What Makes a Good Movie?

Posted on by christianl

Hello everyone!

I just finished my third exhibition in grade 9!  Our exhibition was based on the movie Avatar, so all our projects had to relate to a theme that the film included.   This meant the grade 9’s had to make a documentary that showed of one of Avatars main ideas.  I chose to do mines on sustainability destruction, more specifically into Borneo’s deforestation.  I hope that you enjoy reading!

Driving question:

What does James Cameron’s fantasy world of “Avatar” reveal about our own society?

We started off by watching Avatar so that we could learn the lore and the different characters inside of it.  After finishing, we discussed what the different themes were so that we could choose one for our documentary.  These are some of the ideas that we thought of:

•Augmented Reality

•Imperialism + Colonialism

•Corporate Greed (Corporate interests outweighing local rights)

•Sustainability/Destruction of Natural Environment over Humanity’s interests

•Racism – Lack of understanding for different cultures/ways of being

•Militarism

•Spirituality/Beliefs

•Exploration – Terrestrially/Space Travel

•Connection Community/Culturally

•Oppression – Forced Evictions

We went into the next stage of our project, the planning.  We needed three things to create a successive video: B-roll, an interview and good editing.  To start off the planning, we created a treatment and storyboard for our video.  A treatment is a short paragraph that explained what it is and has to excite the person reading it.   I wanted to split my video into 2 parts, Borneo’s jungle and North Vancouver’s forest.  I would interview 2 different people about the deforestation in their respective areas which would be included in our video.  In between the parts, I would also be explaining different facts that added to my short films.  Here is my storyboard and treatment.

After that, I had to find interviews that were informed on this subject.  I contacted multiple people that  came from here and people who worked in Shell in Brunei (country in Borneo) about an interview for my video.  Unfortunately, I only got 1 response back and he said that he would not be able to answer my questions.  At this point I chose to interview my father (businessman from Brunei) and Ms. Kadi (green club teacher sponsor).  

Along with the interviews I had to find b-roll to add to my documentary.  B-roll is background footage that is added to make the video more interesting.  Lots of the b-roll was from my parents and things that I found online.  To properly use this, I had to play the footage only when the topic is relevant to the subject that we were talking about.  To display our knowledge, we made a short video to practice our interview and b-roll skills.  Here it is:

To put my documentary all together, I had to cut out and edit lots of the clips so that it would fit into the movie.  It took me lots of time finding the right b-roll footage that fit in with the voiceovers and interviews.  I also had to find background music that fit the mood of my video.  To finish my video, I had to include a clip explaining how my video is related to the move Avatar.  Here is my documentary:

Inside the exhibition, we also had to create viewing boxes to make watching the film more interesting.  I had the idea of making a tree stump so I was given a really big box.  I painted my box brown and Daniel helped me out to create vines and leaves that were placed onto it.  I also created holes at the bottom and top so that you could see my iPad.  

The final thing we had to do was decorate the room for the exhibition.  I was placed inside the destroyed planet group, it had people from other grades that had projects to do with sustainability destruction.  We wanted to make the room more post apocalyptic so we added black paper to the walls with old environmental signs.  We also dressed up as homeless people  and put a garbage pile in the middle.  

In conclusion, I really enjoyed creating and presenting my work to the community. I think I did a really good job in creating my documentary.  It included all the required items and more.  If I were to do this again, I would like to have made my viewing box a bit better.  It was intended to be a tree stump but ended up looking like a nature mailbox.  

To answer the driving question, Avatar portrays multiple different themes in real life.  Lots of large corporations invade foreign lands and exploits them for personal gain.  Like in the movie, they deforest the jungles in Pandora so that they can get a rare mineral called Unobtainium.  They even went to such lengths to destroy the native tribe’s home for more of this resource. 

Thanks for reading!

-Chris

Vibrant Videos

Posted on by christianl

Hello everyone!

During Maker, I have been creating videos and goals that I would like to accomplish.  I have learnt a lot about cinematography and different shots and angles that people use to enhance a movie.  Not only that, I got to learn how to use a cool app on our iPad called Clips to edit all our videos.  I also learnt about interests, goals and hobbies that I enjoy doing.  I hope you enjoy reading!

Driving question: How might I use video skills to tell my story?

