This driving question for this project was : How has the geography of the West shaped us?
For this project, we got to go to Alberta! The goal for this was to learn about the history of the West and how it shaped us. We had to create a multi touch ebook, which would explain our answer to the driving through photo evidence and reflections from field observations.
One of the things we did first in this project was learn about the five themes of geography, and later, we had to make a comic to help explain each theme.
The class was split into 2 groups, I was in the first one, which left on September 9th, and we got back on the 17th.
Here’s the schedule for each day of the trip:
Day 1
My answer to the driving question:
The geography of the west brought a diverse cast of settlers who introduced their cultures and unique ideas to Canada. The diverse landscape, as well as plants and animals, influenced where people chose to live.
This also impacted the economy, by the increase of tourism and people living, working and thriving in the West. The diversity of the West is what has shaped us, and continues to shape us to this day. The evidence of this is found in my book, throughout every reflection I did.
The book
For the book, we had to include our answer to the driving question, a reflection for each of the places we visited, as well as photos and videos that we took while on the trip.
Curricular competency
Questioning: I can share ideas, ask questions, and research information from a variety of sources.
On the trip, I think I could have asked more questions,like to the tour guides while we were at places. Most of the time I just listened, I would have asked questions, but I was nervous to because it’s hard for me to talk to random people (it’s gotten a lot better since last year though).
It took a while to finish my book, mostly because I hadn’t taken many notes, and it was hard trying to reflect on these photos with almost no info, so I had to google the places we went to to find something to write about.
This trip was really great because I got to be with my friends, and all the places we went. I was having trouble with my book, and my friends offered to help, and if they needed help, I would do the same for the.
Mini exhibition
To end this project, we had a mini – exhibition. We were divided by what we chose to base our answer to the driving question off of, (diversity, economy or history). I was in the diversity group, along with Charlie R, Keaton, Mackenzie, Cameron, Tom, Brooke, and Dylan.
We decided to all wear different a colour, to show diversity, I wore pink. We didn’t bring any thing to decorate our room with, but we managed to find some fake plants and red fabric to decorate with.
One other thing we did was create a video, explaining diversity through photos we took. It would be playing throughout the night, projected on the walls. I was supposed to be the final editor, but then I was sick one day, and Brooke took over for it. Here’s the video:
Now for the fun part! (Plus you get to know about when I got trapped in a box)
So I have a couple stories I want to tell:
- So one morning, there was an optional hike, and I wanted to go so me and most of my room mates got up early to get ready. The second I walked out the room (we were staying at the hostel in Banff) I got a nosebleed, and my water bottle fell out of my bag and broke. When we went to Loon Lake last year, Sofia broke my water bottle, and this trip, I kept saying to her if she broke my water bottle again, I would be so upset. But I’m the one who ended up breaking it. So, on the next PLP trip, if my bottle breaks, I’m definitely cursed.
- In the hostel in Calgary, me, Kira, Susan, Evangeline, Sofia, and Gwendie (Gwen’s new nickname we came up with on the bus) were getting bored and I discovered that you can sit in the storage box things (they had latches on them so you could lock your stuff up if you were staying with random people). So I was chilling in my box and Susan got in the other one and we thought it’d be fun to make a video of us popping out of the boxes. But then, as I was trying to get out, the latch fell down and I was trapped. Everyone started laughing and one of the teachers got mad at us cause we were being really loud. Here’s the video:
Here’s some photos I took (or my friends took but I’m using them as well) that didn’t make it into my book, but I think deserve a place in this post:
That’s the end of this post, thanks for reading!