I can honestly say that PLP 10 has been a year like no other. In grade 8 and 9, I feel like I was getting my footing, learning the basic skills for success, and discovering areas of future improvement. This year however, I feel like my learning has taken off to new heights. Not only have I developed completely new audio, interview, and time management skills, but I have been able to take charge of my own learning. I’ve achieved incredible feats such as pushing the boundaries of what I thought was possible with projects such as our Crazy Pecha Kucha, reinventing my planning approach through PGP, and achieving long term goals like working effectively with a team in Destination Imagination.
It’s obvious that my entire class has grown significantly this year, and our teachers know it. I can’t think of a time this year where they weren’t pushing us to go further, to apply our learning in new situations, and this is because they know what we are capable of. In light of this, around two months ago, we started out on a journey that would put this capability to the test. This was our Circle B.C. unit; the Spring Exhibition Project. Instead of venturing afar to learn new skills, this project was all about heading out into our own incredible backyard, and returning to the centre of project based learning through the L.A.U.N.C.H Cycle. It may have taken podcast, a trip into the heart of our province, and a heck of a lot of work to trek this journey, but I feel I have come out the other side a changed person. In this post, I will be reflecting on why this is, and all the amazing projects and experiences that got me here.
And It Begins…
Our project started off in a deceptively unassuming manner. We were in a late day humanities block, with the open doors lighting the room in lazy sunlight. People were chatting, music was playing; everything seemed good with the world. In fact, it seemed so good that no one bothered to pay attention to new driving question posted on the wall. It read:
Once class got started, our focus was quickly guided to it. We soon learned that this would be the inquiry driving almost all of our humanities work until the end of school, including with our final exhibition project, where we would create an artifact which would convince the visitors of our exhibition of why something we experienced on the trip needed to be experienced by them as well. We also learned that this would be the educational thread of our upcoming circle B.C. trip; a twelve day excursion into the northern reaches of our province.
In this first class, we were first asked to think about our driving question by writing a short paper based on the prompt of “What is an experience that you will never forget?”:
A Night In Valencia – An Unforgettable Experience
A couple of days later, we were given some more insight into what our trip would entail. We discovered that it would be broken into three sections; The Gold Rush, The First People’s of Canada, and British Columbian Industries. These were focus areas that we already had a bit of knowledge on from previous experiences, such as our CPR Unit of grade 9, but we definitely needed a bit of touching up in the information department. To do this, we completed three mini tasks:
The Caribou Wagon Road Board Game
Picture of me during this with the text on the side
If you are unfamiliar with British Columbian history, looking at the map of our trip would be pretty meaningless. If you know a little about what happened here in the 1860’s however, you would realize that up to Barkerville, our trip is following the exact wagon road of the Caribou Gold Rush. At this point in our learning, we were more of the first kind of person I mentioned as we had limited knowledge of the significance of and the locations that made up this historic trail. In order to learn more, we were tasked with creating a board game with a partner that demonstrated the trials and rewards of being a gold miner. We had to include a total of eight stops from the road, and countless things that would be encountered by the souls brave enough to travel to them. In working with my partner Kai on this mini project, I was once again reminded of the value of simplicity, but I also learned something new. Creating something simple doesn’t mean making something of less quality; it means taking only the best qualities of your original ideas to create something concise, but amazing.
The Industries Presentation
After traveling the gold rush trail, our trip would be taking us to the modernized northern coast of B.C. to learn all about our industries. Some of these include forestry, fishing, farming, and tourism/film/manufacturing, and around 2-4 of my classmates were assigned to give a presentation on each area. My partner Tamara and I got film and manufacturing as our topic, and decided to split up the work evenly. However, I went in way too deep with the research, and left Tamara with having the complete the script over the weekend. Although this extra research created a detailed and thorough product, it also ended up cutting into my partner’s personal time. This made me realize that I need to learn to cut down, not just for my sake, but for the well being of those around me.