At the start of this project, we started reading a book called “What I Really Want?” that helped us pinpoint what we want and what goals we would like to set.  We had to create a goal tracker to include all of our work that we did along the way.  We also learnt a lot about

Inside the book, we filled out a form called “What Inspires Me” that had a list of questions relating to our goals.  We had to base and create our first video on this form that had to include different media, filters, music and sound effects.  Some of the questions included what we enjoy doing, what don’t we enjoy doing, what brings us meaning to our lives and a lot of others.  I talked a lot about how I really enjoy coding and want to potentially create a game in the future.  If you would like to watch my video, here it is:

After that, we started learning and experimenting angles that we could add to the videos we will create.  We also started learning about the usefulness of storyboards.  A storyboard is a series of frames with simple drawings that shows the angle, plot and sound effect.  We watched the new avatar movie and had to storyboard it using our skills we learnt.

After that, we wrote out a goal getter story about something in our life that we have overcome.  I wrote about our hardships and success inside Destination Imagination.  We then started creating our second video that is based on our goal getter story.  For this video we were working in groups of 3 and had to make it an old silent film.  I was working with Cameron L and Max and they chose to do my goal getter story.  We wrote out a storyboard to plan all our shots and what was going to happen.  This is our video:

At around this time, it was a week away from the Humanities mini exhibition.  The teachers decided to create multiple videos that we would play during the exhibition.  We used the editing skills we learned along the way to produce this video.  We had to storyboard, plan and think about what would be inside our video.  Here is this video:

IMG_3620

The last and final video was a tutorial that relates to our SMART goals.  SMART is an acronym to create better goals.  The S stands for specific, the M stands for measurable, the A stands for actionable, the R stands for realistic and the T stands for time bound.  We also learnt how to write a logline and a treatment.  A treatment is a short summary that is no more than a page.  A logline is a small blurb that goes over the main plot.

We decided to use Jessie’s idea on how to open lockers as our tutorial.  Her goal was to be more organized so she wants to use her locker to make easier.  We then created a logline, treatment and storyboard to plan out what would happen in our video.

In conclusion, I learnt a lot about video making and goal planning.  If I were to do this again, I think that I could have aimed for getting rainbows in all of the videos.  For the first one, I could have included a story to make it more interesting and more shots and angles for the second video.  However, I think the videos I created were pretty well made.  To answer the driving question, I think my most latest video has a story using a video.

Thanks for reading!
-Chris

The Revolution of Nation X

Posted on by christianl

Hello people!

We have just started a project called Storm the Barricades!  We just finished a civilization simulation on where we role played as members within a society.  We were split into 4 different social and economic groups.  Group A, the poorest, were peasants who made 1 dollar a day on sharpening pencils and creating 100-word reports on what happened on that day.  Group B, the group I was in, were middle class citizens who ran the store and made 2 dollars a day.  The next class was Group C, the police and law enforcers that made 10 dollars a day and “protected the city”.  The last group was the Nobles, they made all the important decisions with the king.  Lastly was the king, he made all the important decisions and good pass any law he wanted.  I sold things like candy and lemonade that you could actually consume for some money.

Day 1:

It was the first day of being under Nation X.  Mackenzie and both Charlies were the Clergy, they were able to pass whatever laws they want.  I was with Daniel, Cameron B, Keaton and Julia.  We were in charge of running the store and also had to write a daily 50 word report on what I did today.  We were also not allowed to communicate to people within group C and D without them talking first.

Today, I woke up and got ready to do my daily tasks.  We managed to sell about $70 worth of stuff, making us the richest group in all of Nation X.  Unfortunately, all our money was taken away from us.  About $50 were taken for “taxes,” which left us with only $20.   With all our money taken and most of our stock gone, we were very broke.  We tried to resist their arrest but were quickly outnumbered by the police force.  If we had not complied, we would have been arrested and sent to jail.

Day 2:

The sun rose on a dark and stormy day.  We spent what money we had to restock the store with foods and drinks.  However, we made lots of money!  We made about $150 and quickly hid it away!  We told the tax collectors that we only made $20 and had very little sales.  Not only that, I stole a bunch of that money from the king, clergy and nobility.  On the other hand, I was sent to jail 3 times for “assault and robbery” but escaped every time.  I punched the king when he found out that I was stealing from him!  I did this because the upper-class people had spent all of Nation X’s money.

