Category: Uncategorized

What I Understand So Far

So far, my understanding of anthropology is still developing, but I am starting to see how broad and meaningful it is. Anthropology is the study of humans, human behavior, and the societies people build. It looks at beliefs, traditions, values, language, relationships, and the cultural systems that shape how groups live and interact. Anthropologists study how people adapt to their environment, how different communities express identity, and how ideas and customs change over time. They pay attention to details that many people would overlook, because even the smallest habits or objects can reveal something important about who we are.

Anthropology helps us understand why people think and act the way they do, and how culture influences everything from daily routines to big decisions that affect whole societies. Even though my knowledge is at a beginner level, I am already recognizing anthropology as a field that teaches us to look carefully, question assumptions, and notice meaning in everyday life.

Launch Activity
During the launch activity, I learned how powerful observation can be when trying to understand culture. We examined a picture of a Starbucks drink, which at first seemed like a completely ordinary object. However, once we looked deeper and started asking questions, the image revealed a lot more than expected. We talked about what the drink might say about convenience and modern routines, and how people today often choose quick, branded products that fit busy lifestyles. We also discussed trends, status, and how certain brands become symbols of belonging or identity in society. Something as simple as a coffee cup can communicate values, habits, and social meaning.

This made me realize that anthropology is not limited to studying ancient civilizations or far-away cultures. It also involves analyzing the world around us in the present moment. By looking carefully at an everyday item, we uncovered layers of cultural information that connect to larger patterns in society. This experience helped me see how anthropology encourages curiosity and deeper thinking. It taught me that culture exists everywhere, even in the smallest and most familiar things, and understanding those things helps us understand ourselves and the world we live in.

We next went on a class walk to Strathcona Park, where we took photos that a anthropologist could interpret and decipher, as if we were arriving to our society for the first time.

My Learning Intention

For this project, my goal is to learn how to recognize cultural meaning in everyday situations, objects, images, and behaviors. I want to improve my ability to analyze the world the way an anthropologist would, by paying attention to detail, thinking critically, and noticing the cultural messages that are all around us.

I chose this learning intention because I enjoy the creative and reflective approach we are taking in BCFP. Instead of focusing only on gathering facts, we are learning to observe, interpret, and think deeply about human experience. Last project, I focused heavily on research and information, but this time I want to shift toward interpretation and understanding perspective. I hope to strengthen my ability to see things from multiple viewpoints and to explore the meaning behind everyday choices and symbols.

This project feels like an opportunity to expand my thinking and to train myself to notice more about the world. I believe these skills will help me become a stronger communicator and a more thoughtful person. I am excited to explore culture in this way because it connects simple experiences to larger ideas about humanity, and that makes learning feel meaningful and real.

Link to last project: https://www.blog44.ca/ryanb/2025/10/17/truth-before-reconciliation-post/

Building on my Previous Project

In my last project, my film explored the impact of the Manhattan Project and how the discovery of nuclear fission completely changed the course of human history. I focused on how this single scientific breakthrough had ripple effects that reached far beyond the lab, influencing medicine, energy, warfare, and space exploration. It was incredible to see how one discovery could create hope and fear at the same time, hope for progress and innovation, but fear of destruction and misuse. Through that project, I understood how science connects deeply to society, politics, and human emotion. The Manhattan Project changed the way people saw the future and themselves. It showed me how a scientific discovery can change the world’s balance of power, redefine what safety means, and influence how generations think about progress and morality.

The Power of Fear

For this new project, I want to build on that same idea of how one force can change society, but this time, instead of looking at science, I want to explore fear and how it has been used as a powerful social and marketing tool. My Fallout companion piece focuses on how fear became part of daily life during the Cold War and how companies like Kellogg’s turned that fear into an opportunity for profit. During the 1950s and 1960s, the world was living under the constant threat of nuclear war. Governments were running safety drills, families were building bomb shelters, and people genuinely believed an atomic attack could happen at any time. In that environment, companies began to market products as symbols of safety, comfort, and reliability. Kellogg’s, for example, advertised nonperishable, shelter friendly foods, products families could rely on in a crisis. These ads reassured people that even in the face of nuclear disaster, their brand could provide security and a sense of normal life.