The Blanket Exercise
Although this wasn’t a task that was part of PLP, it ended up being a crucial step for our class in learning about the History of the First Nations Peoples of Canada. If you want to learn more, read the reflection piece I wrote below:
The Story Unfolds – Blanket Exercise Reflection
On the Road Again
It took a bit of preparation, but when May 14th rolled around, we were ready to head out on our Circle B.C. loop. Before this day, we had been informed that this trip would be the focus of our exhibition projects, as it would be were we would discover the great thing that we wanted our “neighbours” to experience. Now in hearing this, it may appear that we were about to embark on a carbon copy of our Crazy Seattle Trip, with the venturing out to find examples to support a thesis an all, but there was something that made this time different. Instead of developing our thesis before hand, we would be (much to our disliking) going in relatively blind. It would be our job to develop our thesis as we travelled; finding interesting threads to connect together rather than finding things to connect to a predetermined thread.
In order to document our process of finding our thesis, we were also asked to record audio as we travelled for the purpose of creating a podcast; my final draft of which can be viewed below:
If you did not listen to it, it outlines how my project focus ended up centring around this thesis:
People need to have authentic indigenous experiences in order to be part of Truth and Reconciliation to the best of their ability.
This next section of the post will be outlining the highlights of the trip, along with parts of it which were either prominent learning experiences or in relation to the development of my podcast and thesis.
Our trip starts off travelling through the rugged mountains, rolling farmlands, and lake side wildernesses that made up the Caribou wagon road. It was really quite awe inspiring to see things like this:
However, my mind was preoccupied by something else at this point; my thesis. Despite all of the teacher’s warnings, I was already thinking about which direction I might want to take my project in. I was more focused on capturing everything that could relate to ANY of the potential threads I found then actually experiencing where I was, and this would come back to bite me later.
One direction I had thought of right of the bat was something to do with Truth and Reconciliation with Canadian First Nations (click here to learn more about what this means). This idea was sparked in me after taking part in the aforementioned Blanket Exercise, but really started to take flight after two experiences on the Gold Rush trail. As I mentioned in my podcast, one of these was noticing a significant lack of information and political correctness on the signs at the Hell’s Gate tourist attraction. Another one was when I spoke with a person from the Secwépemc nation, who informed me that racism is still a problem that even well off indigenous communities face:
Another experience which connected to this idea was our visit the 108 Mile House Heritage Site, where we got to see some native artifacts:
Although these items themselves don’t seem to have anything to do Truth and Reconciliation, gathering an understanding of native cultures is an important step to making sure we are approaching truth and reconciliation in an appropriate and informed manner.
Although every location we visited in this phase of the trip was fantastic, the real highlight for me was Barkerville:
This boom town used to be one of the centre hubs of the north during the Caribou Gold Rush, which is all thanks to the big strike made here by Billy Baker. After the town burned down in 1868 however, it was rebuilt with the buildings that still stand today as part of the town’s new found role as a historic tourist attraction.
Exploring this site was an amazing experience. Between the mix of costumed interpreters, live demonstrations, and the highly detailed aesthetic of every structure in the town, it truly felt like I was in the mid 19th century. I would have to say that being here was not only one of the most exciting parts of our trip, but one of the most informative. Not only did I gain factual knowledge, such as how insane the economy here became through the mix of imported goods and gold strikes, or the story of the lady who was buried three times, but also knowledge that would prove to be crucial to my podcast making.
As I mentioned previously, I was determined to record every shot, interview, and piece of audio that could be of use to me, and Barkerville had an ample supply of all of these things. I don’t think I turned my camera off once in those two days, and in doing so collected hours of assorted media. At first, I was proud of this achievement and thought it would be of great benefit to my projects. However, when it was time to sort through everything, I realized that I had made a mistake. I had so much media, that I barley could use any of it without digging through piles of stuff I didn’t need. This experience taught me that for the rest of the trip, it would be okay to not record everything. If I could put my effort into getting five great shots/interviews instead of 20 okay ones, then all of my products will turn out better.