Day 3:

I woke up today hoping to be promoted to the clergy class.  Daniel and I sent a formal request to join them.   We told them that we had experience on how we could better their rule over this nation.  However, we got rejected!  They said that we had to do something great in order to join.  I also had a criminal background which prevented me from even being promoted to the next estate.  As a compromise, Cameron B sent them a letter to make me the GOAT (greatest of all time) of Nation X.  They accepted and held a speech in honour of me!

Day 4:

Today I woke up to the sounds of people rioting outside.  They wanted to change the current monarchy to a democracy, so everyone had an equal chance to lead this nation.  I did not really care, I found the king, Charlie M, to be a pretty good ruler.  During the commotion, Nation X was hit with a disease.  It attacked the wrist, preventing anyone from group A and B from working.  This meant we were not going to get any pay, and the economy would come to a halt due to the lack of resources.  However, the king, decided to be merciful and gave all the infected a cure instead of profiting of it.  On the other hand, some groups were trying to buy some, which the king did not permit.   This enraged the people, so they tried to steal the only weapons in Nation X from the Clergy.  Tom, part of group C, managed to steal a weapon and gave it to his group members.  Jasper, a member in this group stole it and 2 people in group A with it.  At this point, it was pure chaos.  Me, Charlie M, Mackenzie and Logan fled to an allied nation so that we could be protected from them.

 

Day 5:

They welcomed us with open arms as we planned our counterattack on Nation X.  Charlie R, one of the leaders of the revolution and a traitor to group D, held a ceremony on their success in capturing the land.  Even though he was planning to turn the government into a democracy, the people disliked him due to the tyranny he caused while he was in rule with group D.  They decided to kill him due to his past connections with the king.  While all this was going on, me and the people who fled to group D took upon this opportunity and secretly entered the land while their backs were towards us.  While they executed Charlie R, me, Logan and Charlie M took our weapons and slaughtered almost everyone there.  I set aside my past friends and allies as I stole all their belongings after they died.   Nation Y had now fully invaded Nation X and had total control over it.

Overall, I found this simulation really fun.  Not only that, but I also felt like this simulation was very similar to the French revolution due to some of the things that happened.  In both, the royalty and upper class would spend lots of money even though the nation had no money, which caused them to tax the poor more.   Also, food was scarce for France because of multiple bad harvests while Nation X was hit with a disease which did not allow us to work.  If I were to do this again, I hope to be of the Clergy so that I could live a lavish lifestyle.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!

-Chris

How the Geography of the West Shaped us through an Economical Lens

Posted on by christianl

Hello people!

This is the second blog post for this year!  I will be talking about the most recent project I have done inside humanities!  We were trying to define what geography is an its impact on us.  I also chose to relate all my work to economy. We went on a school trip so that we could build our knowledge and gather evidence.  I hope you enjoy 😉.

Driving question:  How has the geography of the west shaped who we are today?

Within the first few days of entering school, the first batch of PLP 9 kids were sent off to go collect evidence inside of Alberta.  While they were there, we had to research a document and answer a questionnaire.  It was about the different geographical landscape within Canada.  We learnt about the different regions such as the Canadian Shield and St Lawrence Low Land.  Places like the Cordillera region have a lot of mountains, rivers and forests.  

After completing that, we finally started our 8 night long trip to Calgary.   Our first keystone was creating a one paged comic that shows the 5 themes of geography.  The 5 themes of geography are different categories that break down what geography means.  This includes place (the physical and cultural landscape of a certain area), movement (the movement of people, products and ideas), human environment interaction (how we have adapted, modified and depended in the natural environment), location (the exact/relative place of where it is) and region (if this location has a defined or made-up border).  I think that my comic shows each of these themes through a photo and a couple of words.  I also added an introductory panel to introduce each of these themes. 

Along the way, we visited lots of landmarks/tourist’s attraction and how they affected us through an economical lens.   In total, we visited 8 places that we had to include in our book:  the Last Spike, Downtown Calgary, the Calgary Zoo, Frank Slide, Head Smashed in Buffalo, Cave and Basin, Columbian Ice Field and the Golden Sky Bridge.  During the trip, I think that I demonstrated the thinking competency.  While there, I had to ask questions and speculate on the topic to develop my knowledge on the place’s impact on the economy.  

 

We eventually returned back to Vancouver and reflected on all our experiences.  Inside our book, we were given a 3-question prompt for each one, how it shows the 5 themes of geography, how and why this place shaped us in an economical sense and my personal connection.   I also linked some of my work to a keynote documentation inside my book.  We also held a mini exhibition to present all our books in front of our parents.  I got to meet multiple parents that I did not know before.  