Marketing Fear

I want to explore how this kind of marketing reflected society’s collective anxiety and how corporations strategically used those fears to gain trust and loyalty. Advertising during that time was about calming the nation’s nerves. It played on psychological needs for safety and belonging, suggesting that buying a product could protect your family from danger. That connection between fear and comfort is something I find fascinating, and I think it reveals a lot about how easily emotions can be influenced by media and marketing. I also plan to connect these historical examples to modern advertising, where similar tactics are still used today. For example, companies now market safe and sustainable products to ease fears about climate change, or promote cybersecurity tools to protect against digital threats. The context is different, but the emotional strategy, selling safety and peace of mind, remains the same.

Format Planning

For my format, I’m planning to create a presentation style talk that feels like a mix between a TED Talk and a short documentary. It will combine a written speech with a PowerPoint full of visuals like vintage ads, propaganda posters, and old TV commercials. I think these visuals will make the presentation more engaging and help show how deeply fear influenced everyday life and marketing during the Cold War. I also want to use narration and sound in a way that feels immersive, almost like stepping back in time to experience how these messages felt to people in that era. My goal is to inform my audience and make them think about how similar patterns still appear today in modern media.

Growth and Goals

Throughout this project, my main goal is to grow as a communicator and researcher. I want to become better at gathering complex information, analyzing it, and presenting it in a way that feels both educational and emotionally meaningful. This goal is important to me because I’ve realized how powerful communication really is, it can shape beliefs, behaviors, and even history itself. Understanding how media and marketing work helps me be more aware of how I’m influenced by the world around me. I also want to strengthen my organization and presentation skills by planning my research early, creating a clear structure, and practicing multiple times so I can speak confidently and clearly. I know this topic connects to my interests in history, media, and psychology, and because I’m genuinely curious about it, I’m excited to push myself creatively and academically. I hope to create a presentation that shows what I’ve learned and encourages others to think about how fear and persuasion continue to shape the modern world.

Last project:

Manhattan Project

When I started the BCFP project called Truth Before Reconciliation, I didn’t expect it to change how I saw Canadian history so deeply. I had heard about residential schools before, but I never really understood the full story, how much pain, loss, and survival was behind those two words. This project helped me move from just knowing about history to actually understanding it.

Starting with the Truth

One of the parts of our project was creating a semantic map that showed connections between key ideas like truth, reconciliation, culture, trauma, healing, and community. Making that map helped me see how everything ties together. “Legacy” connected to “survivors,” which connected to “healing,” which connected to “Goverment action.” It was like a web showing how all these pieces of Canada’s past and present are linked. The map helped me realize that reconciliation is a process of learning, connecting, and understanding the relationships between history and people today.

Looking at Culture Through Comparison

Next, we worked on a Venn diagram comparing Indigenous and European practices, using the Tridish Café as an example of how Indigenous values show up in modern businesses. On one side, we listed Indigenous practices, community based decision making, sharing resources, and respecting the land. On the other side, we had European business ideas like profit focus, hierarchy, and efficiency. In the middle were shared values like hard work, creativity, and a sense of purpose.

The Tridish Café really stood out to me because it’s a space that brings people together to share culture and food while supporting Indigenous entrepreneurs. It blends traditional teachings with modern business, showing that Indigenous identity and success can go hand in hand. That comparison helped me see that reconciliation also means recognizing and valuing Indigenous ways of doing things, not just learning about the harm that was done in the past.

Hearing the Voices of Survivors

The part of the project that affected me most was writing a reflective response after watching a video about residential schools. Hearing survivors talk about being taken from their families and losing their language was heartbreaking. Some described the loneliness of being punished for speaking their own words or showing emotion. Others talked about how those experiences still affect their children and grandchildren today.

