Expedition #1- Ridgelines & Coastlines: Outdoor Sampler

Words and Photos from Michael M. - Ridgelines & Coastlines Outdoor Sampler cohort

On the first expedition day for the outdoor sampler we all went rock climbing at UVIC. We took the city bus there and were greeted at the gym by our two instructors, Nick and Joe. Both Nick and Joe were certified instructors for indoor climbing. They taught us how to belay and how to check if all our gear was safe. After we learnt about belaying and the safety aspect of climbing, we were all ready to climb. We climbed for most of the morning then went to the Mystic Cafe for lunch. After we ate our lunches we went down to Mystic Vale to play a game of camouflage before heading back to the gym to do some more climbing. Once we were back at the gym Nick and Joe taught us about the certification someone would need to become an instructor, they got their instructing licenses through ACMG (Association of Canadian Mountain Guides). After we finished climbing we learnt about what we will do for our other experiential days and everyone seemed to be really excited and happy with their choice of outdoor sampler. Overall our first experiential day was a lot of fun and everyone learnt something new, we are all looking forward to our next day out.  

Expedition #1- Ridgelines & Coastlines: Paddling

Words from William G. - Ridgelines & Coastlines Paddling cohort

Today was our first expedition day as a paddling cohort, and we thought it’d be nice to get out on the water. As I’m writing this, I can still feel the sand in my ear and cold saltwater running down my back, we’ll get to that later. We started the day off in Derby, tried on our gear for the day. Some of us ended up looking like smurfs! We headed out to Cadboro Bay to learn some basic strokes. Mr Pope and Mr McLeod taught us the whole lot, front strokes, back strokes, ruddering, draw strokes, and sweep strokes. When we practiced our ruddering, somehow a frantic forward stroke toward Mr Pope, we glided with our boats slightly tipped to one side. I tipped too far, flipping face first into the water, a fine way to learn a wet exit! I wiggled my way back into the boat. After more practice, we headed off to a small island for lunch. Upon arriving, we spotted a flat surface to set up stoves. Mr McLeod told us the basics of many types of stoves and the proper procedures for cooking. While having a hearty lunch with hot chocolate, we saw a bald eagle perched on a pine tree and some seals along the shore. We paddled back after lunch, made the landing and carried our boats back up. Then we rushed to a playground (very mature tenth graders!), then swam in the bay and dunked our heads multiple times. As the day drew to the end, we rode the bus back to Derby. Brushing sand off ourselves, we are exhausted yet content, all in all, it is a pretty successful day trip. My cohort will definitely be looking forward to the upcoming winter survival skills expedition

Expedition #1 - Ridgelines & Coastlines: Hiking

Words From Torr L. - Ridgelines & Coastlines Hiking cohort

After the initial hustle and bustle of the first morning, and finding out where we needed to meet with our cohort leaders, we bussed out to East Sooke Park after each being assigned some gear to carry.  When we got there, we took a quick bathroom break and just hit the trail. After not long at all, we stopped to see some indigenous art that had been carved into rocks hundreds of years ago. Right behind us, someone spotted a raft of male sea lions traveling south along the Island.  Farther off the coast we even saw the spray from a whale’s blowhole mist into the air. As we hiked on, the trail got steeper and more uneven; it was no problem, and we kept chatting and telling jokes the whole way. We hiked past a number of beautiful coves and vistas, and we kept seeing sea lions and whales whenever we got an ocean view.  A whale-watching boat zoomed past far below us and got alarmingly close to one of the whales. We stopped again farther on and ate lunch. Our leaders taught us two awesome knots we will hopefully have use for later on other expeditions. The trail maps turned out to be misleading, and we hiked farther than we had planned. We had to cut our survival skill tutorial short to get back to the bus in time.  In the bus on the way back, some of us played the card game “Mao” and performed magic tricks, while others just listened to music. I had a fantastic time, and already feel closer to my fellow hikers. Everyone, including the leaders of the hiking cohort, are fun, positive people, and I can’t wait to spend more time with them as a group.

Expedition #1- Ahousaht People & Place: West Coast Cultural Experience

Words from Fa P. - Ahousaht: People & Place cohort

It was at Cadboro Bay with bright sun and clear skies that the story begins. We learned about the great longhouses that used to house 10 families of the Chekonein people. The bay provided shelter from the ocean and a cove allowed them to ambush any attacking forces. We stopped at Cattle point to talk about the impact of the later settlers on the First Nations. We then went to Willows beach, the infamous site of the First Nations archaeological dig. The was the site of many important discoveries that brought its landowner a fortune in wealth. We also had a little adventure collecting blackberries there. On our way to Beacon Hill Park, we passed Oak Bay High and spoke about the meaning behind the totem pole in front of the school. At Beacon Hill Park, we saw the rocks used as gravestones by the first nations. Our journey took us to the Royal BC Museum’s First Peoples’ gallery. We were able to split up and focus on a topic of our choosing for 40 minutes. Our interests varied from First Nations art and languages to their lifestyle and origins. In the end, we all presented on the information we gathered during our stay. We ended our trip at Songhees point where the Songhees first relocated to after a treaty with the later settlers. We learned a lot of information about the first nation’s way of life both before and after the European settlers arrived. We look forward to building off what we learned in future expeditions.