In conclusion, I feel like I have learnt a lot throughout this project.  At first, I did not really know how to define what geography is, I thought it just meant the geographic landscape.  Now, I know that there are lots of different themes of what geography means.  Now, I can give a sophisticated answer towards the driving question.  Like mentioned within my book, I think the geography of the West has shaped us by allowing us to have a thriving economy with multiple industries that helped us to settle and develop.   I think my reflection pages on the Last Spike also shows valid evidence to the driving question.  One thing that I feel like I could have improved on, is gathering more media.  I have a Samsung phone and I find it really hard to import the photos I take to my iPad.

If you would like to have a read of my book, here it is:

 

Thanks for reading!

-Chris

The Different Ecosystems of the World!

Posted on by christianl

Hello people!

This is my first blog post in PLP 9!  I will be explaining how humans have impacted ecosystems across the world in a negative and positive way.   I will also be discussing what we did, went well, what didn’t go so well and what I learnt throughout the project.  I hope you guys enjoy!

Our project was split into 3 keystones:

Keystone 1 – An Interactive Scratch Game

I had to create a food web that shows how the different animals impact each other.  If one animal is taken out of the food chain, the balance will be heavily shifted.   If the seal population were to decline, the whales and polar bears population will also decline due to the lack of food.  However, salmon and other fish would thrive because their natural predator has been taken out.

Keystone 2 – A News Report

In a group, we had to create a video addressing a real-life issue on an animal that’s population is either too big or small.  We also had to show what we are currently doing to counter this problem and my solution to this problem.

Keystone 3 – 5 Instagram Posts

Working with a partner or by yourself, we had to create 5 social media posts that showed all the things we learned and how humans have impacted them.  This included the Earth’s spheres, bioaccumulation/biomagnification, local interconnected food webs, local wildlife management and nutrient cycles.

 

Driving Question:  In what way has humans impacted the delicate cycles within our local ecosystem and how can we lessen the impact?

The first thing we did was research the topic about build our knowledge on this topic.  We learnt about abiotic, biotic, Earth’s spheres, bioaccumulation, local interconnected food webs, local wildlife management and nutrient cycles.  While learning about these topics, we did multiple activities such as drawing a solution to stop bioaccumulation.

After that, I started the first keystone.  Like mentioned earlier in this post, I had to create a Scratch game that shows how animals interact with each other in a food web.  I chose the Antarctician food web, this includes seals, whales, penguins, etc.  I chose to make mine more like a game, you got to choose what animal you play so that you could move around and eat, avoid, survive.  I learnt a lot about this food web and the animals inside of it and how humans impacted them.  If you would like to play my game, this is the link:  The chain on Scratch (mit.edu)

We then proceeded to start the next keystone.  This is the keystone where I had to work in a group to develop a news report on what we should do in a real-world wildlife problem.  I was working with Sofia and Keira, and we chose to focus on the dwindling salmon population because of the rise in the seal population.   I got the role of interviewing people on the situation, Sofia was the news reporter, and Keira was the local citizen that I had to interview.  For this keystone, I learnt that humans have drastically impacted animals all over the world, in a good and bad way.  We try to stabilize any anomalies within a food web so that the population of the animals within are balanced.  Here is the news report we created:

We finally entered the final part of the project, we had to work on was the 5 Instagram posts that showed what we learned throughout the project.  We were allowed to work with partners, and I chose Logan.   I worked on the food webs and local wildlife management posts while he did the 3 others.  I had to summarize my learning throughout this topic in these posts.  The posts:

In conclusion, I found this project pretty fun to do.  Some things I enjoyed doing was creating the news report and making the scratch game.  Personally, I didn’t really mind listening to the lectures because they were informative and interesting.  Ms. Kadi explained things in an easy to learn way.

-Chris

Comic Cells!

Posted on by christianl

Hello all!

In Scimatics, I have been designing and creating my very own comic.  It was fun illustrating each drawing and reminded me of the project Argh Matey because it was quite similar.  I hope you enjoy!

Driving question:  How do cells and disease interact?

At the start of the project we did mind maps to review what we already knew.  I did not know much so I only added 2 per branch.

