Stave Lake

To kick off our unit on Electricity this fall we took a trip up to Stave Falls Visitors Center.

Our self-guided tour started with a nine-minute video, "Rain", in the theatre. It introduced us to the life and times of the early 1900s. Next we played with experiments on the solar energy workbench in the "Alternative Energy" area, went through the "Science of Electricity" area and tested our knowledge with interactive displays that "shocked" us.

Lastly, we entered the "Generator Hall" and saw the actual turbines and generators from 1912!

Natural Resources of BC Posters

Inspired by our printmaking workshop with the City of Surrey (http://doinithomeschool.blogspot.ca/2013/05/print-making.html), we created posters depicting the five major natural resources in BC today (agriculture, mining, fisheries, forestry and hydro). The kids began by creating a simple symbol for each of the resources and then traced each symbol onto a styrofoam plate.

They then inked their plates with printmaking ink and a brayer to transfer

the images to coloured paper.

That produced a lot of images!

Bekah's final poster:

Matt's final poster:

Sarah's final poster:

Natural Resources of BC Maps

In addition to exploring the importance of natural resources for BC's development, we also spent some time mapping out the major natural resources for BC today.

Centennial Museum (Fort Langley)

As part of our unit on BC's natural resources we took a field trip to Fort Langley's Centennial Museum.  During the two-hour program we had a guided tour of the museum where we learnt about the importance of resource industries (i.e. fur, forestry, fisheries, water) in the development of early British Columbia.

 

From there, we had the opportunity to design our own pieces of art (Salmon labels) using historical BC marketing symbols. Salmon (catching and processing) was a huge industry historically for BC and, due to the significant numbers of competing companies, the labelling of the cans became very important for business. 

Using original images and fonts, the kids designed their own salmon labels (transferred the images to their label, outlined with Sharpie markers and then used watercolour pencil crayons for colour).

Here are the kids' final salmon labels

(Bekah's is on top, Sarah's is in the middle, and Matthew's is on the bottom):

Britannia Mine Museum

This week we made our much anticipated trek to the Britannia Mine Museum.  In its seventy-year life (1904-1974), the Britannia Mine had a fascinating history. With over 60,000 people living and working here, it was the site of the making of many exciting stories! There was pioneering work on ore extraction technologies and the peak production rates made it the then biggest copper mine in the British Commonwealth.

Heading underground via train into the first tunnel of a network of over 270 km of tunnels.

Inside we hung onto our hardhats and had a brief taste of what a miner would experience.  A miner would make $3/day (excellent pay for the time) but, in exchange, he spent his workday in darkness surrounded by horrendous noise and dirt (the "gun" in the bottom left corner, used to drill into the walls of the tunnels was nicknamed "the widow-maker" due to the excessive pollutants and noise it produced).

Dubbed the "honey cart" this contraption was pushed around by the "new guy" in order to familiarize him with navigating the extensive tunnel system in the dark.  Unfortunately everyone knew when he was coming because he was pushing the portable bathroom! This was one time that the darkness came in handy - it afforded privacy to the user.

Our guide blasted the bell once after we exited the tunnel signalling the end of our shift (3 blasts still indicate an emergency).

We then took a quick look in the building that housed all of the core samples - racks and racks of them.

The next building was an amazing one - complete with a staircase consisting of over 300 stairs.  This was were the minerals were separated from the muck.

We ended our visit by panning for gold and other gemstones. 
What a fun day!