Learning Through Challenge

The hardest part of this project was digging deeper than what I already knew. It was uncomfortable to read about and watch the realities of residential schools, but that discomfort pushed me to learn more. I also learned research and critical thinking skills, especially when connecting ideas in the semantic map and comparing cultural systems. More than that, I learned how to reflect meaningfully and write about heavy topics with honesty and care.

How I’ve Changed

This project made me see Canadian history differently. it’s about stories of loss, resistance, and survival. It made me realize that reconciliation isn’t just a word used in politics or classrooms. It’s something every Canadian can be part of, whether that’s by learning, listening, or supporting Indigenous communities in real ways.

I feel sadness for what happened, but I also feel hope when I see Indigenous people rebuilding culture, teaching languages, and creating spaces like the Tridish Café that bring people together. The truth isn’t easy to face, but it’s what leads to understanding.

We can’t build reconciliation on silence, truth has to come first.

Looking Back

Creating my animated explainer on the Manhattan Project and the broader effects of nuclear fission was one of the most challenging and rewarding projects I’ve done so far. Looking back, the most powerful thing I learned was how deeply science, ethics, and history are connected. When I first started, I thought nuclear fission was just a scientific process, atoms splitting to release energy. But when I did more research, I learned how this discovery reshaped medicine, energy production, warfare, and global politics. It’s rare to find a single scientific discovery that has had such massive consequences. That’s what I wanted my audience to understand by the end of my video, that fission is about people, choices, and the future of our world.

The hardest challenge I faced during this project was deciding how to organize such a huge topic into one short, clear video. Fission connects to so many areas. Medicine, nuclear power, the atomic bomb, the Cold War, industry, and space exploration are all topics I cover. At first, I tried to include everything, but that made my script too long and my message less focused. I eventually realized that I was covering too many topics. If I had more time, I would refine my video by focusing more deeply on one specific angle, like the medical benefits of fission or the ethical consequences of nuclear weapons, instead of trying to cover so many topics at once. That would have made my video shorter, smoother, and more powerful overall.

My Growth

Throughout this project, I learned a lot of new skills. On the technical side, I improved my animation and video editing abilities, with timing visuals with narration. I also learned how to storyboard well, which helped me organize my ideas before I started producing. I’m actually really proud of my storyboard because it showed how much planning went into the video and helped me visualize how the story would flow. On the personal side, I became much more confident in reaching out to experts. Talking to my expert, a nuclear scientist who worked for the U.S. Army during the Cold War, gave me insight into how nuclear technology developed and how scientists viewed their own responsibility during that time. That conversation helped me see the human side of science, something you can’t always get from reading articles.

The Message

The message I wanted my audience to take away from my video is that fission is a double edged sword. It has brought incredible progress and danger. I wanted people to understand that nuclear technology isn’t just something from history, it still shapes our world today. By showing both sides of fission, I hoped viewers would think about how knowledge can be used for creation and destruction, depending on the choices we make.

How I Think

This project really changed how I think about history and storytelling. Before, I used to see history as a list of events and dates, but now I understand that storytelling is what gives history meaning. Ethically, it made me think about how scientists and governments decide what to do with powerful discoveries. The story of fission reminded me that progress always comes with questions about responsibility and control. It also taught me that storytelling is a powerful tool for learning, by explaining something to others, I actually understood it more myself.

If I Had More Time

If I had more time to work on this project, I would spend it improving the quality of my visuals and animations. I think my video turned out well, but with a bit more polish, smoother transitions, better sound quality, and clearer visuals, it could have reached a higher level. I’d also make it a bit shorter and more focused, cutting out smaller details that distracted from my main message. Overall, though I’m proud of how I managed my time, stayed organized, and put together a project that balanced science, ethics, and creativity.

This project taught me that learning is about telling stories that make people care about those answers.

