Hello everyone and welcome to the first Humanities blog post of the year, are you ready because it is time to activate the blog, 3! 2! 1! BOOM lets go.

Our project this sector was about geography, and the driving question was; how has the geography of the west shaped who we are?. To answer this we had to write an e book about it, I’ll embed it below, make sure to read it so you can understand the contents of this book.

Now we did not just answer the driving question normally it had to reflect Economy, History or Diversity. I chose economy, a decision that picked our groups for the presenting of our books in a mini exhibition so we can share what we have learned and the info we gathered on the field  study for this project, then we decided on this answer; The geography of the west has shaped us by allowing us to have a thriving economy with multiple industries that have helped us settle and develop.

Well you might be asking how did we gather this information?

Well here is a timeline of our learning, and a compilation of the photos on the trip we went on to help us learn.

At the start of the school year we launched this project quickly as the first group of 2 going on 2 similar yet different field studies would leave 3 days into the school year. So with haste we began studying geography and its 5 themes: Movement, Region, Place, Location and Human Environment interaction with our books containing info about the themes and examples to help people reading the book understand. I also was on the second group so I stayed back at school while group 1 was travelling and furthered our knowledge of geography and its themes and answered 13 questions to prove it. Then once the trip 1 got back we re launched our project to remind ourselves of the goal and what we needed to learn to do it. Then we left on the field study oh what a ride it was, so buckle up make sure your g suit is on correctly as the speed of the trip causes large amounts of g forces and we don’t want you to die. So off we go leaving behind the trip one learners with the same work we did. So get ready for the timeline

Day 1, We start our trip at 7 in the morning and begin to leave Seycove behind to travel across B.C. to Calgary, off we went excited yet nervous for all the learning (engage loud sighing) and began the drive to Kamloops with a quick stop for lunch at the Costco along with getting food for meals on the trip. Then we went to Craigellachie the home of the last spike that was hammered into the ground finishing the railway across the country going through Rogers pass the most dangerous site on the railway due to common damage to track and snow-slides that killed many until solutions like covering the tracks to protect them and eventually the Connaught tunnel one of the longest and formerly the longest in North America. Then we went to 3 valley gap (very cool place you should go) and learned more about the railway and got to see the collection of buildings and train cars including the one Pierre Trudeau rode across Canada in.

Day 2

We left 3 valley gap and bussed to Revelstoke to visit the railway museum and go on the live stream of the tracks (I did the floss in-front of at least 100 people. At Revelstoke we toured the railway museum to see how it was built along with the history of Revelstoke’s part in the railway along with a giant steam locomotive that was the pinnacle of technology when it came to steam locomotives. After that we bussed to the loop brook trail to learn about switch backs and see the stone trestles that held the switchback loops and the raised tracks up. Then we bussed to Smitty’s and had dinner. After that we bussed to the hostel had a very hostile environment in Calgary, unpacked and went to bed.

Day 3

We woke up and consumed some waffles for fuel in the morning before leaving for the Skyline luge as the mountain coaster that trip 1 went on was closed for the season. The luge involved downhill karting, its like go-karting but it runs off of gravity instead of an electric motor we got to ride down the track 4 times but I only went down 3 times, cough cough may or may not have missed a hairpin turn at high speeds, swerved left into the side and went flying out and scraped up my elbow and leg (we don’t talk about that part). Anyways after we went to A+ buffet and ate as much food as we could. Then we went back to the hostel and I got my arm properly patched up along with prep for going to beakerhead a art and science fair. At beakerhead we got to see the worlds biggest exoskeleton; Prosthesis crush things, after that we went to the hostel and slept.

Day 4

We got up really early in the morning and drove to the Frank Slide interpretive centre, we got to study the slide and what happened along with why and how it happened. Then we ate lunch before driving to head smashed in buffalo jump UNESCO world heritage site, we got to look at the jump and learn about its use and history, it was highly informational and I got to learn more about the plains and the people who used to and some still reside on. After we got to drive to the Nanton candy store, (trip 1 did not get to go the where highly upset that we did) before driving to dinner at buffalo wild wings before returning to the hostel.

Day 5

Today we woke up all fresh and exited for the Calgary zoo, a place we would be spending the day at. We got to sleep in a bit as well so that was a plus before consuming food. Then we walked to the zoo and entered in one of the side entrances. We toured the Africa zone along with viewing the gorillas and the baby gorilla, visiting the lemurs and someone nearly getting pooped on, we went to see the red panda and the jungle area. Later we visited the penguins after going through the airlock before exiting and going to the dino area and walking to the hostel and to bed with dinner. I also got by bandage of today so that was a plus.

Day 6

We went to Cave and Basin Historic site after packing up and leaving Calgary and beginning  the 3 day trip home, a hot spring heated from sulphur rising from underground heating the springs home to an endangered snail. It was at one point a tourist resort that was closed and named the first national park due to the snail in a region that led to Banff and Jasper national parks. Then we bussed to moraine lake after eating lunch and did a 6 hour hike up to the larch trees before going to lake Louise, eating dinner, checking in and going to bed.

Day 7

We went hiking this morning even though we where tired and ready to go home, after we ate lunch and bussed to Golden and went to the skybridge a new adventure park, with 2 suspension bridges a zip line across the area and a high ropes, their also is a mountain coaster and swing in the process of construction. Before checking in to our last night on the trip in golden. 

Day 8

We woke up and everything was normal, we ate breakfast and then went to our rooms. We where packing up when we where told to stay in our rooms, this confused us but we listened and waited while watching comedy and gaming. Later we where told to go outside, outside we learned that the bus’s transmission had broken and we needed to walk to the bus pickup area to wait for a coach, we did and then spent 8 hours driving straight to Vancouver, missing some info, but still having a highly successful trip.

When we got back we got right into learning the 3 aspects of geography and how the geography of the west shaped that aspect; History, economy and diversity, these played a huge part in the second part of the project as they decided how we would end the project and who with. First we learned about how we used to use our land and what we did with it, with essential things like the CPR and the killing of buffalo. Economy; tree farming, mining and fishing. Diversity; the diverse amount of people who came to Canada to build the railway and work across the country. Chopping down trees and mining our resources also brought many people looking for jobs in the past and present creating our culturally diverse society. 

Then we kept on working, building the ebook you saw earlier and each of us has one. We also each chose one of the 3 aspects of geography and where split up depending on what we chose. I chose economy, the largest group in my opinion. Then came the exhibition, we had all just finished our books and chosen everything we would need and wear for the exhibition, we spent the afternoon prepping the rooms and  had just completed those along with  dress rehearsal. Then the 2 dressed the best in our group went outside to greet everyone before the first video was shown. If your wondering video??, well each group had to make a video explanation of the groups aspect, while others where separated and grouped up to make an intro and 2 fun videos each with their own different group. One of those was intro group who made an introduction to the exhibition while the fun groups each made a video of the best moments of the school trip to end off the exhibition. At the exhibition we presented our books to our parents and any one else who wanted to see our books. Before showing the videos and ending of the exhibition and finishing off the project with last adjustments to the books and writing this post. 

Conclusion

In conclusion this project was a good project, it was a good way to learn about geography and the school trip was very fun, I got to see a lot of things and visit some new places I have not been. The exhibition was also fun and a good way to show our work and present it and give some insight into our work. Even with the craziness that was the school trip it was still good and I did learn a lot even if we where stuck with one small assignment to learn while the first trip group was travelling. So it made for an informational but chaotic start to the year just getting the info into the book, so in my opinion this project was successful.

Boom 

The information bomb has gone off

See you next launch.