Our visit here also was my first glimpse into the importance of authentic experiences. The reason that this location taught me so much, the reason I had such an incredible time, was because of how immersive and authentic everything was. If all of the information I had gathered here was presented in something such as a museum, it wouldn’t have had the same affect.
Another thing which our visit to Barkerville did was bring me one step closer to my thesis. One way this happened was through an interview I had with a costumed interpreter, where I was informed that First Nations history was seldom taught in schools even 10, 20 years ago.
Hearing this showed me that the racism the Secwépemc lady spoke about may not be caused by people with pure malicious intent; there is a good chance that they just do not understand, and are disconnected from the issues that the native population faces. This was a piece of information would prove quiet valuable to me later on.
After Barkerville, it was time to head somewhere that I never would have thought was possible before this trip; farther north. The rolling farm fields transformed into thick deciduous forests, dotted with crystal lakes and winding rivers. The mountains began to turn from hill like mounds into snow capped peaks, creating postcard-like views as we drove along. It wasn’t just the nature that was changing however. We were now making the transition from following the Gold Rush trail to exploring the indigenous communities of Canada.
We started out this phase of the trip by visiting Fort St. James; a place where we got to learn with our eyes…
Fort St. James Image
our ears…
and our hands…
Playing the stick game
This experience was, once again, a highlight of the trip due to it’s interactive elements.
Fort St. James had mentions of Canadian indigenous communities like a lot of places we visited, but we had yet to actually go to one in person. This changed however on May 19th, when we took a trip to Gitwangek territory.
The Gitwangek are one of the bands within the Gitxsan nation, and are known for their historical legends such as the tale of ‘Nekt, the warrior chief who developed an incredible battle hill village to fend off his enemies.
Two highlight sites that we visited were the Village of ‘Ksan:
And the Kispox Totem poles:
Thinking back to Barkerville, I focused more on getting specific, quality shots here instead of recording everything. As I wasn’t as focused on getting every shot, I could also take the time to look around more, and notice the little details. In doing this, I was able to get some great audio of bees buzzing, some incredible shots with animals, and take the time to read information plaques. This was an important lesson which showed me that sometimes the best things come from the little things in life.
Other than my attention to detail, what made this location different from experiences such as Fort St. James for me, was that on top of getting to gather knowledge with all of my senses, I was also able to gain an emotional connection to this place. The beautiful, natural, authentic locations which we visited felt so much more real then what we had seen anywhere else on the trip. Even when we drove through the reserve and saw some of the hardships which this native community faces, it all felt real, and thus brought connection. However, I hadn’t fully developed my driving question at this point, because something was still missing…
The next day was May 20th; a day which I had been excited for since we started the trip. This was because we were taking a visit to the Nisga’a Nation:
What makes the Nisga’a unique is that they were the first British Columbian nation to sign a modern treaty. This has given them near complete control over their Government and internal affairs; something that few Canadian nation’s have. As we drove up the winding, misty roads to this location, I sat in anticipation. Yes, much of this was excitement, but there was also fear. The risks that the Nisga’a were taking in giving their nation so much freedom were great, and there was a chance that these developments have created more harm than good. What if this place didn’t live up to my expectations? These thoughts followed me for the remainder of the ride.
but then we arrived…
Any doubts I had were quickly put to rest within minutes of arriving. It was obvious that the Nisga’a were thriving in this independence, using it to preserve their culture and heritage in all facets of life. Traditional art was everywhere, nature was preserved with ease along sides of the massive communities, and traditional language was displayed first and foremost wherever we went. This unique sense of national pride could be found when we visited the Nisga’a Lisims Governement as well:
And in the outstanding collections at the Nigsa’a Museum:
However, like I speak of on my podcast, what really connected me to this place were the encounters I had with the people. The people here seemed knowledgeable about the culture and history around them, and were not afraid to tell us about them in full. They spoke truthfully, as mothers, as community members, instead of just as tour guides and employees. It was through this that I realized that it was the personal connection which was missing during our visit to the Gitwangek, and also when it started to truly make sense to me just how valuable authentic experiences could be.
