Our Living Ocean (9-10)

Dive into Vancouver’s marine backyard for a day of real-world science, design, and discovery! We’ll spark curiosity with a fast-paced “sense of place” warm-up—how the ocean shapes our city—and set today’s mission: notice like scientists, think like designers, and show what you’ve learned like communicators.

Mid-morning we’ll walk to a nearby beach for a guided shore study. Working in pairs, campers use clipboards to capture how “people and the ocean are inextricably interconnected,” sketch what they see, and (if available) collect a few empty shells for a later demo. Rain or shine, it’s hands-on coastal science done safely and respectfully.

Back at camp, teams turn field notes into colorful Popplet mind maps, then run a simple ocean acidification investigation using jars, vinegar, and shells to see how changing water chemistry can affect marine life.

In the afternoon, we zoom out to ocean life at every depth—brainstorming species, scanning short expert clips, and creating a clean, eye-catching biodiversity infographic that shows where different creatures live and why that matters.

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Maker Space (9-10)

Invent, tinker, and test like real engineers!

In the morning, teams design wildly creative marble-run Rube Goldberg machines—planning sequences, building with cardboard + tape, and iterating to get that perfect chain reaction.

Next up, we wire a playful Galaxy Bot that doodles surprising patterns using a small motor, batteries, and markers—pure joyful STEM in motion.

After lunch and a brain-break at the park, we sprint into a soap-powered boat challenge—sketch, cut, launch, and compare designs to see whose boat glides farthest.

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TV Reporters (9-10)

Lights, camera, teamwork! In this fast-moving media day, budding journalists form newsroom crews and rotate real roles—anchor, camera, producer, and editor—so everyone practices speaking, filming, organizing, and quality control.

Teams scan the day’s headlines, pick three stories, and craft a tight 60-second script using a large-font teleprompter in Google Docs to keep delivery smooth and natural. (Producers keep everyone on time!)

Then it’s showtime: students film against a green screen with iPads and tripod, swap roles, and learn on-set etiquette—from chair colours to file safety—before moving into iMovie editing to add the news intro and render a finished broadcast.

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Canada: Then (9-10)

Step into Canada’s past and turn history into a story you can see! In this hands-on media day, students read from Paul Yee’s Ghost Train, distill key moments in the past, and transform them into a photographed graphic novel—storyboarding scenes, planning camera angles, and working in small production teams.

With iPads, simple costumes, and a camera-angles guide, crews stage and shoot their chapters—and, if available at the campus, experiment with a green-screen backdrop for period settings. Collaborative roles keep everyone engaged, from directing to acting to capturing the perfect shot.

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Graphic Novels (9-10)

Write it. Draw it. Publish it—in a day! Budding creators will crack the code of comics, learning how panels, gutters, and page flow guide the eye, how to use captions vs. speech balloons (with tidy tails!), and when to choose wide, medium, or close-up shots for maximum drama. Then they’ll spark a story by drawing Genre/Character/Problem cards, craft a punchy one-sentence logline, and thumbnail a 6–8 panel tale with clear balloon order and at least one bold close-up.

With confidence and clarity, students turn thumbnails into a polished Page 1—penciling, inking, and adding simple tones—using kid-friendly tools like page templates, fineliners, and an SFX/balloon guide, plus a quick peer check for readability. After lunch and park time to recharge, we launch a fast, joyful production sprint: finishing 4–6 more pages, designing a cover with title and author self-portrait, and assembling a real mini-zine to take home. We end with a proud Author’s Chair share or hallway gallery so every artist leaves published.

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