We just went on an amazing field study to Alberta!!! We traveled to Calgary and different cities and landmarks around Alberta and BC. I had lots of fun and got to pursue my interest in photography. Here are some of the best photos I took.

        Random Stop on the Highway, BC

      Takakkaw Falls, BC

      Peyto Lake, Alberta

The whole learning aspect of this Field Study was “How has the geography of the west shaped us”? We used photos from different locations and landmarks as evidence to answer this question. My final sentence answer was “The geography of the west has shaped us by affecting the types of people and cultures that live and visit Canada”. Some ways that it effects the people that move here is job opportunities, we have lots of jobs in construction, agriculture, forestry and tourism because of our beautiful landscapes and nature.

We learned about Buffalo, The CPR, 100 years of BC’s history and the economics of BC, to help us create evidence to answer the Driving Question.

Buffalo- The  Buffalo were a very important part of the West’s History. The Buffalo Hunt was where the Plains and Mètis peoples acquired their primary food source. In the 1880s there was a collapse of Buffalo herds due to the Europeans killing them. They believed that if they killed off all of the Buffalo they could get the Indigenous Peoples to rely on them for a food source and then force them to sign treaty’s, to let the Europeans use their land. In the early 19th there were thousands upon thousand of buffalo but by the late 19th century their numbers were in the low hundreds. You can read more about the buffalo and Buffalo Jumps on page 17 of my book.

The CPR-  The CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) was a very important part of BC’s and the West’s history. It was a railway built to connect the east of Canada to the West. It enabled the travel of  ideas, goods and people. You can read more about the CPR and Last Spike on page 9 of my book. 

You can read more into detail about some of these topics on page 7 of my e-book. 

To show what we learned we had an exhibition. We presented our books to our parents and explained what we learned on the field study. I presented to about 5 different parents and I really enjoyed being able to share what I learned on the field study. I feel like I did good at communicating with my group and I was able to contribute to help make our exhibition successful. 

We had to work on our questioning skills throughout this whole project. We learned how to share ideas, ask questions and research information from a variety of sources. Learning these skills helped us be able to build evidence to answer the driving question and create personal connections between images and text. I’m now able to come up with questions to help me understand topics were learning and I can now analyze information and relate it back to an image or text.

I had a last of fun in Alberta and one of my favourite parts was zip-lining and down-hill carting. I also enjoyed seeing all the beautiful scenery and getting to know my peers better. Thank you for reading. Hope you have a great day!!! 

Hi!!! We recently just finished our last humanities project of Grade 8. In this project we got to learn about New France and The history of Canada.

The renaissance was a revolutionary time period in human history. Before this project I barley knew anything about the renaissance, so this was a very interesting topic for me.

For this project we had to choose a piece of art, an innovator, an invention and an event from the renaissance and compare it to modern times.

What I choose

Piece of Art- The piece of art from the renaissance I choose was the “Mona Lisa”. The Mona Lisa had a great impact on art culture of the renaissance. It now sits in the Louvre museum and is one of the most famous/well known pieces of art.

Innovator- The innovator I choose was Galileo Galilei. Galileo was a famous astronomer and philosopher who invented the Galilean telescope, hydrostatic balance, thermometers and compasses.

Invention- The invention I choose was the printing press because it was definitely one of the most impactful inventions of the renaissance. It was the first way to mass produce media/books, before it was invented each book was handwritten and only priest, popes and royalty had access to them.

Event- The event I choose was the shift to humanism. Before the renaissance the main religion was Christianity/Catholicism until people had access to the bible. Some people after reading the bible interpreted it differently which lead to the split of Christianity into Catholicism which then lead to humanism and freedom of religion.

We then made a collage to show how the renaissance relates to modern times using an app called SuperimposeX which is a photo editing app. This is what I made…

I compared the Mona Lisa to a piece of art by Banksy called “Crayon for Closure” because Banksy is a famous modern graffiti artist and his art is widely known around the world like the Leonard de Vinci. I compared Galileo Galilei to Neil deGrasse Tyson. Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist, planetary scientist and author. He studied at Harvard university for 3 years and he was a research associate at Princeton. Neil deGrasse Tyson has written 17 books including Space Chronicles, Star Talk and Cosmic queries. I compared the printing press to technology/iPads because back during the renaissance the printing press was basically what technology is to us today. Lastly I compared the shift to humanism to the array of religions we have today. Instead of just having one religion (Christianity) we have hundreds including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and Hinduism.

