Hey everyone! Today I’m gonna be talking about the most recent project that we did that’s called building a nation. We started this project by doing a little confederation simulation, which  helped us understand all about the importance of nationalism. After that we moved onto to making games!

In the confederation simulation, we had to choose a colony out of the ones provided. Canada East, Canada West, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, PEI, and Nova Scotia. Here is a paragraph on how the simulation went for our colony, Canada East. 

Our Colony, Canada East, decided to join confederation. Canada East is now modern day Québec spanning up to about the Saint-Lawrence river. The Saint-Lawrence has most of Canada East’s main ports, although they all freeze over during the Winter. Having ice-free ports was one of the main demands we had when considering joining confederation. Our other demands were building a trans-colonial railway, which spans all of the colony’s, having access to storage places, and to be able to keep French culture alive. We wanted Canada to become bilingual, as some of the founding fathers were French. If we had not received all of these things, we certainly wouldn’t have joined confederation, as we believed that we, Canada East could survive on our own. We definitely benefitted from joining confederation, as we got everything we wanted. One of the big benefits from joining confederation was having our most populated city become the capitol of all the colony’s. Canada East is a very good example of the good side of confederation, although some colony’s weren’t as lucky as us. The colony’s that benefited the least from confederation were P.E.I. and Newfoundland. They did not join confederation immediately, as all of their demands weren’t executed. They most certainly benefited the least from confederation. We made efforts to make Montreal Capitol of the colony’s, as it was the most populous city at the time, and it was right in the middle of most of the colony’s. We also got all of our demands, because they were both easy to meet, as well as fair to all of the colony’s. I found it interesting that they did not join confederation although if I were a person from our time frame, and I observed the coming together of confederation, I’d think that it was impressive that they had come together so quickly. As well as that they agreed on so many things. It was useless for P.E.I. and Newfoundland to not join refuse to join confederation until later, as I believe that the same things would have happened wether they were included or not. In conclusion, we got everything we wanted, and more, taking into account Montreal for Capitol. We benefited very greatly from confederation, as most colony’s did. 

We were also provided with these documents with information on our colony’s.

After we were done the simulation, we moved on to creating our games. We started by creating game rules, which you can see here:

When coming up with an idea for our game, we wanted to give different facts on the different colony’s, and make it a trivia. So we came up with the idea to code it on scratch, and then create a trivia after. This is what we came up with.

Our game!

And here is the trivia if you want to do that!

What raids attacked Western Canada?

What was the capital of Canada West?

What was the main food source of most Eastern Canadians?

Who was Newfoundland closest to politically and culturally?

Which colony has the smallest population?

How did PEI make most of its economy?

Which maritime colony was the largest?

Which colony in particular was known for its fishing?

What is Nova Scotia Latin for?

What is the capital of New Brunswick?

What is the biggest river in eastern Canada?

What was the pop. In Montreal in 1866? 

Thanks for reading my blog post! Hope you have a great day.

It’s that time of year again! It’s time for MPOLs… I kind of have a love-hate relationship with MPOLs and TPOLs. The ones I’ve done so far have gone well, but I always get nervous and stressed if I’m not prepared.

For Humanities, we did 3 projects in this semester. The first one we did was called The Power of Geography. This project linked with our Alberta trip. The final product was a book that showed our understanding of how the five themes of geography (movement, regions, location, place, and human environment interaction) connect to places that we have been on the trip. 

The second project was in my opinion the most fun. It was called Storm The Barricades, and it was all about revolutions. The final product for this one was a video on how we thought that a revolution was ineffective or effective. 

The last project we did was called Full Steam Ahead, and we were learning all about the Industrial Revolution. The final product was going to be a slam poem. I am quite proud of my slam poem, and most of the work I did in this project, especially because it was a very short one. Here’s my Slam Poem:

What was the biggest early consequence of climate change? 

The Industrial Revolution. 

How did the skies and oceans once blue go murky we need to undo. 

We need to undo this pollution, this burning of coal, 

We need to undo the many many problems that we, ourselves have created. 

Why?

 This planet was once so full of life, so vibrant so silent. 