A new school year has just started and I am already writing a blog post! Over the first few days of school we have learned a little bit about the manhattan project and will learn much more, as this is our longest project of the year. I’ve made it a top priority of mine to start the year off with a really good project, as then I can carry that momentum into the rest of the school year. Even with some setbacks, (my iPad getting stolen) I’ve read and lightly researched the manhattan project to a good degree.

I still am not super knowledgeable on the manhattan project, but I know ow the basics, namely about the Hiroshima bombing. I also know that it was a secret U.S. project during World War II that developed the first nuclear weapons. Beyond Hiroshima, it also led to the bombing of Nagasaki and the beginning of the nuclear age.

Our first task this year was to make zettlekasten notes on Hiroshima, one literature and one permanent. (both pictured below) I’ve made notes in zettle form before and found it to be a bit tedious for notes. Now I’ve shifted how I feel about zettles as with literature and fleeting notes I can write down facts and in the permanent notes I can write down my own thoughts or feelings about those facts.

Some of my goals this project is to learn as much as possible and get ahead with a really great start to the year academically. I am not set on any view, but I like the idea of focusing on the ethics and effects of the manhattan project. We have been reading the book “Hiroshima” and it’s made me think about the personal effects on both the Japanese and Americans. My goal for the end of this project is to make a end blog post talking about what a good job I did.

The last project of the year is completed! Throughout this year in humanities we focused on Canadian identity and amidst the political controversy with our sovereignty our class finished one last project to sum the year up. This project also happened to be the one used for our spring exhibition, concluding our grade ten humanities year.

The driving question for this project was, how does sharing stories help us build the “just society” we aspire to be? I think sharing stories is the only way to build the just society we aspire to be. Humans are naturally social creatures and the only way to build a just society is to communicate past wrongs and learn to create future rights. Sharing stories can create empathy and understanding, can raise awareness, and most importantly, can inspire change. Everyone has a different idea of what a “just society” is, so it’s most important that Canada as a nation listens to people’s voices and ideas to make our country as open of a place as possible.

This project we learned a totally new way to take notes called zettlekasten. It involves three types of note taking, fleeting, literature, and permanent. It allows you to use different note taking methods as a tool instead of keeping to one type the whole time. I think it’s a very useful tool and skill to have, but for majority of projects I won’t be using zettlekasten. It’s only useful when you have to stay ultra organized and as of now that’s not something I really need.

While the human library didn’t work out, I still had a conversation with my grandmother about her experience living in a communist country and immigrating to Canada. Most of the conversation was talking about things we had already talked about, but I still found it interesting nonetheless. Something I wish I did better for my conversation highlights and for this whole project was handing work in on time. As the year is ending I let one or two day late assignments slip through which I really shouldn’t have done.

I’m not the biggest fan of public speaking but I know how important of a skill it is. I think I wrote and presented my speech pretty well still with a little bit of space to improve. The spring exhibition had me grouped up to present the Canadian flag and play a large role in our flash mob.

Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my own learning. You can expect me to give an honest evaluation of my progress. We will discuss my strengths and opportunities for growth. Thank you in advance for listening and for offering feedback that I can use to improve as a learner.

Grade Ten is a big year. I remember at the start of the year a teacher saying that grade ten is the year that students either get ahead or fall behind, a turning point in their academics. When my teacher said that, I knew I was gonna be the student that got ahead. All the other grades up to grade ten don’t really have repercussions if you don’t try, but grade ten is the first year that starts to decide what path you’ll take in life. I know I want to achieve big things in my life and want to make a good life for myself, part of which is getting a good job. I knew I needed to get good grades this year if I wanted to set myself up for the possibility of going to university. This year was the first I started to take school seriously. I actually started homework early and listened attentively in class. And my grades have reflected that, while I’m not at the perfect grades, I’ll take 7/8 A’s any day.