For the second part of the project we had to write a paragraph about what you thought was the most important thing/event/person. I choose the printing press. You can read my paragraph down below.

The printing press revolutionized human kind as we know it. The reasons printing presses were such an important part of history are that they revolutionized communication allowing for better educational opportunities for men, and allowing the splitting of Christianity into separate sects. The printing press led to wide access of a variety of information for all levels of society. This has continued today in the form of the internet which allows people worldwide, regardless of income, access to the same information. This had both good (everyone has access) and bad (false information) affects. Previous to the printing press eduction was limited to priest, popes and royalty. As printing made information (books) more accessible learning became more common among the general public, which also led to questioning of societal structures. Once Gutenberg invented the press people were able to spread knowledge and books worldwide. One book -The Bible- was printed widely which gave people the knowledge to have their own opinions about religious and political ideas. As you can see the printing press is responsible for the spreading of knowledge leading to political and religious changes and ultimately to the world we live in today.

Sources: 1,2,3

What I learned
I learned all about specific events in the renaissance that I didn’t know before. I also learned a lot about photo editing, like masking and layering which helped me make my collage. Lastly I learned a lot about writing paragraphs, creating topic sentences and strong opinions about a topic.

Thanks for reading. Have a great day! 😀

We recently went on a trip to Loon Lake in Maple Ridge for 4 days. We got to learn a lot of amazing things by doing something outside of the classroom. I made my second book this year about Loon Lake and reflected on my experience there. You can visit my book here.

Learning Advance 2022

Click to read this book, made with Book Creator

https://read.bookcreator.com

What I enjoyed 

I enjoyed meeting a bunch of new people and getting to know my classmates better. I also enjoyed all the fun actives we got to do, including fort building, laser tag, battle archery and watching Back To The Future. 

What I didn’t enjoy

I found that some parts of the trip to be quite stressful, especially on the first day when we were just getting settled in. Also I found it fairly difficult to sleep so for the last 2 days I was pretty exhausted. 

What I would do next trip

On our next field study I would definitely try to take more photos, because once I started working on the reflection book I quickly learned that I didn’t have enough photos and videos. I would also work on going to bed earlier because by the end of the week I was super sleep deprived.

What I learned 

On this trip I learned a lot. First I learned to communicate better with my peers. Once you getto know your classmates it’s definitely easier to communicate. I also learned a about organization, on the 3rd day we had a lesson from one of our teachers about how to stay organized and on top of all your work. I found some of these tips useful for helping me now, especially when I’m swamped with homework.

Meals

On our trip we got to eat a lot of delicious food. Some of my favourite meals were burgers, waffles, lasagna and fajitas. I also got the opportunity to try new foods, like before this trip I had never really eaten coleslaw (which is a type of salad), and I don’t think I had ever had fajitas before which I enjoyed quite a lot. 

Exploring the forest 

We got to explore the forest around Loon Lake a lot. On the first day we got to go on a nature walk around part of the lake. We also go to do fort building in the forest, which was really fun. The best thing we did in there forest was either capture the flag of laser tag. We got to lots of fun stuff while also living in the nature around us which was awesome. 

Conclusion 

Loon Lake was definitely an amazing experience and Im very glad that I went. I learned lots of things that will help me later on in life which is one of the main reasons I joined PLP. I had so much fun getting to know my classmates and doing all the fun activities. Thanks for reading my blog, have a good day.

Hi! We just completed our second project in humanities. We read a book called The Outsiders by S.E Hinton and did an exhibition on it about the novel. We presented a tableau of one of the important scenes in the book to our parents, siblings and friends. A tableau is a still image of a scene, it’s as if we were acting out the scene and then we just froze. 