The first thing we did was learn about the different cells.  There are 2 main group of cells, prokaryotic and eukaryotic.  Prokaryotic cells are only found in single cell organisms whilst eukaryotic cells are found in bigger things such as animals and plants.  Prokaryotic cells tend to be much simpler and not have a nucleus’s whilst Eukaryotic are the opposite.  I learnt a lot about biology in this part of the project.  After finishing, we did a Khan Academy test which I did pretty good in.

After finishing that, I created a disease wanted poster.  At this point, we had already chosen our virus and was starting to research on it.  I chose rabies because I searched up cool diseases to learn about and it was on there.  I used some of my skills that I learnt in Maker and I think I created a pretty decent poster.

We then started our final products.  I named my comic Rabies on the Loose because the protagonist’s later calls his company that.  It is about a man who owns 3 Rottweilers but 1 of them gets into a fight with a fox and gets rabies.  The dog bites the owner making him not feel very well.  He decides to go to the doctor but does not think it is very important.  He has to queue for 1 hour until the doctor eventually gets to him and diagnosis him with rabies.  He is cured just in time and starts a movement against rabies to help research and fund people who are in need of treatment.  After 2 years, his other dogs who now also have rabies jump their owner again creating a cliffhanger for the next comic.  It depicts and accurate representation if you were bitten by rabies.  I think that my story and illustrations were pretty good.  If you would like to read it, click the link below:

Comic cells – Chris

Curricular Competencies:

Project End MindMap:

Now that I am finished the project, I added onto my project start mind map.  I made sure to add all the things I know a lot more cells and diseases.

In conclusion, this was a very interesting project where I learned a lot of new information.  It was fun creating each illustration and making the plot for the story.  If I did this again, I would add more panels so that it would be longer.  Overall it was quite fun.

-Chris

Impact! Spring Exhibition Post!

Posted on by christianl

Hello people!

Recently we had a PLP spring exhibition!  I learnt some new things and met new people.

Driving question:  What is a PLP learner?

During the exhibition, one main thing I did was branching out to the grade 9s.  The grade 9s were in charge of planning out the exhibition for us.  Since it was a split project between them, I got to interact so that I could carry out their plans.

When you walked into our part of the exhibition, you would be greeted by a Julien and Caitlin. They would explain each stations and where to start.

I was in the instant challenge section, it was a Destination Imagination game that we decided to do because it required you needed to have good collaboration and communication skills.  We had to make a cup pyramid in the fastest amount of time by pulling on strings connected to a rubber band in the middle to pick up things.

The next station was reflection.  Nolan was in charge of basically explaining how a PLP learner would reflect on what they just did.  They had to judge how well the communicated, collaborates thought.

The third station was the sticky notes challenge.  You basically would have to write down on sticky note on what they thought was a PLP learner.

(Don’t have photo)

After that was the Dungeon of Documentaries.  I don’t really know a lot about it but the grade 9s recently did a project on creating their own mini films.  They were allowed to do any topic they wanted so it was interesting seeing the grade 9s hobbies and talents.

The last station was the Hall of Hard Works.  It showed the projects we were proud of and not so proud of.  At the end, Xander was handing out skittles to represent “rainbows”.

I also got to choose to display some of my work that I wanted to show.  I decided to show 2 pieces of work to show my growth through the year.  The first one was a scratch game with very little gameplay that was supposed to be my first prototype.  Then I showed my full game and explained why I am proud of this using an artist statement.  To shows of my games, I used a website to create QR codes so that the guests could try them out themselves.

What is a PLP learner?

A PLP learner is a hard working and collaborative person that learns through project based learning. When faced with difficult tasks they always persevere through hardships.  They are also not scared of failing because they know that through failing, they learn how to do better.

Thanks for reading!

-Chris

TPOLS! My growth over the year.

Posted on by christianl

Hello!  Welcome to my Transitional Presentations Of Learning which will show my growth through the year!

Driving question: Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level?

“Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my own learning. You can expect me to give an honest evaluation of my progress. We will discuss my strengths and opportunities for growth. Thank you in advance for listening and for offering feedback that I can use to improve as a learner.”

“You don’t learn from experience, you learn from reflecting on experience.” – John Dewey.

 

Goals for the year:

I had goals for each subject that are shown in my learning plan.

For Humanities, I aimed to put out the best work that I could.  I sometimes would rush to hand in my work on time and not check the rubric to see if I could have done better.  Nowadays,  I feel like I always revise my work whenever the teacher asks.

