Expedition #3 - Who Am I? Exploring Ancestral Roots

Words & Photos from Daria Drys

For the third expedition day for the Who Am I? Exploring Cultural Roots cohort, we started the day off in the Glasserie on the school campus. Two members of our local First Nations community, Willie and Rose, came in and discussed the uses and vitality of cedar bark to Indigenous people. Rose explained that there are two types of cedar that can be used to make a variety of necessities; red and yellow cedar. Yellow cedar was described to have a super soft texture, which is great for making diapers for babies or general clothing, a fantastic substitute for an animal hide. The cedar bark also had a nice smell to it which was quite calming. Besides the pleasing smell, cedar was used for everything they made, from longhouses and canoes to bracelets and hats, which is why they relied on it so heavily.

Both Rose and Willie also spoke about their history with the Indigenous culture and how it has impacted them. They heavily talked about the negative impacts that residential school has had on them and their families. They described themselves as the second generation of people to experience residential schooling (unlike their parents, who attended residential schools), therefore they couldn’t be strongly connected to their ancestral roots because their parents were either scared out of their minds or forgot their culture and practices because they had the Christianity practices drilled in their heads. Rose says her mom was an excellent knitter and she wishes she could’ve learned how to knit more complex things. Willie also mentioned that if he never joined the local Indigenous tribe he would’ve never learned their culture and practices. After the deep and emotional discussion, Willie sang us a song in his native language while playing a native drum that signified he was our friend forever and we always be in his heart. Later, we all wove bracelets out of cedar that Willie and Rose provided for us. Rose also taught some of us how to make a rose out of the cedar and how to attach it to our bracelets, almost like a charm. For us to easily use the cedar, it had to be soaked in warm water so it was less rigid when we wove our bracelets. In Indigenous culture, the first piece of work you create from cedar has to be given away to symbolize you won’t do it the same again, but better with fewer mistakes. It's best to give it to a special someone in our lives to make it more significant.

In the afternoon, we took the bus to the Royal BC Museum with Willie and Rose to meet three other Indigenous people, Sandra, Sandra’s husband, and Florence. In the museum, Sandra explained most people commonly mistaken Indigenous people for sharing the same language and dialect, when in reality, there are many different dialects which depend on where you live. Both Sandra and Florence described the different dialects they spoke and that in the Indigenous language, one word could mean a whole sentence which is pretty crazy to think about if you ask me. Sandra also spoke about how many Indigenous people suffered great identity loss. Children names were manipulated by the government in residential schools. After Sandra and Florence shared their stories we set out to explore the Indigenous part of the museum, with a different perspective in mind. Looking at the displays in the museum is when you could clearly see how much Indigenous people have suffered. When we finished looking at the displays, we headed back to the room we had reserved for us in the museum. In that room, Sandra made us this beautiful, giant cedar rose which we decided to put in the admissions office as a display. Florence also mentioned that they have many workshops in the summer for creating beautiful masterpieces out of cedar and anybody is allowed to join. Finally, Willie showed us how to play an Indigenous game called Slahall. The goal of the game is to have all the sticks. It’s pretty much a guessing game where you have to guess in which hand is the solid elk antler. It was the students versus the teachers and obviously, the students won the best out of three matches. The victory and the discussion we had as a group was a nice way to end off our day. We are all so excited for more expedition days to come!

Expedition #3- Student-Athlete Experience

Words & Photos from Tadeo Allerding

This week our cohort went to PISE to do some fitness testing, learn about some basic strength resistance training movements and nutrition. As we arrived at PISE, we met our trainers for the day Will and Elysia. We started off by doing a mobility warm up. This included the whole body and we were ready to start our fitness testing. The testing was divided into different stations. The first one Height, Grip Strength and  Sit and Reach. The second station consisted of a Vertical Jump test, where we had to jump on a mat, which then recorded our time in the air and then calculated how high our vertical jump was. The next few station were strength based and included a max. Push up test and a max. Plank hold test. The last test was a broad jump, which was taken really competitively.

We then went to a workout area in the complex and our trainers showed us some basic weight resistance movements. We started off with our lower body, for example squads and made our way up to a standing shoulder presses. We were all really amazed by the fact that there were so many things to consider while working out so that you don’t injure yourself.