Yet now the honk of cars and the rumble of trains disturb our natural world. 

The boat engines roar, the whales wash ashore this world, this place, can’t take it anymore. 

Factories made over animals homes, over bees nests, these machines don’t stop. 

They go and go like a raindrop. 

They fall and fall till they make a puddle, a little grey puddle in the middle of green. 

A grey city in the middle of the world. 

It grows, and grows. 

It grows until all of it is grey.

No longer a puddle but an ocean. 

This Industrial Revolution a confusion why is this planet dying?? 

We need a solution not another revolution and no more pollution. 

8 billion population how much more can we take?

How much can we take before we break?

Sure, one or two family’s help because

Every little bit helps but for it to help 

We need everyone to help. 

We need to make a big change so I ask you 

When you go home to your families

Don’t bring lunch in a plastic bag,

Bring lunch in a lunchbox, a reusable lunch box

Water in a metal, reusable water bottle. 

This will help our planet,

Yet we need more. 

Have we learned nothing from before?

Everyone says to change,

To recycle. 

But no one does. 

Why?

Here, our forest it’s beautiful. 

But if we continue on this path there will be no more skiing. 

There will be no more hiking, mountain biking, or running. 

These amazing forests will be torn down. 

And in it’s place will be a massive metropolis. 

The whole world will be one huge city. 

With not enough plants to produce oxygen,

We will die. 

We are facing more than just unhappy living conditions,

More than just cramped cities,

We are facing more than not being able to enjoy

the opportunities that this wonderful place has given us

We are facing death. 

Thank you. 

Now it’s time for maker AKA Vibrant Videos! I liked maker a lot this year because it was primarily focused on videos, which I enjoy making. The first thing that we did was we made a documentary about a chosen topic, mine was climate change, I interviewed two teachers, and put a lot of work into it, so I’m proud of it. Within this last week, we also learned about growth and fixed mindsets. This chart was very helpful, and I think that it shows the idea of a fixed or a growth mindset very well. This is my goal picture: 

Last but definitely not least is science! Science was probably my favourite subject this semester (besides band). My favourite project was probably the unit that we did on electricity, even though I didn’t love my final product. Anyways, on to the projects! 

The first project we did was Handle With Care, and I thought that it was really fun! The project was a little bit difficult because it was at the same time as the Alberta trip, so it was a bit different for some people. The first thing that we did was learn about wildlife management, and make a news report. I’m really proud of my news report, because I thought it was both funny and informative. Once done that, we went on the field study, and when we were back, we did some learning about the earth spheres, then we learned how much plastic comes off of washing just one piece of fabric. Hint: a lot. Then we went on to make our Scratch Project!

The last project we did was called Exciting Electricity! I liked this one because I think that I understand current and how to make a circuit well, so I did enjoy learning about it, especially because we got to do it hands on at the end of almost every class! I was away for the day that we started so I was a bit behind. We made an operation game, with a theme of our choice. I chose a chicken because I couldn’t think of anything and I love the sound that they make. Our game had to include five playing pieces, (eggs), and a light!

Hello everyone! Today I will be talking with you about the PLP winter exhibition. The theme of this exhibition was the movie Avatar by James Cameron. For our room (the annex) we included a whole bunch of different plants and stuff because our theme was The Home Tree. The Home Tree is the home in which the Na’avi people live.

Exhibition photos:

For our project, we had to make a video about how a certain topic connects to Avatar. The topic that I got was deforestation/climate change. I tried to get an interview with Truckers Loggers Association, but they didn’t respond. Here is the email that I sent them:

Hello Truck Loggers Association!

My name is Charlie Mortimer and I go to a school called Seycove Secondary. I am in a special program called PLP, which stands for Performance Learning Program. We are currently doing a project with the theme of deforestation/climate change. For the final product, we have to make a short film about the impacts which includes an interview with an expert. I also have a friend who would like to interview you as well. We could do it either online or in-person. I am looking forward to your response!

Thanks, Charlie

Thank you so much for reading and I will see you in my next post!