So, why am I ready to move into the next grade? Grade 11 is probably the most important grade there is and I need to be ready and do well in it. The improvement I’ve shown in grade ten is awesome and I’m ready to improve just as much going into grade 11. it allows me a fresh start, and I’ve learned the most important thing for grades is to start off the year strong. It’s easier to start at a 90 and continue that rather than a 70 trying to bring it up. Grade 11 will be the year where I have the best grades, am the most athletic, and will set me up for my future perfectly.

In full honesty I forgot about my Vision mission values. In my mission I stated that I had three main improvement areas this year, school, sports, and commitment. I am now the best academically and athleticly I’ve ever been. I’d say the commitment it took to achieve that shows that I am also the most committed I’ve even been. Looking at my values, my agency and self regulation haven’t been perfect, but have been pretty good this year. my conduct, ethics and integrity haven’t been as strong this year, but have still improved so I’ll take it.

So what did i actually achieve as a learner this year? All my grades are up and I am perfectly set up to get good grades next year, but more importantly I have a better idea of my goals. I’m staring to think going into business could be a good path for me to go down. I’ve learned over the past few months that you turn a successful business you just need to do something better than other options and advertise it. If I can take some courses or just learn a skill that’s seen as a useful one then I can make a successful business. I know to get in a good business school and eventually run my own business I need to have a good transcript, be creative, and be a hard worker, so going into next year that’s what I’m gonna focus on.

How am I going to prepare myself to achieve my goals next year? This summer I’m going to spend my free time doing the things I don’t usually have time for during the school year. My two main focuses will be getting more athletic and growing my window washing business.

Thank you for coming to my TPOL. This year I have grown so much and PLP has played a key role in that growth. I hope to make next year will be even better!

Going to Disney World with my PLP class was honestly way more eye opening than I expected. I was excited for the rides and the fun, but what really stuck with me was how different Disney feels compared to regular cities. That’s what I focused on in my film how Disney’s design creates this feeling of magic, and how that’s something we don’t usually think about in our everyday environments.

One of the biggest things I noticed was how everything at Disney is designed to make you feel something. The colors, music, even the way the lines are built it’s all meant to be an experience. In a normal city, things are usually designed to be practical, not emotional. But at Disney, everything works together to create a story, and that makes it feel special and easy to remember.

While making my video, I talked to a bunch of people from different backgrounds, and that gave me a perspective I didn’t expect. It made me realize how different we all are, but also how we can relate to the same topics and feelings, like joy or nostalgia. That helped shape my message: when you take a second to really look at the world around you, you start to notice things you wouldn’t have before.

One moment that stood out was our first day at Magic Kingdom. Everyone was rushing to get on rides, and I looked around and saw hundreds of people holding up their phones to take pictures. It was chaotic, but in a way, it was kind of beautiful. Everyone was chasing that same magical feeling. Even the janitors were part of it, they were cleaning the park while blending in so well you barely noticed them. That made me realize how even the small roles are super important in keeping the magic alive.

Making the video taught me a lot. I think I did a good job planning it out and using music, voiceover, and fast editing to make it interesting. If I could go back and change something, I’d probably try to narrow down my topic more. There’s so much to say about Disney’s design, and it was hard to fit it all in.

In the end, my film is about realizing that everything around you and every little detail was designed for a reason. When you start to notice those details, even your normal life can feel a little more magical.

Welcome back to another blog post! Humanties 10 latest project was called Hey Boomer! And it included many different aspects to the project, with the final project of a radio play with the entire class working together at once. This project started with watching the movie Pleasantville, an eye opening film that makes you question past inequalities and expectations of modern and past society. Pleasantville took place in a post World War II era, a era where life is often romanticized but this movie shed light on the unfair treatment of people who were seen as “different” or not fit into the cookie cutter American culture at the time.