After our hard workout was done we had lunch at the cafeteria at PISE. We were able to get some healthy sandwiches and some protein bars to refuel for the second part of the day.

The second part consisted of a long stretching part which really helped to get loose again and discuss the importance of mobility in sport performance and injury prevention. We did some foam rolling from head to toe. All of us had to realize that we had a lot of room to improve in that part of fitness.

The last activity we had was a lecture about nutrition. Because of the last expedition we already had some good background knowledge about nutrition, but this time we were able ask a lot more specific questions to our trainers, we now know a lot more about what to eat before and after games or practices. I look forward to continued work in this area on the next expeditions.

Expedition #2 - Ridgelines & Coastlines: Hiking, Paddling & Sampler

Words & Photos from Oliver K. & Marina F. - Ridgelines & Coastlines

For the second cohort activity, the outdoor groups (hiking, kayaking and island sampler) combined and drove out to Goldstream Provincial Park. We split into groups and proceeded to learn about certain life saving outdoor skills. First we were told about the rule of 3s as it relates to survival in the outdoor environment 3 Minutes without air, 3 Hours without Shelter (in desperate conditions), 3 Days without Water & 3 Weeks without Food. After, we learned the following about the essentials: fire, food, shelter and water:

Food: Here to find edible plants and such. Never eat the white berries! The climate that we are in is not the most forgiving and staying hungry instead of eating something but becoming sick is better.

Shelter: How to set up a makeshift cover where the rain flows right off the side leaving everything underneath completely dry. To roll up your rope correctly, we learned the Grenade Knot.

Water: How to sterilize water and transport it around. Iodine doesn’t taste good but it gets the job done. Boiling water at sea level for at least a few minutes, but higher altitudes it will take longer. Nifty tricks such as leaving a shirt out and collecting dew.

Fire: How to start a fire with shavings and kindling, and a flint and steel striker. After a few tries and burning a little too much char cloth, we successfully started a fire to boil the water that we collected and added some hot chocolate mix.

It was a nice way to end the day sitting next to a fire under leafy maple trees with a nice hot cup of cocoa, munching on a hotdog.

From Marina (Ridgelines & Coastlines Paddling)

Our day was pretty dang great!  I woke up and instead of sitting in a class, we got to be outside all day!  In the morning we took the bus up to Goldstream Park. When we got out of the bus we played some fun camp games then split into groups to learn survival skills.  The skills we focused on were fire building, orienteering, food, and tarp and shelter building.

A member from each group went to a particular skill station to become an ‘expert’ in it to later teach the rest of their group the skill.  I went to the fire building station and learned how to practically build a fire by splitting wood, making a good structure, using char cloth and lighting it using a magnesium fire starter rather than a lighter. Our group also got to watch Mr. Pope start a fire by using a bowline which was super cool to see in real life.  After learning a particular skill we went back to our groups and participated in a challenge, to survive in the wilderness!  We had to set up rain-proof tarps, use a compass to find ‘food’ and water, make a fire and finally roast a hot dog on our fires.  The catch was, the expert in the survival skill had to teach the group the skill without participating in the actual activity. The challenge was a lot of fun, and it was really satisfying to see our camp set up in the end.  

After we drank our hot chocolate and ate our lunches around the campfire, we walked down and explored the river. It was awesome! We got to see a bunch of salmon gathered in an eddy after swimming upstream. Overall, I had a great day.  It’s easy to get caught up in the stress of school or day to day life so by taking the day to get outside and really appreciate nature and the simple things in life was really awesome.

From Andrew G. -Ridgelines & Coastlines Sampler

For the second expedition day the Outdoor Sampler cohort traveled to Goldstream Provincial Park along with the other outdoor cohorts, where we learned outdoor survival skills. At the start of the day we played various icebreaker games and split ourselves into three groups. Each group was learning a different skill. Group one was learning how to build shelters, group two was learning how to build and light a fire, and the group I was doing food, water and navigation. We did small workshops in our groups for about an hour and a half in the morning.

My group learned skills like how to navigate in the outdoors, where to find water and how to make it safe to drink while compensating for certain factors like altitude and condition of the water around. We also learned “the rule of three”. This is the rule that tells you the order of your priorities if you are in a survival situation. About an hour before lunch the three groups merged together and formed five smaller groups with one or two representatives from each of the shelter, fire, and food/water/navigation groups. The representatives from each group were not allowed to use the skills they had learned, they had to teach the others how to do the skill they learned. I especially had trouble tying the ‘truckers knot’ used to tie up the tarp for the shelter.