Hello everybody! Today I’m going to be trying a different type of blog post. I’m going to tell a story about a recent simulation that we did. The story is going to be through the eyes of the character that I played. In the simulation, I got an extremely lucky role. I was the king! That meant that I could use electronics whenever I wanted, made $20 a day, and commanded my people.

Here are the in-depth laws:

Law 1: Starting off

You decide how voting works in your territory. Every time you vote as a territory, the group leader will be in charge of organizing and counting the vote. You can make decisions for just your territory that can help you in the game. Resourceful actions that you take can have the winning impact on the game. If you want to change something as a whole society, write a note and have it delivered to Group D. Groups D and C can vote to see if it passes. The king may throw out the decision of the court.

Law 2: Money

Money can be used to buy things at the store, and also to bribe people to vote a certain way, carry information, or provide other services for you. Counterfeiting money is illegal and also pretty silly.  The Universe (teacher) will react if counterfeit money is found.

Law 3: The Store

The store has a limited supply and receives new shipments daily.  If the store is sold out, there is no more food for the day.  Group D can cut in line at the store and the Store Owners are required by law to serve them first.  Store Owners may decide the prices.

Law 4: The Jail

Group C (Nobility) is in charge of arrests, but they may not arrest members of Group D (Clergy), and Group D may also make arrests.  If you are arrested, you MUST automatically go to jail.  The Nobility/Clergy has much more money & resources than the 3rd estate and could quickly overpower any one of them with weapons & backup.  From Jail, anyone may consult with the Universe on any plans.

Now time for my diary as a king!

Today I the first thing that I did was read the news. It told me that our country is going bankrupt. I know that, but I don’t know how the citizens of our town will take it. I know that they already are angry because of the taxes. Maybe tomorrow I’ll do something about that. I really want to be a good king. Anyways, once I had read the news, I met up with my trusted advisors Mackenzie and Charlie R. Together we scouted the kingdom to see if we could find any hints of a revolution. We couldn’t find anything, so we then went to the store. They were being so unfair! For the richest places, groups C and D, they were charging so much, but for groups A and D they were charging so little! I suppose it was fair, but I suppose that I should put a stop to it tomorrow. Overall, I think that this day was pretty good, I would rate it a 7/10. But little did I know, the worst was yet to come… When I heard a rumour that Groups A and B are plotting to kill the King. I remember when I heard that it was like a cold hand gripped my heart. I ordered for a Charlie R. to come with me at all times. I got really scared that I would be murdered.

The next day the first thing I did again was read the news. This time, taxes went up by $1, we’re officially bankrupt. We need to get out of this ASAP. Today I made a couple of new rules. I wanted to make section A to like me a little more because I didn’t want the, to kill me. I let them buy chairs, as well as gifting them 3. I also put their pay up by one dollar. I believe that they like me a lot more right now. The people that I’m most worried about are group B. They are in charge of the store, and have gotten very rich because of it. Their leader, Keaton has $50! I believe that he stole some of the money from me, because some of my money that I left on my throne was missing. I’ll grab a law enforcer from group C, and set up a trap tomorrow. Maybe I’ll catch him at it. As well as group B, I’m also worried about my advisors. Charlie R. made a joke about murdering me. I’ll have to watch him as I don’t know if it was completely a joke. I got another rumour today. “Something must be done about group A”. I do not understand that, as I did so much for them. Perhaps tomorrow they will show their thankfulness.

Day three of being king! Today food prices went up by one dollar. I don’t see why though, as it is already extremely expensive. As soon as I got my $20, I took Evangeline, and together we put my money onto a very obvious place. In a few minutes, Magnus and Keaton came by. Magnus grabbed the money so we arrested him. But later it struck me that I may have made the wrong arrest. Keaton was looking kind of suspicious. But the worst of Keaton was yet to come. I really didn’t do much today, so I’m going to go straight to the rumour. Secret Meetings are being held between A, B, and C. They are growing frustrated with how society is being run… This I got scared about. I knew something on was going on about A and B, but I didn’t know about C.