I learned about the post WWII era, a commonly looked over one because of the significance of WWII over shadowing the 50’s. How countries reacted after WWII has shaped modern day society more than any other era. The globalization of world trade and innovation created the cut out for our present day society. After World War II, Canada went through a lot of changes its economy took off with big growth in oil, mining, and construction, and tons of new jobs were created. A lot of immigrants came in, suburbs grew fast, and people started pushing for civil rights and equality. Canada also started finding its own identity by getting more involved in peacekeeping and creating more of its own culture, instead of just following Britain or the U.S.

With my new knowledge of this era, I took a chance at a advertising role in our radio play. My group made two advertisements to fit into the play, advertised the play to the pubic, and got the permission of real companies to do a trade—we advertise for them and they put our poster up. Our group made two advertisements, one for Mt Seymour and one for Deep Cove Kayak. I mainly worked on the Seymour one, with my connection of previously working there I was able to communicate quickly through email to get there permission for our advertisement, and it was easy to make a short memorable jingle that fit into the play well. While I unfortunately couldn’t make it to the day of the radio play live streaming, my role in my group really changed the outcome of the advertisements and my knowledge of post WWII times helped make realistic ads.

The driving question for this project is how do we use a satirical radio play to communicate the shifts in Canadian society following WWII? I think the answer to this question is in our radio play. We communicated the shifts in Canadian society in a satirical radio play almost perfectly. So how were we able to succeed in this? Well taking inspiration from Pleasantville totally chaged the course of the project. Without the inspiration I think the whole class would be confused on different paths, and it would be really tough to get a good general consensus on what we should do. 

In this project, I learned how powerful satire can be when exploring historical change. By using humour and exaggeration, we were able to shine a light on real issues from the post-WWII era, like gender roles, economic growth, and cultural identity. I also learned how important collaboration is especially when the whole class is working together on a single performance. From coordinating advertisements to shaping a unified storyline, everyone had a key role to play, and it showed me how creativity and teamwork can bring history to life in a new and exciting way.

This year’s Destination Imagination experience was full of surprises and learning. At first, my group had a big idea to build a crane or clamp that could grab and stack boxes. It sounded fun, but when we started planning it out, we realized it would probably be too complicated and might not work how we wanted. So we decided to keep things simple and build a ramp instead, where the boxes would slide down and stack. Once we built it and tested it with our robotic launcher, called the destruction machine, we found that the ramp and launcher didn’t work well together. At the last minute, we changed the ramp into a vertical chute, and surprisingly, it worked almost perfectly. Everything came together better than we expected.

This year I learned that simple ideas can actually lead to better results. Last year was my first year doing DI, and I tried to make everything as creative and detailed as possible, but it was hard to make things work. This time around, I knew that focusing on what actually works is more important. My group built a machine that was simple and reliable, and we added a strong story to go with it. Even though our machine worked well, it didn’t look as impressive because it was mostly made out of cardboard. If I could change something, I would’ve used better materials to make it stand out more for the judges.

One big difference this year is that I took on more of a leadership role. I helped lead the group, kept people on task, and made sure we were meeting deadlines. I also helped test parts of the machine and gave input on how we could improve things. Taking on that role helped me learn how to speak up, stay organized, and support my team. I think being a leader doesn’t mean doing everything yourself, but helping others do their best too. I want to use these leadership skills in school, sports, and even with my family and friends, because they make a big difference in how things turn out.

Working with my group taught me a lot about solving problems and being creative. DI isn’t just about making a cool machine it’s about thinking fast, working together, and adjusting when things don’t go as planned. We had to change our design more than once and figure things out as we went. I think that’s what helped us do well in the end. I believe I met the proficient level this year because I contributed helpful ideas, helped with the build, and supported my team in many ways. I really feel like I made a difference in how our final project turned out.

Overall, DI taught me a lot this year. I learned that being a leader means helping others while also learning about yourself. I found out that sometimes the simple choice is the best one. Most of all, I learned that being open to change and working together makes everything better. Even though it was challenging, I’m proud of what we built and what I learned. I know these skills will help me in other parts of my life too.