Expedition #1 - Sports Analytics Cohort

Words from Theo Y. - Sports Analytics Cohort

This Tuesday, October 16, we had our first Grade 10 experiential day, and I was fortunately placed in the cohort that I had decided on as my first choice, Sports Analytics. The first day, for us, was meant to familiarize us with the many different sport stat quota’s in the modern day, as well as their purposes. To do this, we each were assigned/had the opportunity to choose and research stats that interested us which correlated with a variety of sports. Two stats that I personally found interesting were RPI, a stat used to determine a team’s seeding in a major tournament based on their victories and the strengths of their opponents, and PER, a rating of a player’s per-minute productivity. We then decided it was time for lunch, but after, we were able to view and analyze talks from a sports analytics conference, located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Upon viewing one or two of those clips, we chose partners and formed groups of 2 or 3 to decipher a chosen different clip by ourselves. My group chose to look into the analytics of ESports, specifically a game called “League of Legends,” and were able to discover and present an abundance of information regarding, but not limited to, team strength, win percentages, team chemistry, and kill to death ratios. All in all, it was a great introduction to the cohort, and I am looking forward to seeing what the remainder of year has in store.

Expedition #1 - Yoga, Pilates & Mindfulness Cohort

Words and Photo : Annalise W. - Yoga, Pilates & Mindfulness Cohort

The Grade 10 Yoga, Pilates, and Mindfulness cohort began the day in the Wenman Cricket pavilion, with a mindfulness exercise led by Mr. Baer. Each member was given a journal which they will use to chart their various expedition days throughout the year, as well as throughout the June pursuit trip. The cohort then took a Yin yoga class, a gentler, slower type of yoga which focuses more on holding poses for as long as five breaths. The Yin yoga instructor also taught the cohort pieces of the history of yoga and its language, Sanskrit. Following the Yin yoga session, there was time for a discussion about what the grade 10’s would like their cohort to look like for the rest of the year, and what personal goals they would like to achieve through the cohort. They then had the option to practice reflective journaling around campus. After a lunch break, the group traveled to Cadboro Bay to take a more fast paced Hatha yoga class at Yew Tree Yoga. All in all, the excursion was both restful and fun. We look forward to the next expedition day will likely focus on the Pilates aspect of the cohort. 

Expedition Day #1 Bee's & Pea's, Please!

Authored and Photographed by Meg S.
Cohort: Bee’s & Pea’s Please!

Why do bees get married? Because they found their honey!

Today we started off by Ms. Marti dressing up as a Queen bee (a bee’s favorite singer, BEE-yonce), and with some laughter from the bee puns we made. We learned about the basics of bees, and how they’re treated differently depending on which part of the world they are in by watching the film “More Than Honey.” We were able to watch half way through the movie, and as a snack we had a organic honey crisp apple. Mrs. BEEston and Mr. Daum also talked about some political/economic problems caused by what we put in our body, supporting corporations that create low quality, cheap food. I believe that there is nothing more important than what we eat, and put in our bodies. We are what we eat, and if we eat unhealthy our mental health can have a negative effect, so can the economy.

After the morning buzzed away, we had an amazing opportunity to go to Mrs. Beeston and Mr. Klenz’s wonderful garden. We looked at their chickens, compost systems, bee hive, and all sorts of fruits and vegetables such as berries, tomatoes, swiss chard and asparagus. Chickens for eating all the food scraps to produce eggs, and manure as one of the ingredients to make great soil. Compost to make use out of everything and make “black gold.” Black gold is a name that gardeners use to call mineral rich soil. Mineral rich soil is very valuable because this is something you make over a long period of time that requires patience and high quality plants. We were able to dig out some potatoes and carrots, and plant garlic. After doing some garden work, we had moroccan mint tea made in their garden with a snack. We also had a bee expert come in to talk to us about pollination and some things we do that cause harm in bees.

We were able to receive many information today, and I’m sure we had at least one thing we learned to share at the dinner table!

I understand my bee puns really sting, but I hope you enjoyed them!

Rent or Purchase the “More than Honey” film on youtube, here!

Academy Award-nominated director Markus Imhoof (The Boat Is Full) tackles the vexing issue of why bees, worldwide, are facing extinction. With the tenaicyt of a man out to solve a great mystery, he investigates this global phenomenon, from California to Switzerland, China and Australia.

Expedition Day #1 "Who am I?" Cohort

Authored and photographed by McEnroe J.
Cohort: Who am I? Exploring your Ancestral Roots

We began our journey into our ancestral roots by relieving our inhibitions and becoming more comfortable with each other. You might be thinking along the lines of icebreakers or different team building games, but think much weirder...we spit into tubes together! As bizarre as it may sound, it was very interesting to think about the amount of information that will be found about your ancestry merely using 3 spits. After completing surely the most unpleasant part of the DNA test, we sealed our tubes, packed them up, and shipped them on their way to Ireland. We followed up with a bit of research on the ancient groups and drums that pertained to our specific ethnicity. Our group ranged from Ecuadorian, Brazilian, Haitian, and even to Ukrainian roots, which made the research exceptionally fascinating!

The second half of the day was definitely one to remember! We had the opportunity of being taught by a drummer who has had the chance of exploring multiple music styles around the world, but is especially keen in jazz. We started off with a bit of warm up to exercise our senses and then proceeded to try out some different types drums. As evidenced by the pictures, the unique sounds that the drums made was truly engaging. After getting the hang of how the drums worked and the different techniques that could be used to play, we concluded with the task of telling a story through drumming. Some of us were given stories to tell while others dug deep into their imaginations to pull out something worth sharing- I myself was one of them. In all honesty, I had no clue what my story would be until I was halfway through sharing and kind of just winged it from there. In last words, the first expedition day of the Who Am I? cohort was unquestionably an experience, and I reckon I speak for all when I say that I learned a great deal.

Selection Day!

Students gathered in their CLE classes today to go through all of the Grade 10 Program “cohort” options for this school year, and ranked their choices. There were an incredible range of options, 19 in total, all being run by SMUS teaching staff.

The grade 10 students read though all of the descriptions and then put together paragraphs for their top three choices, explaining why they wished to be a part of that cohort. They won’t have to wait long to find out the result of their selections- the survey closes Sunday night and the students will get their placement early next week!