Day 10 Session (July 11, 2006)
- Posted by: chantal
- On: 07/11/2006 16:09:54
- In: Uncategorised
Alberta - Connecting to our Neighbours
Katie and Katelyn, Grade 4 students at Northmount School in Edmonton, hosted the final video-conference session for this year's Folklife Festival. They were joined by their classmates, who represent 17 different cultural backgrounds, to talk about various aspects of life in Alberta.
The first presentation featured Alberta resources including trees, gasoline, coal, plastic, food (because "we all need food to live") and farming, "a good way to get food!"
The second presentation entitled "Alberta" highlighted the Rocky Mountains and the meaning of the Alberta flag. This presentation spurred audience members to ask, "How tall is the tallest mountain?" and "What is the main language spoken?"
Dustin and Brian then spoke about the Whyte Avenue "party strip" where "silly people run down the streets," and answered questions about who was considered the main player for the Edmonton Oilers. Similarly, Thanathorns spoke about the Edmonton Oilers and noted that the "Oilers always win in Rexall Place in the playoffs." Melissa and Nisreen also touched on two Alberta sports-hockey and football-and the rivalries that exist between the Edmonton Eskimos/Calgary Stampeders and the Edmonton Oilers/Calgary Flames. According to the two girls, the Calgary Flames have a fire in their symbol because "they think they are hot."
Hamdia and Shannon spoke about travelling in Alberta and included pictures of destinations such as Jasper, Drumheller, Dinosaur Provincial Park, and Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump. They also talked about the three-hour drive between Alberta's two largest urban centres. One Washington audience member was curious how long the commute would take by train or plane.
In their Powerpoint presentation, Jordon and Mohamed related their video-conferencing experiences using the Alberta SuperNet, "a very nice invention." While some sessions were nerve-wracking having to listen to ghost stories or answer questions in front of the camera, the students were afforded opportunities to connect to NASA, the Cincinnati Museum, the Ohio Supercomputer Center, and more. Sara and Kelsey also shared their experiences using video-conferencing to connect with local sites (George H. Luck School in Edmonton) to talk about Alberta, the environment and school work.
The Washington audience learned about West Edmonton Mall courtesy of Sunpreet and Clayton and video footage from Normount's "Room 7 field trip" was also shown. The field trip took the students to the Waste Water Treatment Plant which, while "stinky" helps to clean Edmonton water; the Waste Management Centre; Rundle Park; Chickakoo Lake Nature Reserve which had "outhouses with flushless toilets"; Fort Edmonton Park; and to teacher Mr. Schade's house for a water fight.
Northmount students wanted to know what kind of activities Washington kids were involved in and what their favorite part of the Folklife Festival was. The Washington audience unanimously responded with "the dinosaur dig!" Another popular topic of conversation was the weather and how Albertans deal with the frigid cold.
