the fact that the book is split into 4 parts, we were to do a summary. Now most of these summaries were written, but our third was a video. So here it is. 

While reading this book, we were also learning about the Métis people and the red river settlement. The red river settlement was a settlement of Métis people. Louis Riel lived here, and the red river rebellion was what brought him to power. In his life, Louis Riel accomplished many things, and brought attention to some of the problems facing First Nations people.

https://youtu.be/Cnr3gWgsdzQ

At this time, the Canadian govt. was trying to get as much land as possible, to avoid annexation with the USA, and to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. They also just wanted more white people in Canada.

Numbered Treaties

The Canadian govt created several different treaties with the First Nations people. These insured the Canadians that they got the land, but were completely unfair for the First Nations people. Some language on the treaties they didn’t understand, and they mistook Xs for the cross, and took it as a sign of peace. Learn more about it here!

BC

In 1867 Canada became a country. But, BC wasn’t. At this time, BC was an independent colony of Britain. It had become populated after the Cariboo Gold rush, which brought tons of people, money, and camels to BC. After the gold dried up, many people left, but many also stayed, populating BC with white people. (I put this here because BC was already very populated with First Nations people, but they came anyways. There was almost a war to. Learn about that here!)

What they had to decide, was wether or not to join Canada. There were three main views on this; join with Canada, stay independent, or become part of the United States. Eventually, they decided to join with Canada, but they had many conditions. One of the promises that the Canadian government made to British Columbia was that the rail road that John a McDonald had previously promised would end in BC. The rail road was also supposed to be finished in 10 years, with a two-year start date. This did not happen as the construction of the CPR began in 1881. The last spike was driven in Craigellachie BC on November 7th 1885. Learn more about this here!

While on our trip to Calgary, we actually got to visit Craigellachie. It was so cool to see where so much history happened. Also, a bunch of trains passed while we were there.

Power

Now, in PLP fashion, while all of this was going on, we were working on a project. Using our driving question, 

How do disparities in power alter relationships?

Now, in PLP fashion, while all of this was going on, we were working on a project. Using our driving question, 

We had to, well, do a thing. First, we chose topics from categories such as the CPR, Red River Settlement, and Manitoba. I chose from the Immigration category, and I chose the Doukhobors. I wanted to do the doukhobors because they settled in the area that I used to live in, and that sounded cool to me. 

Second, we had to research our people. We were supposed to choose one person to focus on for this, so I chose Peter Verigin. He was the leader of a large group of doukhobors during the time when they came to Canada. I won’t say anything else so to not spoil my video. 

Next, we were to write a story based on our research. Lucky for me, I had written my research in a story-esk form. So all I had to do was tweak it a bit. 

These seem like a lot of steps, I know. But the final product is so worth it, so stay with me.

After the story, we had to make a storyboard. A storyboard shows the shots you are going to do for your video. I used Sketches Pro, a really cool drawing app for this.

I did end up changing a lot of this, but anyways. 

Then we animated. Oh my goodness, this took a long time. 3 weeks we spent animating. I used an app called FlipaClip, which helped, but it was still a long time. I’m very proud of how this turned out though. 

We had a viewing party on Monday, where we watched all the videos. It was really cool to see everyone’s topics, and the approach they took to animate this. 

This was a really cool project that I would definitely recommend. I learned so much about the doukhobors, and their tragic story. If I were to go back, I think I would have bought an iPad Pro. I drew most of the slides with my fingers, and it took so long. But I had a lot of fun, and learned tons. Not just about the topic, but about animation. I have so much respect for animators now!

Moderately Similar and Stuff

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THIS IS MY LAST GRADE NINE MATH POST. I REPEAT, MY LAST GRADE NINE MATH POST. Wow, it’s been a long year. It’s the end of an era. Math 9, what a class. To go out on a bang, our last project was pretty much entirely up to us. Yup. 

Correlation. Causation. Similar, but not the same. 

We started off this project by looking at a bunch of correlating data. Correlation is when to unrelated points of data follow the same trends. For example, this graph that there is a photo of right here. As you can probably figure, Nicholas Cage movies and the number of people who died by falling into the pool have nothing to do with each other. But the data follows relatively the same pattern. Correlation! Some correlating data has an outside reason that effects them both, but the don’t have to. 