After lighting our fire I had to teach my group how to use a compass bearing to find a pot and food that had been hidden in the forest. In the afternoon we went for a walk down to the stream and saw the last salmon heading upstream for the salmon run. During this day my cohort learned a lot of survival and safety aspects of being in the outdoors. I am sure that I will be able to use these skills on later expedition days and when I am going on outdoor trips.

Expedition #2 - Music Writing & Production

Words & Photos by Devon M. & Rick X. - Music Writing & Production Cohort

On our second cohort of the year, the music production group went back to Mr. Farish’s house to start writing our own music and meet with a local musician and producer. Essentially we divided ourselves into two groups, one of the groups practiced to play Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift as a small band with a guitar player, a bass player, a pianist, a keyboard player and a singer. The other group was working on writing their own songs using multiple apps from their laptops and also using guitars and ukuleles.

Even if some of us didn't know how to play an instrument, we combined our talents weather it be writing lyrics or creating a melody, and by the end of the day had some solid songs in progress. We all made lunch together and discussed what our further plans would be for the day. The group who was writing songs went through the process of performing and tweaking them with the constructive criticism from others. We met with a man who helped teach us how to use a mixing board and how to create a professional sound on a easy to use computer installation.

Due to the fact that the time is quite limited, we weren’t able to completely finish the songs, however, we were able to record Safe and Sound and with a little bit more editing will sound really good. It was overall a really fun experience and we can’t wait to see what more we can achieve throughout this coming year!

Expedition #2 - Ceramics & Glass Fusion Cohort

Words & Photos from Michael D. - Ceramics & Glass Cohort

For the Glass and Clay Fusion cohort, our group spent the day learning about ways to cut and fuse glass. We started off by walking in the rain to the Derby classroom. The first thing that we did was learned how to cut glass to get shapes that we want. It’s more simple than you would expect, all you do is score your line in the glass and then snap it, and it should snap on the line.

Our first project was to make little orange starfish, so we cut out five shapes for the arms of the starfish. After that we picked out pieces of variously coloured glass that we would eventually cut and piece together to form a rectangle of patterns that could be hung like a picture on a wall. It was very cool to see all the colour patterns that everyone had made with their pieces of glass. Those were the main projects of this experiential day.

After we had lunch back at the school, we had some extra time so we made little Christmas ornaments that we drilled holes into so they could be hung from a tree. We made little trees and other Christmas-y ornaments. Then we went back to the school and we glazed our clay sculptures from the previous expedition day. We had made mugs, cups, and bowls. We painted them with food safe glaze so that we could drink and eat out of them. Overall it was a very fun and interesting experiential day, and I look forward to developing my skills through the upcoming sessions.

Expedition #2 - Writing & Visual Art: One Wild & Precious Life

Words & Media from Inez S. - Writing & Visual Art Cohort

Returning back to our local artist Michelle’s personal art studio, who recently got married (congratulations!), we began today’s long-awaited cohort session with a quick warm-up activity. Three different songs written by unique individuals were played and we were tasked to describe a scenery we thought of in our head and describe it using our five senses. After a brief discussion of our ideas, we went on to practicing our hand-eye coordination by taking turns in posing and drawing one another.

Many of us became a lot more deformed then we actually appear to be which led to a series of light-hearted laughs and giggles. Next, moving on the the art aspect of our cohort, we copied our deformed drawings onto a canvas and began to paint layers and layers of different tones colors on top. At first it didn’t start up well for some, but after constant reminders from our teacher to not get attached to our piece, we eventually made it towards a stage in our art where all of us were satisfied. As a small break and reward for accomplishment, each of us ate and snacked on soft brownies and chewy chocolate chip cookies brought by Mr. Dewar and Ms. Macdonald while Michelle served us with warm refreshing tea.

Moving on to our next writing prompt, we wrote nouns and verbs that described the knives and were tasked to write a short narrative using those words we thought of. To end the day, we finished up by taking turns in commenting on what we feel or see in each others’ pieces. Sadly, due to lack of time, we were unable to share the comments we received from each other but all of us look forward to having that opportunity to share in our next session after winter break. 