After we left the Nisga’a nation, I felt a noticeable amount of pressure had lifted from my shoulders. I had finally had the specific direction of the thesis that I wanted to follow, and now all that was left to do was to tie up loose ends and get more evidence. I was able to do this by speaking with people in the Museum of Northern British Columbia, and by learning the native history surrounding the Khutzeymateen bear sanctuary.
At this point however, my focus was shifting from my thesis to my podcast. Unfortunately, my audio recording and editing on it was halted by a malfunction of my headphone port, but I could still work on my script. As I mentioned earlier, the purpose of this podcast was to outline how we came to our driving thesis, and as you can probably tell from this post, I have a lot to talk about in terms of that. Having trouble singling out what was the most important from everything I had done, my first podcast script outline ended up looking like this:
Emily’s Circle B.C. Podcast Script Draft 1
Then however, I was then informed that there would be a time cap of five minutes on the podcast without room for exceptions. This caused me to go into panic, as unlike with my over the time limit WWII podcast, there weren’t just a couple of interview clips I could cut out to fit it in the time limit. I would have to either learn to cut down for real, or rewrite my entire script. Realizing that the latter was not practical by any means, I decided that cutting would be the best option, and got to work. At first, it seemed like this would be an impossible task, because everything in the script seemed so important. However, I went forwards anyways, and realized it wasn’t going to be as hard as I thought. First I cut the big things, and then I cut the things that had no purpose. After this, I re-recorded a few clips to save a few seconds, and before I knew it, I had a completed podcast that I am quite proud of. Doing this made me realize one of the most valuable pieces of information from this unit, which is that the reason I have such a hard time cutting down is because I am afraid that doing so is impossible, and that this can be managed by simply taking the first steps. Here was my finalized draft of my script:
Circle B.C. Final Podcast Script Draft
After the script was done, I got onto audio editing. I am particularly proud of the three musical tracks I created during this time in the app Garage Band, which can be heard in my podcast. For editing, I used the app iMovie, thinking back to how useful the fade transitions were in making our People’s Podcasts. The final draft of my podcast can be heard at the beginning of this section of the post.
Somehow, when this trip ended it felt like it just started and had been going on for ever at the same time. However, I can’t say that I didn’t have an incredible time on it, and was treated to one last incredible shot before returning home:
From Exploration to Exhibition
With our thesis ideas fresh in our minds, it was time to trek on to the second half of our unit; the spring exhibition. For those who are new to PLP, exhibitions are giant experiences held right before winter and summer break by all PLP grades, and are used to showcase projects which demonstrate our accumulative learning throughout the year.
Another defining part of exhibitions is the usage of the L.A.U.N.C.H. Cycle, a project developing frame work which can be viewed below:
Like I mentioned earlier, the idea behind this exhibition was to create an artifact which convinces people that they need to experience something that you experienced on your circle B.C. trip. For mine, I wanted to convince people that they needed authentic experiences if they wanted to become involved to the best of their ability with Truth and Reconciliation movements.
This next part of the post is going to outline my journey from L to H, and all of the crazy happenstances, growth, failures, and successes that happened in between. I will also include pictures from my L.A.U.N.C.H Journal, which is the living document where the majority of records of my progress lies.
L – Look, Listen and Learn
This part of the L.A.U.N.C.H. cycle took place mainly on the trip, but you wouldn’t know all that went into this phase just by reading the paragraphs above. To actually do the learning part after you look and listen, you have to record your ideas. How I did this is through something I labeled my “capture document”:
My biggest failure of this phase was failing to stay organized. Despite my best efforts, there was just too much information to sort through in my document to effectively manage it all. In the future, I will prevent this from happening by capturing only what matters most, remembering that anything else I can come back to if I desperately need to. However, I was still able to pull all of my ideas together to create my first project pitch form:
At this point, my idea for a project relating to Truth, Reconciliation, and Authentic Experiences was to create a 3D map which took visitors through the experiences I had of the trip. I was thinking that I could use all of the media and artifacts which I captured on the trip to create displays throughout the map, answering one of my post pressing need to knows; how can I utilize what I gathered on the trip?
