“How did the discovery of gold shape our province and its people?”

During the final months of Humanities 9 in late spring, our class was going to participate in a project called “GOLD!”, led by Mr. Hughes. Instead, that project was called off in its beginning stages… and a variation of it became our first Humanities 10 project; led by a new member of the PLP teaching team, Ms. Madsen. When I first met Ms. Madsen, she was wearing a cat shirt, which immediately increased my opinion of her tenfold. I firmly believe that each cat person out there is a good person. 

Nothing can convince me otherwise.

I have mixed feelings about this project. On one hand, it was totally bizarre thinking about how we were literally writing historical fanfiction for a PLP project (or, more accurately, historical fiction). However, I personally am not a huge fan of fictional or creative writing, despite considering myself to be a strong writer. I find that I take a vast amount of time to write a short amount of content, and despite many variations and drafts, I am never fully satisfied with my final product. In addition, I find that I struggle with having the attention span to sit down and take notes on multiple articles and sources each day in class. Don’t get me wrong, I love reading and note taking, though it’s hard if it’s regarding a topic that doesn’t necessarily capture my interest. More bluntly, I was suffering from the disease known as boredom. It was hard to motivate myself to do well when it is within human nature to struggle to find the motivation in areas that are not of our interest.

To my detriment, we did a lot of note taking on various articles and videos throughout the first stages of the project. Looking back on it, the quality of my notes were hit or miss. In some parts, they were elaborate and had an abundance of detail. In other aspects, my notes were lacking. Nonetheless, this set the foundation for the rest of my work during the project. I initially took my notes on Pages, and I chose to add more notes in addition to what I had already collected from our abruptly ended project from last year. 

Gold Rush Timeline

After the completion of various worksheets, and research, I completed a small reflection on how the Gold Rush shaped our province, British Columbia. With Ms. Madsen’s feedback, I was able to revise to extend my thinking in order to achieve my learning plan goals. Last year, I used to take it pretty hard if a teacher told me to revise my work. It used to bring up thoughts such as:

  • “Why can’t I be good enough?”
  • “Why do I do everything wrong?”

However, I’ve taken notice of how I approach feedback differently as opposed to the year prior. It felt good knowing that it wasn’t something wrong with me, and it was just a suggestion of how I could further my thinking in order to do my best. I’m sure my younger self would disagree, but I find that it is extremely helpful having that extra push in order to complete the most authentic work I can achieve.

Before Revision

After Revision

A few weeks into the project, although we still used familiar applications such as Notability in addition to Pages, we were introduced to a new app called Craft. Once I received my topic, which was “Women”, I proceeded to utilize Craft for my note taking. Unfortunately, despite reaching out to Mr. Hughes repeatedly, and having followed the instructions to receive Craft Pro at the beginning of the year, I still did not have that version. Even so, I do not feel that my note taking was hindered by the lack of the Pro version, though I hope to be able to use it in the future. My friend, Fraser, gave me some note taking tips in order to enhance my notes, after I very dramatically bribed him into it using the power of friendship. Yay for friendship! Wooooo!

📝 Check out my Craft Notes here. 📝 

I chose women as my research topic since the inner feminist within me wanted to learn more about independent women who participated in the gold rush. Particularly, the way women have been depicted in history as opposed to the present is something that I believe is quite fascinating. I found it both inspiring and intriguing to research this topic, and I do not regret my choice.

My Character Card

Once we had an idea of what exactly we wanted to do with our research, we were to create a character card. I chose to make my character Catherine O’Hare Schubert, an actual woman who was involved in BC’s gold rushes. I decided on her because while reading about her story, I easily saw how I could fit it into a beginning, rising action, climax, lowering action, and conclusion; all of which made it relatively easy for me. However, looking back, I do wonder if it would have been easier for me if I had chosen to create a fictional character. I felt barred a lot throughout my time writing, since although I thoroughly researched Schubert’s involvement and experiences in BC’s gold rushes, it felt wrong to create a story about her life despite not truly knowing how accurate my portrayal of it was. 

In my planning documents, I tried to remain as closely accurate to her experiences as possible based off of the research I collected. Though, when it came to my final story, I did end up having to make some changes after doing further research, in order to maintain historical accuracy.

 

Click this image to be redirected to my first story draft.

With the help of my peers, Faith and Dylan, I was able to utilize their feedback in order to enhance my first draft, which you can read above.

Finally, after many hours of editing, and doubting/second guessing myself, I completed my final draft. We were instructed to hand in our stories as QR codes. Check mine out below!

Scan this QR code to read my final story!

Unable to scan the code? Click here instead!

How did the discovery of gold shape British Columbia and its people?

Our goal during this project was to create a historical fiction story set during BC’s gold rushes, in order to communicate information for our intended audience, while also implementing our understanding of the causes and consequences of BC’s gold rushes. Personally, although I enjoyed writing my story, I do believe I could improve in terms of summarizing information and making it concise in the future. Regardless, I do believe I achieved in compelling my audience, implementing historical accuracy/cause and consequence(for the most part), and answering the driving question.

The series of keystones, research documents, and story drafts that I have completed in the past few weeks helped in answering this question. The establishment of BC as a colony, the gold rushes, the increase of population in BC, and the province finally joining Confederation all connect. I went in depth on such in my reflection paragraph, completed earlier in the project. An example of this is how the mass influx of people is a great part of why the need for proper governance was necessary. However, this mass influx would not have happened quite the same if it wasn’t for the happenstance of BC’s gold rushes. The discovery of gold is what attracted a large diversity of people to our province, and is what assisted in creating the British Columbia that we know today.