In Scimatics, my work was mostly bland and was very boring to look at.  Most of the time, I finish most of my work in class so that I could work on other subjects.  I think that I accomplished this goal when I was doing my comic.  It took me a lot of time to illustrate each drawing so that I could create more colourful and brighter projects.

Humanities:

Things we have done over the year: Medium is the Message, The Outsiders, Working With Words, The Renaissance, Argh Matey and finally New Beginnings.

How have I grown through Humanities?

At the beginning of my year, I feel like I didn’t check back on my work and aim for rainbows.  This can be seen when I did my You vs Who character analysis.  Even though I got feedback, it took me a week to fully revise my work even though I could have revised my work earlier.

Nowadays, I think I usually check and revise my work.  I demonstrated this when I created my final images in the project New Beginnings.  I kept revising more visuals so that I could create the best possible one with my abilities.  In the end, I think I succeeded in doing a decent photo.

Scimatics:
Things we have done inside Scimatics: Fractions of Time, Tectonic Chances, Laser Laws, Chemistry Coding, Ultimate Design Challenge and Comic Cells.
When I started Scimatics my work felt unrefined and was very bland.  This was shown when I did my tectonic plate game.  It was a blank piece of paper with a sharpie showing the different plates.  I could have added the countries using a different colour.
I think that the last project I have done was a lot more pleasing to the eye.  This time, I used different colours to make the image look better.  I showed my growth when I did the project Comic Cells.  I created a comic with cool illustrations and drawings that I am quite proud of.  I also learned how to use a new app while creating the comic.
Some of the things that I have grown in because of PLP:
Collaboration and Communication
Most of the projects in PLP were with other people.  This made me meet new people and collaborate together to meet our project goal.  I think this is shown when I did Destination Imagination.  I didn’t really know who most of my team members were causing me to make new friends.  I also had to communicate online to set up meetings so that we could plan, build and rehearse our performance.
Technology
Before joining PLP, I think that I knew how to use the iPad decently.  Nowadays, I now know a lot more than before.  I have to create and edit videos, draw decent visuals, use the camera to create better photos and much more.  I learned most of my skills during Herzog and Carr.   If you check my earlier work, they were a lot more basic than what they are now.
Why do I think I should move to grade 9?
I think that I have all the necessary skills and information to move on to the next grade.  I have learnt a lot in grade 8 and will use my problem-solving skills, collaboration and communication in the further grades ahead.
Conclusion:
Overall, my time in PLP has taught me a lot of new skills and things that I would have not learnt in the regular curriculum.   I have also really enjoyed my time learning with the other PLP learners as we go into a new grade.  Next year, I hope to advance my vocabulary for Humanities and Maker.  Thanks for listening to my TPOL!
Some things I am proud of:
-Chris

Argh Matey! A pirate blog post.

Posted on by christianl

Hello people!

For this blog post, I will be talking about the 15th century in Europe.  I have been learning about pirates and European exploration.   After finishing this project, I have learnt a lot about the history of the country I live in.  Sit back, relax, and I hope you enjoy.

Driving question: What were the cause and consequences of European Exploration.

The first thing that we learnt about was the triangle trade between Europe, Africa and North America.   When North America learnt about the new land in the west they instantly started setting up trade routes between them.  North America would trade to Europe, giving them things such as sugar and tobacco.  Europe would then give Africa some of their new technology that they discovered.   Europe also steal people from Africa to bring them to North America to harvest the new crops they discovered.

For our final project we had to create a story about a person that was either a pirate or related to pirates going to North America to explore the “new world.”  It also had to be historical fiction so it had to be somewhat realistic.  I decided to create my story about a man named Francis Drake.  He was a British captain that use to trade slaves to North America before being ordered by the queen to attack Spain as a pirate.

After all that, what were the cause and consequences of world exploration?