A – Ask Tons of Questions
Just like with most projects, this phase ended up being one of my wheel houses. Anytime I had something that I needed to know, I would go straight to a teacher, a parent, or a peer (usually multiple times). I also created a chart of need to knows which can be found below:
The biggest thing I learned from this phase was part of my reasoning for asking so many questions. After going to the teachers multiple times about something I already had a pretty good answer to, I realized that although yes, I am looking for answers, I am also looking to be able to voice my ideas, as doing so helps me formulate them better. In the future, maybe I can do this more often on my own instead of constantly going to others.
U – Understand the Process or Problem
The A phase of Launch was focused largely on getting down the basic logistics of inquiry, looking into things such as “how can I incorporate all of the criteria?” and “what traits would allow my project to apply to all audiences?”. The U phase is where the real questions start being asked. At this point, I had a thesis, I had ideas, but barley any proof, so it was time to take a deep dive into research.
The first thing I did was come up with a list of specific questions which I would need to know to carry through with my project. Then, thinking back to my whole concept of authentic experiences, I figured that the best way to gather accurate data would be to go to authentic sources. The first thing that came to mind for this would be to find and reach out to specialized contacts, but I soon realized that there was somewhere else which I should look first. This was in the general public, and I realized that the best way to do this would be through surveys. The first ones of which I launched on the app Amino:
On here, I gathered some excellent responses. However, I realized that due to the importance of the topic my project would be focusing around, and due to the fact that the people on the app could live anywhere around the world, I would be best off if I could get some responses from people living in Vancouver. In order to do this, I went to the principal of our school with a revised survey, and got it posted on the school’s website:
At this point, I was prepared to move on, confident that I would get all of the responses I would need. However, after talking with the principal, I learned that the chances of completion for most surveys like this were under 50% of all visitor who would see it. I thought about this, realizing that I probably wouldn’t get the responses I would need for my project if I didn’t take further action, but then also thought about that what I had done was already above and beyond anything I had attempted last year during Blue Sky. This was another instance, similar to the podcast, of having to make a choice whether to cut down or to carry forwards. This time, I decided that it would be worth it to carry forwards, and developed and executed a plan to announce my survey at the seycove indigenous people’s day ceremony at Cates park:
I was very proud that I was able to do this, not only because it took bravery to stand up in front of hundreds of people and a large amount of work to coordinate, but because I was able to make the right decision whether to cut down or not.
All together, my surveys gathered a total of 78 responses; a number I would have never dreamed of when developing my questions. I’m glad that I got this number though, because this was all that I needed to launch my project forward into it’s next phase; contacts. Due to the fact that I had already spoke to many indigenous people on my trip about various aspects of my project, such as the interview you can see below…
… I decided that my contacting at this point should be more focused on exhibit design. The first person I reached out to was Ian Wojtowicz, a local exhibit designer who had worked with First Nations Projects. I am quite happy that I was able to get this contact, as I found and reached out to him completely by myself. Here is a great example of improvement from last years exhibition project, where my parents helped me locate the sources I ended up using. Here is a glimpse into one of our email conversations:
Another person I got in contact with (through the help of Ms. Maxwell) was Brad Baker, the District Administrator for Indigenous Education in school district 44. In contacting him, I was hoping to mainly get a green light for my project as an appropriate way to convey information, which I received. The final person I talked to was Tara, one of my job shadow contacts from the project linked here. Our conversation went as follows:
This encounter happened entirely through finding an opportunity and taking it, seeing her knowledge in marketing and thinking of how it could be of use to my project. This reminded me of how valuable it can be to get yourself out there and be willing to take opportunities, because if you do so you will almost certainly find some.