Expedition #2- Giddy Up! Leadership Through Ranching Cohort

Words & Photos from Elle N. - Giddy Up! Cohort

This week the Giddy Up! Leadership through Ranching cohort made even more progress at Ambleside Farms. The day started out bright and early with a long bus ride to the stables. After our arrival we were separated into two groups, and began our assigned tasks. Once again, the first group began with riding and the second group went ahead with horse care. While cleaning the horse, we practiced readying them for shows by trying out various grooming techniques. As well as attempting the painstakingly meticulous show braids.

We also tackled polo wraps (wraps around the horses’ legs), which were surprisingly difficult to get just right. When it was finally time to ride we practiced tacking the horses again, as well as all of the skills from our previous lesson. This included walking with and without a line and the posting trot. Once we felt comfortable enough with our abilities the instructors encouraged us to try balancing on the horse with no hands while trotting, and some of the more advanced riders even tried the different jumps. It’s safe to say that everyone made significant progress and that all of us are starting to become more confident around the horses. Whether we gained it by physically riding them, or by merely being in their presence. It is also evident that as our confidence grows, so does the horse’s inclination to listen to us, therefore improving our skills and techniques.

Time flew by very quickly and before we knew it, it was time for us to clean up and go home. I look forward to our next expedition and am confident that we will all continue to grow in both skill and self-confidence as the year goes on.

Expedition #2- Fashion Design & Industry Cohort

Words & Photos from Sienna P. - Fashion Design & Industry Cohort

This week in the Fashion Design and Industry cohort, we went in search of patterns and fabric to start to create our own clothing. After a brief debrief in the Bolton-Timmis Common Room where we found out our measurements and sizes, we all headed onto a bus to go to FabricLand. Once there we looked through pattern books to try and find an article of clothing that we wanted to try to recreate. Once we had found out a pattern we wanted to make, we all spread out across the store to look for fabric that we liked. As easy as this may sound, it was in fact, a very difficult task. With such a large store, we spent the majority of our day wandering through the store finding our fabrics, zippers, threads, and cutting out the amount that we needed. Once we were all satisfied with our choices we headed back to the school and after a lunch period, got to cutting out our patterns, and pinning them to our fabrics. The idea of cutting out pieces of paper, and then pinning them to a fabric may not seem hard until you look and see that the paper bears a striking resemblance to tissue paper, and that certain pieces need to be pinned in certain, complicated, ways. Luckily, we had music to make the time pass, and lift our spirits. By the time that most of us were working on our pinning, we realized that it was time to pack up and call it a day. I'm sure that all of us are eagerly awaiting our next session to start sewing our projects and trying them on!

Expedition #2- Student-Athlete Experience Cohort

Words & Photos from Ethan B. - Student-Athlete Experience Cohort

Last week I went downtown Victoria with my student-athlete cohort to learn about nutrition and to have a workout. We started off by taking a trip to the Market on Yates, a local grocery store, where we bought many ingredients for the recipes that we were going to make later. After walking to the Victoria Public Market at the Hudson we met with Dr. Kim McQueen, ND (our cooking instructor) at the Good Life Fitness kitchen. She spoke to us about basic nutrition and tips on how to eat well while going to workouts and practices. Soon after we started making our first snack, a nut smoothie and a bar both consisting of mainly nuts, seeds and cocoa powder. The bar was a bigger hit than the smoothie.

For our training portion of the day, we then walked to Body Dynamics Headquarters, A little gym hidden between Lululemon and MEC on Johnson Street. Our instructor told us that we were going to go through some sets of 10 push ups, 10 sit ups, 10 burpees and a run down the block and back. After a few sets he told us that now we would actually start the workout. 45 minutes later when we were all sweaty, and we had finished the “crossfit” type of workout, we had 30 minutes to do what we wanted to before we met with Dr. Kim again to make lunch. Some of us went to get bubble tea and toured around Chinatown.

We returned to the Public Market where we would soon make a glory bowl and granola. When we had purchased more fresh ingredients like local, organic chicken from a store beside us we began to prep our meal, cooking rice and tofu, cutting up the chicken, slicing beets and carrots, putting out sprouts and roasted almonds, and making the dressing. Everyone really enjoyed the glory bowl and most of us went for seconds even though Tadeo somehow left multiple bones in the chicken.

