Recently, the PLP 9s went on a field study to Alberta. If you read my last blog post, you know that it wasn’t really about the trip (If you haven’t read it yet, read it here). So that’s what this blog is about. Lets hop right in.
Before we left, we started by learning about the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and how it shaped Canada. I did some research on many of the places we’d visit, and the geography of the area. We learnt about the 5 themes of geography, location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and regions. We created a thesis to help answer the driving question “How has the geography of the west shaped who we are?”. My thesis was “The grand beauty of the Rocky Mountains improves peoples mental and physical well-being”.
While I was there, I asked people if they think their well-being was improving while they were staying near the Rockies. Everyone I asked said yes (Click here to see the full video), and how could you disagree with them!?! Just look at these pictures!!
On the trip, I made a comic life about the 5 themes of geography featuring pictures I made on the trip. I described the pictures and why they relate to the themes of geography in a multi-touch book that I’ll write about in a moment. This was the first time I’d used the comic life app, and I really liked having the ability to curve and twist the words in cool, weird ways.
The multi-touch book included my comic life and descriptions for each picture, as well as a picture/reflection from lots of places we visited on the trip. It also has all of my videos from Maker (See how I made them here). I found it quite difficult to make this book because it was challenging for me to make personal connections with many of the places that we’d visited. I find it hard to see the history of a place when all I can see is the present.
Quick Mountain beauty break:
When I got home from the trip, I was looking up some information about the Columbia Icefield, and I saw some pictures that were taken from a similar angle three years apart, and the differences shocked me. The glacier had shrunk so much that I didn’t even think it was the same place! The rock I circled is a good reference point to visualize the change. This research helped me understand how the present has been shaped by history and human interaction.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, something might seem familiar. That’s right! This isn’t the first trip I’ve been on in PLP. Way back in May, I went to Oregon, and you can read more about what happened on that trip here.
Thanks for reading!