The Outsiders 

Characters 

This book is set in Oklahoma in the 1960’s. It’s based on a group of “Greasers” (this is equivalent to people in poverty) who are getting bullied by “Soc’s” ( This is equivalent to rich people who live a easy life). The main character is a 14 year old boy called Ponyboy. He has 2 brothers :Sodapop, who’s 16 and Darry, who’s 21. Darry has to take care of Ponyboy and Soda after their parents were killed in a car crash.  The rest of the gang of greasers are Jonnhy, Two-Bit and Dally. Johnny plays a key character in the novel. He is a young boy about the same age as Ponyboy who has alcoholic and abusive parents. In the book they describe him as a puppy that’s been kicked too many times. In the second chapter of the book we learn that Johnny was almost killed by the Soc’s when they jumped him, this affected Johnny a lot and as a consequence he always carries a switchblade on him. The next greaser is Two-Bit. Two-bit is described as a funny, annoying person who always smarts off the cops. He doesn’t play a big role in the book. The last greaser in the gang is Dally. Dally is a beat up guy who appears  to have no emotion. He was arrested when he was only 10 years old and he lived alone on the streets of New York. In this book Dally also plays a big role. Everyone looks up to Dally for help, but having no faith in humanity can make life pretty difficult.  There are some others charters in this book who come from the Soc’s. The main Soc’s are Sherry, Bob and Randy. Sherry also called cherry because of her red hair is one of the socs who actually gets to know the greasers before judging them. Cherry like Ponyboy likes to watch sunsets and read books. The other two greasers Bob and Randy are really good friends Bob dies early on in the book and Randy isn’t really mentioned much so there’s not much written about them except that he believes that socs live terrible lives too, he shows Ponyboy a different perspective on life. 

Plot

The plot of this book is fairly basic but it has a lot of meaning behind it. The first big event that happens is when Poynboy and Johnny run away. The reason they ran away was because Poynboy and Darry have a really bad relationship and Ponyboy gets tired of Darry telling him what to do. Him and Johnny run away to this park were there going to stay for the night but the Soc’s find them. There’s a fountain in the park and the Soc’s try to drown Ponyboy, but Johnny (who as said in the first paragraph had a switchblade on him at all times) saved Ponyboy by stabbing Bob which sadly killed him. Johnny and Ponyboy then have to flee from the police because by morning the police will be out searching for them, so they  flee to an old abandon church in Windrixville. After a couple days of surviving in the church Dally comes to take them for a lunch so they can re-energize before going back to the church. When they arrive back at the church they see that it has lit on fire and because it was a old building it went up in flames quickly. The worst part is that some kids had decided to explore inside the church and now were stuck inside. Heroically Johnny and Ponyboy run into the church to save the kids. They mange to save all the kids but Johnny is put in the hospital with 3 degree burns and a broken back. Later in the book Jonnhy dies which causes Darry to rob a store and get the police to shoot him on a suicidal mission.

Worldview

The main point of this project was to learn about how your beliefs, values, economy, geography, time, society and knowledge effect your worldview. Worldview is basically how you see the world. 

Geography: The outsiders are hugely affected by geography they live in Oklahoma, USA. In the book Johnny and Dally carry weapons around. In America this is more socially acceptable than it would be in other places in the world. 

Beliefs: Ponyboy believes in the better of people and the world. This affects him a lot in the book, for example he believes in cherry who is a Soc and other people who didn’t believe in the goodness of the world might not, like Dally.

Vaules: Ponyboy, Sodapop and the rest of the gang value each others company and help. This means that in the book they are really close as if they were brothers. 

Economy: In the book the greasers are poor and the soc’s are rich. This is the main reason why the 2 groups are separated.

Time: The book is set in in the 1960’s. If the book was set now it would be very different. For example Dally probably wouldn’t have been shot by the police. Nowadays they would probably tase him and arrest him instead of just shooting him on site.

Tableau+ Winter Exhibition 

We were assigned a scene in the outsiders with the assignment to make a tableau about it. The scene our group was assigned was the judge scene. This was the very last important scene in the book. It was when Ponyboy was acquitted by the judge and allowed to stay with Dally/not go to a kids care home. For the tableau we froze the moment when Ponyboy was let free and everyone was celebrating. In total we had to do 2 tableau’s the second one was the same scene but changed as if it was in modern  times. For this we kept most of the things the same except that we made it on a zoom call, we also made the judge a social worker. To present our tableau’s we had a winter exhibition where we made a set and acted out our tableau’s in front of all our parents. This project taught me all about worldview and how it affects our everyday lives, I also learned about acting and how to show emotion through your actions. Hope you enjoyed reading!