For our final project of the day made granola. It only took five minutes and tasted great. As for how this day went as a whole I believe that everyone enjoyed it and we all felt great afterwards. After seeing what our cohort is going to look like my group and I are very excited to see what this year brings for us in the Student-Athlete Experience.

Expedition #2- Who Am I? Exploring Cultural Roots Cohort

Words & Photos from Trent C. - Who Am I? Cohort

We started the day by heading to the University of Victoria to talk to Jordan Hanson, who is one of the leading instructors of drums and rhythm instruments on Vancouver Island, and also happens to be a professor at the University He first taught us the different techniques of playing on a djembe drum, which is far more nuanced then I had imagined. Later, we started to play different parts and it all came together to sound beautiful. After playing the drums we went on to play the African xylophone. We played complex rhythms and even played our own solo’s.

After lunch, we headed a little up island to a roundhouse on a farm where we played in our first drum circle. Jordan joined us on the trip and showed us all different types of instruments he’s found during his journeys all around the world to study the use of drums in various cultures. He taught us about the role the instrument played in various ceremonies around the world. We all started to play on the Cajon drum which was personally my favorite out of all the instruments we played. We all started to rotate playing different instruments and different parts that all came together. Some people were playing the Cajon drum some people were playing the hang which was a flying saucer-like instrument and some people were playing on the hand drum. We ended playing all types of different pieces to round the whole day up. 

I look forward to future expeditions, and the opportunity to further explore our musical roots.

Expedition #2 - Alternative Energy & Design Cohort

Words & Photos from Dewi W.- Alternative Energy Cohort

Wednesday’s dreary morning was met by the excitement of another expedition day. We met with Mr. England, Mr. Donatelli, and Mr. Ingimundson explained to us that today’s task was focused on creating our very own wind turbines to put atop the science building.

The work was split into three stations, one working with hard manual labour, another with more precise woodworking, and one creating energy alternators. As I said the first station was the hard manual labour, which was certainly an interesting wake-up call. The teachers simply put us next to a bench with wooden templates of what to build, a saw, a hammer, and a drill and told us to replicate everything four times. We got right down to it, happy to start off with an aggressive task. We copied the outline from the templates to the wood we were going to cut, grabbed a saw and sawed off. After we finished cutting the first plank of wood Mr. England brought us a jigsaw. We were all really hesitant and scared to use a jigsaw for the first time but cut after cut we got more confident and the work was immensely easier. Once we finished sawing we got on to drilling holes through the wood and screwing the bolts and nuts in to hold the pieces of wood together.

The rotation brought us to the second station which was focused on cutting out the heart of the wind turbine, the generator. Mr. I warned us that we had to be extremely careful in how we cut because it had to be extremely precise because the slightest imperfection in cutting out these pieces would result in an unbalanced disc, so a less efficient generator. We were using a jigsaw for this part too and it is a good thing that we had practice with it before because I feel like we would have cut extremely wavy instead of straight.

The third station finally gave us a bit of a break. We were supervised by Mr. Donatelli on how to coil up copper wire in a perfect way so that it would have the best repulsion on the magnets and so maximize efficiency. It was a painful job. We had the start of the coil stuck inside a wooden frame with a triangle shape on which we would coil up the wire so that it had the perfect shape. We attached that frame to a drill so we didn’t have to roll it up manually. Here comes the painful part: We had to count 250 turns of the coil and once we were done we took the coil out of the triangle and started again until we had 12 coiled up wires.

Apart from that our day was very fun and I particularly loved all the hands-on work on the wood and using the jigsaw. Having the chance to not only learn about alternative energy but actually working on it ourselves is the opportunity of a lifetime. I speak not only for myself but my fellow “cohort-classmates”.

Expedition #2 - Sports Analytics Cohort

Words & Photos from Divyesh N. - Sports Analytics Cohort

In the Sports Analytics Cohort, we started off our day with a wonderful presentation from our very own, Mr. Aaron Takel. Mr. Takel was involved as an analyst with the Canadian national rugby team. He spoke to us about the program he used to record game data so that it could be pulled up after a game as points of discussion and improvement. My favourite part of the presentation was learning about SportsCode, a software that allows an analyst to record play-by-play information with video footage to match!