Causation, as I fore mentioned, is similar. But this time, instead of them being unrelated, the directly impact each other. You see, in causation, one data point causes the other. For example, this graph of temperature and ice cream sales. They do follow the same trend, but what makes them causation is that the rise in temperature directly causes the ice cream sales to rise. 

Starting off also, we watched this TED talk that used correlation and causation in their explanation. They used an application called Gapminder, that some of us used in our projects.

For this project, we had to create to questions, one correlation, one causation. I worked with the wonderful Tamara Soltys-Lee. Our questions were as follows. 

“Does the cost of university have a correlation with homelessness?”

And

“Does the time it takes a person to walk to school have a causation with the amount of music they listen to per week?”

(I just found this feature and I think it’s really cool)

I’ll start with the not latter of the two. 

To do this, we had to delegate. I was to research the homeless population from 1992-2014 (because that’s the time frame I could find), and Tamara was to research university tuition. I ended up searching for quite a while, until I found the stats for Calgary’s homeless population. So, I used that data. Tamara, on the other hand, found her information on Pen State University. So they’re really not related. Anyways, we took the information that we found and put it into a chart on numbers. Now, numbers has many great features, including a feature that makes it so you can automatically input your data into a graph. 

(My YouTube is being annoying right now but here there will be a video showing this.)

Our data resulted that these two things follow the same pattern, so, they are correlated!

Now, for the latter of the two!

To get the information for this question, we created a google survey. We then proceeded to send the link to people, via airdrop and social media. We got 20 people to complete our survey!

With this data, and a bit of other research, I was able to put each of these things into a graph. Now, this is where it took a while. I took me three tries to graph the data into a form that would show correlation. Finally, we asked the teacher, and he suggested this.

There would be a best fit line, but I couldn’t find one.

After we collected all this data, we presented it in a keynote!

If I were to do this project again, I would do it exactly the same. Everything went very well.

SLCs the fourth: TPols

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In regular school, people have parent teacher conferences, where the teachers fall the parents all about how were doing. Our teachers believe that the only people who can tell our story is us. So, we have 2 ‘student lead conferences’, or SLCs, throughout the year. At the end of every year, we have the Transitional Presentation of Learning. It’s absolutely terrifying, so yeah!

Question 1- What skills did you use and what skills do you want to continue to develop?

To answer this question, I wanted to choose an example from Maker. To be more specific, Destination Imagination. 

I honestly don’t think I learned more from a project than this one. A lot of that was due to our group, though. We worked really well together, and I think that totally contributed to our success. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t have any hiccups along the way. We had so much to revise after our first performance. We almost redid everything. But it was a building block. 

As you may know, I have always had some issues with working in a group. I have been trying very hard to work well with others, and I think this project demonstrates that the best. I know I still have lots to work on in terms of this, but every group project gets me closer.

Question 2- What project did you most enjoy? Why?

To answer this question, I’d choose the WW1 project in Humanities.

I had a lot of fun during this project. This was because I got to reaserch my great grandfather, and see what kinds of things he did in the war. Doing a project on him, I really felt motivated to do my best work, to honour him. In every draft I had, I was motivated to do my best. After every critique session, I went back and revised. This is some of my best work, and I am very proud of how it turned out!

Question 3- What was especially satisfying to you about the process of working on projects?

To answer to question, I want to choose the Cloning project from Science.

In this project, we had to clone different plants. I found this project really cool, and I learned a lot from it.

Our first clones were dandelions. After planting, we had to wait and see if they sprouted. Soon, we realized that our dandelions hadn’t made it. But we didn’t dwell on that. We kept moving forward. We planted our garlic plants. These went amazing. It was really amazing to see how we had created life, from just a clove of garlic. It’s always amazing to see the final product of all the hard work that we do.

Question 4-   How do these projects connect to the adult world outside the classroom?

For this question, I want to choose an example from Math, specifically the polynomials project.

In this project, like a lot of our math projects, Mr Gross gave us a vague outline for the project, and we had to come up with a project. (That’s not supposed to sound bad). We also worked in partners, whom were chosen for us. I was working with Luca OG, whom I’d never really worked with before. So that was something.

For the actual project, we had to come up with a question, and make a presentation for it. We chose ‘How are polynomials used in architecture?’. This is directly related to the outside world because architecture is something in the adult world.

We did the project, and presented it. It was after that we got critiqued. I kinda found that weird, but whatever. Anyways. After we presented, Mr. Gross gave us feedback, and we went back and revised.

