Tyler took the group last Sunday for a tour of Scout Island; displayed here are two views from the Island. This is View #1.
This is View #2 from Scout Island.
After the Scout Island tour, Tyler continued his tour up at Bond Lake Caves. This is the entrance to the “Freezer”. We did not go inside, however, one can estimate how cold it is after the day it snowed heavily through the night. However, it’s a perfect place to explore with the proper gear during the hot summers!
Here are two views of the topography around the Bond Lake caves. This is View #1. The social studies majors had a good discussion about how this region came to be. Was it due to seismic uplifting? Was it a type of karst landscape? Was it an earthquake break-up that caused the rocks to jam? Or did an extinct volcano exist in the region before and leave these remnants? Any suggestions from the public?
This is View #2 of the topography in the Bond Lake Caves region.
On Monday and Tuesday, I helped out in the final preparation stages to help Heavy Metal Rocks run smoothly. I photocopied pages for student, parent, and operator packages and put them together. I’ve helped with loading snacks into Lisa’s truck and I’ve also personalized 26 student backpacks while stuffing them full of swag from the sponsors!
Wednesday! Our First Day is orientation day at Thompson Rivers University with several sponsors that present to the students about safety. After lunch the students headed up to the gravel pit and met the pit boss. They also spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the site by picking up garbage and potential hazards to prepare for their station activities the following day.
Here’s a hard-working student that was helping set up chairs, tables, and tents after the orientation meeting!
Another snapshot of some hardworking students listening to instructions and filling up their garbage bags.
Tent set-up Teamwork!
Skyline Alternate School girls after-class feats. Dirty faces = hard work!
A class photo to start things off!
Mr. John Purdy! Our Pit Boss for the program.
These are my lovely 2 supervisors from the School District 27 Board Office that I’ve had the opportunity to work with. Gord Armour on the left and Lisa Kraus in the front. These two displayed the best type of teamwork I’ve ever seen. They’ve been working together for about 20 years and can read each others’ minds before their sentences even gets finished! Day 1 of the program is over; Kim the awesome bus driver has arrived to pick the students up.
From Thursday through Saturday the students engaged in 13 station activities at the gravel pit. This is the first of 4 photos of an aerial view of the work site.
View #2 of the gravel pit work site.
View #3 of the gravel pit work site.
View #4 of the gravel pit work site.
This was an amazing shot. Kind of like a fantasyland for construction advertisements. You’ve got 2 different kinds of equipment in the background along with some nice, fluffy clouds.
Pictured here is Jack Roberts learning how to repair power line problems. This was one of the amazing experiences that Heavy Metal Rocks brought to the work site that allows students to not only engage with construction equipment but also have an opportunity to experience work in the electrical trades.
Electrical station work. Detaching the power connection on the high power line from the switch after the fuse is pulled down.
This was the bulldozer station. The students operated the equipment in pairs with another partner. In this scenario, one of the students posed with the operator on the old version dozer while his partner operated the newer dozer behind this one.
The program also has a station with a simulator on site. Here we see two students learning how to use the controls before they start up a type of dump truck.
An operator here showing a student how to use a forklift. This piece of equipment is also called a “zoom boom” because it can extend its boom (main arm) to assist in lifting heavy materials at a work site.
A demonstration by an operator to show when the student will know that they have mastered this piece of machinery.
This student was just impressive! His demonstration of skill in using the mini excavator almost allowed him to stack a pile of rocks 5 high. What a meticulous and patient feat!
My team partner Katrina learning how to drive the HM300 truck with operator Allison.
Accomplishments of the second last day. The rain poured down the entire day and these students can’t look any happier than this to go home. Time for a group shot!
On the final day, the parents were allowed to come to the work site to watch their students finish their final station and the awards presentations. These were some of the parents lookin’ great during the break session.
There’s Brett and his family getting ready to start their final station at the HM300 truck.
And Finally! Some photos of myself operating a few stations! Here I am driving a tractor at Station #11.
This was my expression after I just hopped off the grader. I must say that this was one of the harder machines to operate than some of the other ones.
Alls well that ends well. My duties on top of organizational tasks included being a participant of the program with the students, taking photos of what was going on around the site, and also help out whenever possible. I’ve printed the student certificates at the end and volunteered to help out at the presentation of awards. The greatest advice I’ve learned in this outdoor education experience was to experience the activity with the students so that even the instructor can have something to relate to the students when we recap on the day. This is exactly what happened on the bus ride home at the end of the day. I’ve had great conversations with students on how difficult or easy some of the stations were compared to others.
On Sunday, the teacher candidates staying at Williams Lake along with visiting TCs from 100 mile house went to Horsefly Lake for an afternoon of boating activities! The hosts were Ann and her husband who works at Skyline Offsite Alternate School. This was their dog Rosie looking out into the lake.
Jacky with Rosie on a paddle boat.
Tyler and Heather on a paddle boat with Rosie.
Heather and Megan on a double kayak.
Check out that amazing view of the lake!
Vitor showing some Capoeira moves. This concludes the Week 2 overview because I have used up my 500MB quota on the website. I will try to add more photos to this weekend excursion if UBC WordPress allows me extra space. Cheers!