After the fascinating presentation, the team really got into our day with an analysis of the epic Monday Night Football matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the Kansas City Chiefs. We looked into the statistics of the starting quarterbacks and calculated their NFL and NCAA ratings with some serious number-plugging on Excel Spreadsheet. After this intense, interesting session, we settled down and had lunch.

After lunch, the Sports Analytics crew was ready for the apex of the day. We were going to go to Golf Town! At Golf Town, we were divided into two groups. My group started out on the practice putting green. For the sake of gathering some statistics, we were each instructed to putt five balls from 3 ft, 6 ft, 9 ft, and 12 ft, respectively. This was many people’s favourite part of the day as we were able to get into some healthy competition with each other. After we settled a 3rd place tiebreaker between Liam, Theo, and Robson, we moved to the golf simulator. There, we got to practice our golf form and gather data. We all had some solid hits, but none of them were a match to Mr. Geddes’ swing that moved the ball over 250 yards! I feel that the trip to Golf Town served as a source of balance in our cohort as we could not call ourselves a sports cohort if all we did was talk about sports! In other words, we cannot collect sports data if people do not go out and create the data.

Overall, we had an exciting day with an eye-opening presentation on how the the Canadian national rugby team uses sports analytics, a review of football statistics with a record-breaking football game, and a trip to Golf Town. I not sure about everyone else, but I sure know that I am eager to see how our golf statistics compare to those of professional golfers during our next expedition.

Expedition #2 - School Grounds Coffee Company

Words and Photos from Nekhil G. - School Grounds Coffee Cohort

On our second experiential education day, we travelled to the original Discovery Coffee location in downtown Victoria.

On arrival, we were met with the company’s cheery owner, Mr. Logan Gray, and the delicious aroma of freshly ground beans. We immediately knew that we were in for a great day.
As per our itinerary, our morning began with Head Roasters, Robin and Cory, who taught us that coffee grows well in the sunny region between the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn. We also learnt that the coffee bean is actually the seed of a fruit, called a cherry, which turns a deep red colour when it is ripe. Once the coffee is harvested, it is processed in one of two ways, either by a washed or natural method.

Robin also demonstrated how to roast beans. The coffee undergoes several chemical changes during this process, which is characterized by two phases known as the first and second crack. In the end, the beans which started out green, appeared brown. Cory shared that the green beans were hand-selected from farmers across the world. The source and age of the beans are especially important as they influence the taste of the coffee. Once the best-quality beans are selected, they are combined in different ratios to create multi-origin blends that are subjected to a series of taste tests.

At Yonni's bakery, we were given the sweet opportunity bake donuts with the Head Baker, Janice and Discovery Coffee’s General Manager, Kara. The bakery produces more than four thousand donuts a week, from scratch. Dough removed to create the donut centres is used to make “D-Holes" and all leftover doughnuts are donated to local food banks. At the end of the station, we were each treated to a donut. One bite in and we were hooked. They were divine.
During our final station, the Education Manager, Brittany’s passion shone through as she taught us how to brew coffee. We learnt that “extraction is everything that the water takes from the coffee.” (Matt Perger, 2015). We were surprised to discover that there are several steps involved in pulling the perfect espresso. The session ended with a tasting session called cupping. There, we were drinking espressos like professionals, noting its aroma, flavour, aftertaste and appearance.

In addition to guiding us through his daily grind, the operation of the roastery, bakery and cafe, Mr. Logan Gray granted us an interview, during which we learnt that he started Discovery Coffee with his father and brother. The road to success was not easy but they persevered and today, this locally-owned, family-run business, has expanded to include seventy-five employees who work across five locations, a food truck, bakery, roastery and training centre, which offers an impressive selection of coffee education and barista courses. By the end of the afternoon, we roasted more than thirty batches of coffee. On the whole, the day proved to be a perfect blend of coffee theory and hands-on learning.

As a group, we have a new-found appreciation for coffee’s journey from seed to cup.
This experience has certainly inspired us to use the skills we’ve gained to bring joy to SMUS, one perfectly brewed cup of coffee at a time.

Here is a video edited from Jessica C. in our cohort showing the highlights of our day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjh6zH7tVyg