The news today was scary. I learned that there was a disease in groups A and B. I had the treatment and cured all with the disease to eliminate it entirely. I then promoted Tom to group C because he was being a very good subject. As well as the disease outbreak, I continued to hear word of a revolution. We were given weapons by the almighty universe to protect ourselves. I believe that the revolution has started. Charlie tried to kill me, but I escaped with Chris, Logan, and Mackenzie. Together, we joined another nation (nation Y) who was actually trying to invade nation X. We killed almost everyone and came put triumphant!

In the second part of our project, my group and I made a video about the ineffectiveness of the American Revolution. First though, we had to learn about the revolution. We had to make a graphic organizer to display what we had learned.

As well as the graphic organizer and video, we had to make an affidavit. Here that is:

Revolutions Affidavit

Form 1

Seycove Courts 

I, Charlie Mortimer, Julia Dianova, Silas Macintosh, Magnus Kauko, Keaton Schisler, and Makai Roka, the American Revolution of North Vancouver.

Swear or affirm that:

I know or believe the following facts to be true. If these facts are based on information from others, I believe that information to be true. 

1. I am making this affidavit

🔘 in support of the effectiveness of the revolution

🔘✅ in response to the ineffectiveness of the revolution 

List the facts that you wish to present to the court. If certain facts are not within your personal knowledge, identify the source of your information. If you refer to documents, attach them to this affidavit and mark them as exhibits.

2. 

3. 

4.

Listed Exhibits:

(List your exhibits – A, B, C, etc. Similar items can be grouped as one exhibit. Describe each exhibit, for example, “Letter from the frontlines dated June 14, 1776”.

Prosecution and/or Defence will be attaching the following exhibits:

Attach Document Below:

https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-paris#transcript

Attach Document Below:

Here’s my graphic organizer and video!

I think we did well on the video, and maybe we proved to you that the American Revolution was ineffective? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading my blog post! I’ll see you again, very very soon.

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my blog! Today I’ll be telling you about a recent project that we did called Vibrant Videos. In this project, we were learning all about filming and filmmaking. In grade 8 we learned about photography and this year we are learning about videos, and next year I expect we will be learning about audio as I’ve talked to a couple of grade 10s and they are making podcasts. 

The first thing that we learned was the history of movie making. We learned that Thomas Edison invented filmmaking, and we watched him record himself sneeze through a kinetoscope. A kinetoscope is a device that puts together a series of photos and plays them very fast to make an animation. The recording of Edison sneezing is the oldest surviving film. Another great milestone in filmmaking is a film called The Great Train Robbery. It was the very first narrative film! After we learned about historical filmmaking, we learned about making films in more recent years such as Jaws, Avatar, or Star Wars. 

Once we had finished learning about the history of filmmaking, we went on to create our first film! Our film had to include what I enjoy doing and why, what I don’t enjoy doing and why, what gives me meaning or purpose in life, what my talents/skills are, what I like to read or watch movies about and what I daydream about. I started by writing out the answer to all of those questions, then I wrote a script, and finally I was ready to film! I filmed at my house, and it took approximately 1 hour to make my movie. Here it is!

For our next video, we had to do a silent film. We were allowed to add music, but no talking. We had to include different angles (long shot, close up, Birds Eye, worms eye, are just a few examples), a filter for an old fashioned look, a goal-getter story and an appropriate soundtrack or music. Our video had to be 1-2 minutes in length. For our goal-getter story, we chose one called Making The World Better, One Cookie At A Time. You’ll see what it’s about in this video!

Our last video was a tutorial video about setting and achieving goals. The inspiration for this video came from a book called What Do You Really Want? It is all about setting and achieving goals. Before making the video we learned about treatments and log-lines. A treatment is a brief description about the movie, usually about a paragraph in length. A log-line is similar to a treatment, but a LOT shorter, usually only a sentence or two in length. Another difference between the two is that the log-line is usually used for advertising purposes. One last thing that we learned about is the storyboard. A storyboard is a collection of drawings that show the sequence of events in the story. It is similar to the treatment, but it shows the different angles at which the shots are being filmed. You would usually start a film with a treatment and a log-line, then move onto the storyboard. Once you are finished, you would go on to film the story. Here is the video!