Learning about our history (New France)

Posted on by christianl
Hello people!
I have been doing my latest project in Humanities, New Beginnings!  I will be talking about the fur trade within New France and how it affected the people living there.  Sadly, this will be my last blog post in humanities 8.  I hope you enjoy.
Driving question:  What did the establishment of New France mean for all the people involved.
What was our project?
We had to create 2 visual representations showing 2 opposite point of views on a topic in New France.  We used a program called Flourish, it allowed me to use a slider to show each photos.  I chose to learn about the fur trade, at first, it was a really good trade that created alliances between the European and Indigenous nations.  However, they started killing a lot of beavers, nearly wiping out their entire population.
The first thing we started of with was a Seycove ad challenge.  At first, the teachers planned it so that we had to create an ad on why you should go to New France.  They later changed it because going to New France also had a down side.  I created this with Julia and Kadin.  My main idea for the ad was that Seycove was more than a school, there is a nice community and a beautiful landscape around it.  I took a photo of Kadin next to the school and forest and used filters to make the school black and grey and made the forest even more vibrant.  Here it is:
After finishing the ad, we revisited some old photography techniques we could potentially use in our visuals.   We went outside and started experimenting.  I took some long shots, birds eye view, worms eye view and some others.  We then created a prototype using the photos we just took.
We then did a fur trade simulation on how it would be inside the different nations.  I got put into the Haudenosaunee and had to do some minor research.  I learnt that the Haudenosaunee was comprised of 6 nations and was allied with the British and against the French.
After that I had to create a pitch on what my visuals will be like.  Here was my pitch:

My topic: The fur trade.

Photo: I plan to use a photo that I took last week during the nature photography walk. The photo focuses on a stream next to the forest.

1st Visual representation:

1st symbol: My first symbol is a beaver in the water that is just swimming about. I chose to use this because the focus of my visual is the beaver trade.

2nd symbol: The second symbol is a musket, they had to shoot their target to take its pelt.

3rd symbol: My last symbol is a dollar bill. I put this in because the fur trade was a really profitable business.

Sign: This sign will say “A new and undiscovered land” because the Europeans will be discovering a “new land” even though the Indigenous was here for hundreds of years.

2nd Visual representation:

1st symbol: For my first symbol in my second visual representation I chose fire. I added fire on top of the forest to show how the beaver trade was heavily damaging the ecosystem

2nd symbol: My second symbol I chose was a musket that was just fired at the beaver. It shows how the First Nations killed the beavers.

3rd symbol: My last symbol was a dead beaver that was just shot by the musket. It represents how the indigenous had to murder the wild life so that they could make money.

Sign: This sign will say “No more beavers” because all the beavers in the land would have been hunted to extinction.

Finally, I started working on my 2 visuals.  My first 2 drafts were similar to my first prototype, but I rearranged the photos a bit.  After getting advice from Cam B, he told me I should change the font to make it easier to read.  I also changed the photos a bit so that it looks better.  My final revision only changed the text box so that it has a border to stand out more.

I also explained what each symbol and why they are all important:

For my first visual, it depicts a nice environment where everything is happy and prosperous.

First symbol (money): I added a dollar bill because it shows that the beaver trade was a really profitable business. Not only that, it was really valuable to have.

Second symbol (beaver with beaver hat): I chose to have a beaver wearing a hat to show that everyone really wanted the fur pelts. The pelts were not only really soft and durable, but was cool and fashionable.

Third symbol (a musket): The musket represents how the indigenous traded the pelts for they guns. It shows how the indigenous people improved their technology.

My second visual shows the beaver dead and the forest on fire. I chose to create it like this because the fur trade heavily damaged the eco system.

First symbol (burnt forest): The burnt forest represents how the Europeans took things without thinking about the environment.

Second symbol (dead beaver): The dead beaver shows how the fur trade nearly cause the beaver species to go extinct.

Third symbol (musket being shot): I made it so that the musket is shooting the beaver because it shows how the indigenous used their “gifts” to hunt even more beavers than before.

What I learnt:
I learnt a lot about the creation of New France and why it was an important part of our history.  Not only that, it shaped Canada to what it is today.  I also learnt about how the Indigenous nations helped the Europeans establish a colony in New France.
My answer to the driving question:
The establishment of New France had good and bad consequences.  The Europeans could start fresh in a new land that had endless possibilities.  However, it was really hard to start over because of the winter, it would freeze a lot of people and cause them to get diseases.  Not only that, they created a new trade, the fur trade.   It was a really profitable business and the indigenous got new and advanced technology in exchange for beaver pelts.  They also nearly wiped out the population of beavers and ruined the ecosystem.
Overall, I enjoyed learning about our past and what things we could’ve done better.  I think I created 2 decent visuals that shows the importance of the Fur Trade.  However, I think I could have made the visuals a bit more realistic.
Thanks for reading!
Goodbye.
-Chris