For grade ten, I have a few goals. First, to prioritize my work, so I can do better work and not be stressed. Finally, I hope, next year, to continue to work on my group work skills.

CLONES ARE THE FUTURE of plants and stuff

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I added the wrong link for Week 6 of the Student blogging challenge. Click here for my Week 6 SBC post.

In science 9, we had to learn about reproduction. I warn you now, run for the hills. 

We started off the unit by watching a video of someone giving birth. I, luckily, wasn’t there for that class, so I wasn’t scarred. We then went on to learning about the different forms of reproduction.

There are two different forms of reproduction; asexual and sexual. With asexual reproduction, the offspring is identical to the parent, and any other offsprings. The advantage of reproducing this way is that if you have created something absolutely amazing, you can create more exactly the same. The disadvantages of reproducing this way are that any bad qualities will be duplicated, and there is no room for adaptation. Sexual reproduction also has its ups and downs. The advantages of reproducing sexually are that certain traits from each parent can be combined to create something even better, and there’s a higher chance of adaptation. The disadvantages of reproducing this way are that the offsprings will not be identical to either parent, or other offsprings. Also, two parents are needed, which can sometimes prove difficult.

To learn about this, as we do in PLP, we had to reproduce things asexually. We started off with dandelions. 

First, we went out and dig up dandelions. The large roots we then cut up and planted them. But the thing was, when we first put them in the planter thing, it was way to hot. Our dandelions did not make it (tear). 

But that was not our only time to try this. We also had to choose another plant to clone. GARLIC!!!

To do this, we had to get the original garlic plant we wanted to clone. Once we had that, we split apart the cloves and chose 4 to plant; a big clove, a medium clove, a small clove, and a tiny clove. These were planted in four different containers and put outside. Now, we waited. Nothing happened for a while, then bam. They stared to shot up. But then, disaster struck. 

Some awful people came on the weekend and completely dumped out our and another groups plants. Our plants were resilient, though. We were able to save all 4 plants, and move on to our next step. 

The final project for this unit was to make a research proposal video, where we asked for money to reproduce garlic sexually. I wrote the script for this, but then I had to leave. The rest of my group filmed and edited the video, and I think it turned out really great!

I learned a lot from this project. I am still working on my group work skills, and this was a great project to do that with. I also had to learn to work with setbacks, like our dandelions not growing. I had a lot of fun with this project, and I can’t wait to try our garlic (pertaining to the fact that I am taking them home and planting them in my garden!).

The Great War Actually Really Sucked

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The years leading up to the First World War, tensions were running high in Europe. The arms race was high in the minds of govt officials, and it was just a matter of time until war broke out. The tipping point was when Franz Ferdinand, the archduke of Austria, was assassinated by the Serbians. This created a domino effect, and the First World War began.

Image by Tamara S.L.

To start this unit off, we had spring break. Ha, no. We had homework over spring break. TBH, it wasn’t that hard. We just had to read a book. There were three options, and I chose ‘Generals Die in Bed’ by Charles Yale Harrison. It was a really good read. I definitely would recommend. Anyways, we didn’t read these books for fun. We created book reports. But these weren’t regular book reports. These were creative book reports. We had a bunch of different options on how to do this, including movie trailers, drawings, and songs. I chose to do poetry. But like, I went a bit crazy with this. I made an entire book with images to fit with each poem. I had a lot of fun with to. Here’s the book. L

Once we’d finished the book, we started getting closer towards our big project. But then there was this big disruption called OTTAWA! We went with Encounters with Canada on a week long trip where we learned all about Canada’s involvement in WW1. The main event we focused was The Battle of Vimy Ridge. This battle was the first time all of the Canadian regiments fought together. The Canadian’s took the Ridge in a span of a few days. My great grandfather actually fought during this battle! Anyways, the trip was super cool and I made a lot of friends!

When we got back, we continued to learn about Canada’s involvement in the war. One of the ways we did this was by reading a graphic novel called Shattered Ground. Shattered Ground is an online interactive story about a boy who finds his great grandfathers First World War journal. As he reads the journey, we find our about the journey he took through the war. It’s super cool. While we were reading, we also had to complete chapter summaries. It was a good way to reflect on each chapter. 