N – Navigate Ideas
This phase had actually gone on simultaneously for me with the U phase. At this point, all of the data which I had collected had left me with tons of new ideas for the direction in which I should take my artifact. I decided that a walk through map would take too much time, and could risk border lining cultural appropriation if I had to make models of First Nations communities. I needed some way to represent what I had learned and my journey, without being too literal. This is where the idea for a metaphor machine came in:
Metaphor machine pictures:
These initial sketches outline what exactly this type of artifact would entail. Basically, a metaphor machine is a type of Rube Goldberg system, where each part represents an event in a story through metaphorical means (such as a ball hits a target , representing getting accurate information). Once I had this idea, I had reached out to my contacts for some final feedback, and was ready to get to work.
C – Create a Prototype
Finally, it was time to get to what every PLP student loves most about exhibition projects; actually making them. The first thing I did for this phase was turn my art into prototype designs using the app Keynote:
Thinking back to how hard it was to create our metaphor machines in the space we had during our grade 9 revolutions project, this time I actually decided to make it to scale (the grid boxes representing inches). This turned out to be of great help when it came to buying the materials (knowing how much of each I need), and actually building:
To create my artifact, I borrowed boards from the PLP room for the backings, and used a mixture of black cardboard, printed images, spray paint, plastic sheets, and other assorted dollar store materials.
Unfortunately, I had grossly underestimated the amount of time I would need to actually build my project, and was left with an incomplete display on the night before we were presenting…
H – Highlight and Fix
Most projects following the launch cycle use this phase to touch up last minute things, but I unfortunately had to use it to finish the first build my project. Realizing during that night that I would not have the time to complete everything which I had wanted to in the time I had left, I knew that once again I was faced with the choice of what to cut down. However, thinking back to the times I had done it before in this unit, this wasn’t such as big issue. I was able to take quite a lot away from my “L.A.U.N.C.H Board” design, and still get the message across. This once again reaffirmed my idea that it is okay to cut down.
The Big Night
It was a hectic ride getting here, but when everything was finally said and done I was happy with my final product:
Click here to see it run!
If you look at the pictures below, you can see what each metaphor on the machine represents:
However, this night wasn’t all about my project, or anyone else’s for that matter. It was about what we were able to create together. As a class, we had decided that we wanted to transform the room into different parts of British Columbia, such as the cities and the wilderness. We also decided that our room would be broken into four quadrants, each with it’s own topic. There would also be a place to view the map of our trips of our trip, a sitting area to listen to our podcasts, and a feedback station near the exit where people could give us their thoughts. My quadrant, which I shared with Jessie, Luca OG, and Isy, was focused all around the topic of experiencing British Columbia. In order to get this across to the audience, we decided that we wanted our area to look and feel as much like Northern B.C. as possible. To make this happen, we mapped out the locations where each of our projects would go, and then brought in a variety of natural items such as trees, sticks, etc. to lay around them. Unfortunately I was not part of much of the planning of the exhibition beyond this, but I made sure to do my part by supplying our quadrant with most of the natural materials. Our our finished quadrant can be seen in the video below:
Summative Reflection
I can’t believe how quickly this unit has gone by. It truly feels like it could have started yesterday, and I am already writing my blog post on it. However, this is a good sign; it means there wasn’t a moment where I wasn’t learning, growing, and/or having fun. It’s obvious that this project helped me develop many key skills, such as the ability to contact people and get myself out there, the ability to bring together piles of information into a coherent project, and the ability to balance capturing the moment with still being present. It’s also quite clear that I learned an incredible amount from all of this, including the value of simplicity, the value of quality over quantity, and the value of careful time management in busy times. However, looking at all of these things, there is one common thread I found throughout it all; and that is cutting my work down. Throughout this entire unit, I have been learning the importance of this, and have been able to do it when I have no other choice, but in the future I need to learn how to cut down my ideas even before starting on a project in so I don’t get myself into trouble. This, along with prioritizing my time so I do not get stuck in the situation I did before the exhibition, are my main goals for next year.