Treatment:

Has this ever happened to you? One day Jeremiah talks to his teacher. His teacher says that he has to do a Maker video by Friday. On Wednesday he is feeling quite uninspired. Then there is a guy who says ‘Hey people! Welcome back to our YouTube channel, today we’ll be talking about 2 simple tips to stay on track for your goals. Remember to like and subscribe! The first tip is to check your goals daily, so that you don’t forget them!’  Then it cuts to a scene of Jeremiah checking his goals. The next tip is to set rewards for yourself to stay motivated. Then it cuts to Jeremiah setting rewards, and when he’s finished, he’s going to give himself 5 coffee crisps. After that, he celebrates because with these strategies, he’ll definitely get a rainbow. 

Log-line: 

A boy named Jeremiah is trying to get a video done for his maker class but he comes across some trouble making his video. He learns some tips to help him complete his goal and receive a rainbow.

In conclusion, I’d say I did well on this project, seeing that I know how to do all of this stuff now. I think that my favourite and best part of the project was my first video. I really enjoyed making it, and I am proud of it because I didn’t get any help. I was the only one home, so I got the whole house to film. I also realized that the difference in preparation between the first and the last film is crazy! In the first film I wrote a script, and that was all, but in the last film, my group and I had written out a treatment, log-line, storyboard, and script and it made a big difference with the final video. 

Hi everyone! Welcome back to my blog! Today I’ll be telling you about a recent project that we did called The Power of Geography. This is a very special project because we went to Alberta to enhance our learning! 

The first thing we did was learn about the five themes of geography. The five themes are place, location, regions, human-environment interaction, and movement. Each theme has sub-themes. For place, the sub-themes are physical and human cultural. Physical is like landforms, such as mountains, forests, or valleys. Human cultural is every day life, such as religion, food music, and more. For location, there are two sub-themes as well. There is absolute location, which is the exact location of where you are, such as a set of coordinates. Then there is a relative location, which is approximately where you are. An example for this could be “in Deep Cove.” Next, there are regions. Vernacular regions are a place defined by people, such as Gastown, or even Deep Cove. After that, there are functional regions, which are regions defined by a function of how the region is used. An example for this would be Vancouver Harbour. Lastly, there are formal regions, which are regions defined by an administrative boundary. An example for this could be North and South Korea. Human-environment interaction is based on three main ideas. Those ideas are we adapt to the environment, and we depend on the environment. Last but not least, there is movement. In movement, there is the movement of people, the movement of ideas and the movement of products. 

Now I’m going to show you my book! We spent a while working on this, and it was quite interesting. The first step of making our book was making a comic life on the five themes of geography.
Anyways, here’s my book!

For curricular competency’s, I think that I did well. The competency in this project was questioning. I did well questioning different things, and I asked questions on the trip.

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you in the next post!

Hello everyone and welcome to my first post of the school year! Today I’ll be reflecting and telling you about a project that I did in science, called Handle With Care.

In this project we learned all about ecosystems, and how we’re impacting them. The first thing that we did was learn about micro plastics. Micro plastic are these little pieces of plastic that come off of our clothes when we wash them. We made our own “washing machine” with a bottle of water (warm or cold), a piece of cloth, marbles, and soap. W e put all of those things in our bottle, then shook it all up for a while. After that, we took a filter and a funnel, and poured all of the water out into the funnel. We then took a microscope and looked to see if we could find any plastic. We could see so much! You can see a couple black things on the filter. Those are micro plastics

Our first keystone for this project was making a scratch project. We had to show how the flow of energy went between all of the different animals.

Our second keystone was to make a mock news report about a certain problem. My group and I got sea urchins. We had to show the problem of how sea urchins were eating the kelp forests off the coast of California. My group was Mackenzie, Silas, and Charlie R.

For the news report, we had to include some different facts about sea urchins, and we also read a couple of different articles. Here are just two:

1, 2

Our third Keystone was to make fake instagram posts about these different things. The Earth’s spheres, and human impacts on each of them. Bioaccumulation/biomagnification, and human impacts on them. Local, interconnected, foodwebs and how humans impact them. Local wildlife management practices, and how humans impact them. Nutrient cycles, and how humans impact them

We made five and here they are!

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you soon!