So at this point, we were just waiting for our main project to begin. We knew our driving question, which was ‘How Did World War 1 effect Canada’s identity?’. We started with a brainstorming session. We made a list of questions about WW1. There were questions like ‘What were the requirements of the medical professionals that helped during the war?’, and ‘How did conscription change the fate of the war, at least for Canada?’. Then, we got into groups and answer some of the questions. 

Next, from these questions, the teacher came up with 22 different topics. We each chose one, and got to researching. This was when we finally got to know what the project was. We were to create a comic book about Canada’s part in WW1. The topic I chose was Conscription. 

I chose conscription as my topic for a few reasons. First of all, I though conscription was awful. This was the govt forcing people to fight. But as I looked into it, I realized that it seemed to almost be a ploy to get Borden’s govt re-elected. And anyways, only 24,000 conscripts actually made it to France. 

So I made the first draft. It was interesting. I worked really hard on it. 

I got a lot of critique. So I went back, and continued to edit and revise. The second draft was a lot better. 

Then we had a huge group critique session. I got a lot of awesome critique from this, and was able to make my last, best draft. Then we had to present. 

In PLP, we like to present for an audience. So, our teacher contacted a local school, and we got to go present for a bunch of grade 6 and 7 students. It was a really cool experience, and I got to talk to a bunch of kids who are going into PLP next year. 

All in all, this was a really cool project. I learned so much about my great grandfather, and about Canada as a whole. I also learned a bunch about taking critique, which is something I still have to work on. Canada is so awesome, and I feel so lucky to live in this amazing country!

3x^2 + 7xy – 4d^5s^8 + 9 + 8cx^6

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For math in grade nine, we learn about polynomials. Then, because were in PLP, we had to make a project about it. This blog post will be explaining what we did for this. 

Polynomials are expressions (meaning no equals sign), with real numbers and variables. They use addition and subtraction. An example of a polynomial is: 2s + 4d^3 – 6gd

In this project, we also learned about like terms. Like terms are terms that contain the same variables raised to the same power. These can be combined to simplify equations. For example: 4c^4 + 2d + 6d would become 4c^4 + 8d

To demonstrate our learning of this, we had to create projects. There were no real constraints for the project, so people’s were very different. I worked with Luca OG. We decided to show how polynomials are used in architecture. We made our presentation on keynote. Here it is:

Presentation 12-1nsppkj

Because most of the presentation was speaking, I’ll give a brief overview. In architecture, polynomials and like terms are used a lot. We chose to focus on floor plans. In floor plans, polynomials are used to show the dimensions of a room, and the entire building. 

I learned a lot from this project. First of all, I learned about working with people I don’t usually work with. We played to each other’s strengths, which was good. I also learned how sometimes, in a project, constraints are good. If you don’t have a lot of criteria, it is sometimes hard for the teacher to convey what they are hoping for in a project, then are dissatisfied with the results. It was a fun project though.

Ottawa- Part 2 of our Journey East

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In grade nine, because of the curriculum change, we learn about WW1, and Canada’s impact on the war. As you may know, Canada’s biggest influence, in World War 1, was during the battle of Vimy Ridge. This is why, for our field study, we went to Ottawa to learn about Vimy Ridge.

Encounters with Canada is a program that sends kids from all around Canada to Ottawa, where they participate in a week-long camp. Each wee has a different theme, to cater to more people’s interests. The battle of Vimy Ridge took place on April 9th, 1917, so the week we went was during the battle.

As I fore mentioned in my Destination Imagination Blog Post, the day we left for this trip was also the day of the Destination Imagination Provincials. This presented logistical challenges, with transporting all of our stuff, and whatnot. We had to leave early from the tournament, to catch our flight. It was 2:00am EDT by the time we actually got to Ottawa.

Our day started early the next morning. Well, actually, we didn’t do much the first day. Some people were still arriving, so they couldn’t start the activities yet. This gave us lots of time to work on our books, which was the project based on this trip.

As you may recall, when our class went to Oregon in grade 8, we had to create a ‘Oregon Book’. Each day, there was a page to fill out. So when we went to Ottawa, the teachers made a book for us. Except, everything was a lot more vague, because they had no clue what we were doing in Ottawa, other than learning about WW1 and Canada.

So in this post, day by day, I’ll be explaining what we did, and what we learned. At the bottom will be the full book, where you can watch all the videos and sounds and stuff!

Sunday

We pretty much just got hoodies and hung around the centre. We also played with a parachute.

Monday

Monday was the 101st anniversary of Vimy Ridge. We got to witness the commemoration ceremony at the National War Memorial. It was really cool to see how even now, the people who died are remembered.

We also did ‘Vimy modules.’ In groups, we did different activities pertaining to Vimy. There was a huge map of the ridge that we got to walk on, a monument making thing, and a propaganda poster thing. It was super cool.

Then, we did these different activity things. I did yoga!

Tuesday 

Tuesday was a really cool day. We got to go to the Canadian War Museum. We had a tour, did activities where we could hold artifacts, and had a bunch of free time to look around. 

Wednesday

Wednesday was, I think, the coolest, most Canadian day I’ve ever had. This was the day when we went to parliament. 

It was so awesome. We got to see the library, 

go inside the peace tower, 

and do so much more. It was amazing!

We also went on a walking tour of the different war monuments in Ottawa. It was all so cool.

Thursday

During the Cold War, Prime Minister Diefenbaker commissioned a underground bunker in case of a nuclear attack from Russia. It is now a museum, and we got to visit it!

It was really cool to see how prepared they were in the event of a nuclear explosion. Also, it was in the middle of nowhere, which makes sense, but it took a while to get there. 

When we were down there, we did this really cool activity where we were the different ministers and we had to figure out what to do because ‘the US had just been bombed’. I was the minister of communication, and had to come up with a press release. It was awesome.

When we got back, we also got to do the coolest thing ever. We got to talk to veterans. My group talked to a World War 2 veteran, and a Navy Logistics officer. It was amazing to here their stories. 

Then, we had our own commemoration ceremony at a war gravesite. We put candles on the soldiers headstones, and had a minute of silence. 

Friday

Friday was the end of the week, so we did a lot of wrap-up stuff. We had three-hours of free-time downtown, so me and a person I met went shopping. 

Then we did a bunch of wrap up activities, and had a really nice dinner. 

Finally, we had a dance. It was interesting.

Saturday

This was the day of all the tears. I met so many amazing people on the trip, and today we all said goodbye. It was really sad. But I’m so glad I went on this trip because I made connections from so many people from across Canada.

We had a lot of free time before we left on our flight. So, our teachers decided to take us to Quebec. Not just Quebec, but the Canadian Museum Of History. It was super awesome, and I now I can say that I’ve had poutine in Quebec!

This is my book.

 

My Never-Ending Group Project II

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After our last adventure in Destination Imagination, I was kind of worried for the Destination Imagination Provincials. We knew we had a lot of things to fix, and other things to work on. So we got on it.

We ended up completely redoing our set, our spectacle, and tweaking pretty much everything else. But we worked hard, and really got things done.

This performance, more than any of the other ones, had a lot more to do with logistics. April 7th, the day of the performance, was also the day we left for Encounters With Canada in Ottawa. That made everything more complicated. I had to carry my suitcase around with me everywhere.

We had to make sure all of our stuff was easily transported, because after our challenges were over, we had to leave for the airport. We made the set collapsible, and fit all of our props into one box, except one big thing. Anyways….

This time around, the Provincial tournament took place at Johnston Heights Secondary School, in Surrey. So, as fore mentioned, transportation was a big deal. Also, we didn’t have any idea of where exactly we were presenting. So in planning, we just had to go with the dimensions that the official challenge book gave us (8ft x 10ft).

On the day of the tournament, the school was packed. 95 teams, from BC, Alberta and the Yukon. We had to set up our stuff in a hallway. And then, we waited.

Our presentations were all early in the day, because we had an early-ish flight. For our team, our instant challenge was early, at 9:30. We’re not supposed to talk about what we did during the instant challenge, but I can say how it was, if that makes any sense. We did good, and worked together well as a team. I think that’s one of the best ICs we’ve done as a team.

Our central challenge was at 12:50, so we had some time to kill. We watched several other Fine Arts performances, including ‘Basically G.O.A.T.’, our grade 8 Fine Arts team. Lots of them were very good, and it was nice to see some of the competition.

When it finally came down to our performance, we were all super anxious. It was a pain to get our set down to our presentation area, but we got it done. And our presentation actually worked! We had no utter failures, no missed lines, it was awesome!

As a group, I think we learned a lot. I learned how much you can get done, in a short period of time, if you really put your mind to it. I also came to the realization that group work can be fun, if everyone tries their hardest. I can very much wait till next year though.

 

 

 

I told you it never ends.