Junior School Students Celebrate BC at Heritage Fair

June 29, 2022

Academics

GNS

This year the fair was virtual and students from across the province took part to talk about their projects.

All Grade 4 students at GNS complete a heritage inquiry project in the Winter Term, but some students choose to dive deeper into their subjects and present them at the South Vancouver Island Regional Heritage Fair. Those students were Tory, Kayci, Emma, Jecca, Elora, Rose, Everly and Jada.

Jada, Everly and Rose then chose to represent GNS at the BC Heritage Fair this past weekend.

Everly was one of five students to be awarded the Science World Award for excellence in cross-disciplinary projects, as hers was on Vancouver Island marmots.

“I wanted to make my project on Vancouver Island marmots because they are really cute,” she said. “It’s important to increase the awareness of the marmot as an endangered species as, they are unique to Vancouver Island and are part of our natural heritage.”

Bringing awareness to the plight of the Vancouver Island marmot is important for Everly and she hopes efforts to protect them continue.

Jada was awarded the Alumni Choice Award for her project, “The Amazing Life of Coal Mining.”

“I talk about my great great grandfather Alexander Silver MacNeil,” she explained. “I really wanted to learn more about my family and when I started learning about him I got really interested in coal mining because that’s what he did. Then I started learning about coal mining, how he supported it and stood up for miners’ rights—it was just really fun to learn about my family and knowing I have a good connection to Canadian history through him.”

Being able to participate in the heritage fair was special for Jada, as her sister Sasha participated when she was younger.

Rose created her heritage project on Emily Carr that revolved around her life and paintings. She was awarded the Maritime Museum of BC Award.

“I wanted to do my project on Emily Carr because I recently got a book for my birthday, The Book of Small by Emily Carr,” she said, adding that people should know about her because she was a prolific British Columbia artist that made interesting paintings.

For the heritage fair, Rose dressed up in nineteenth-century attire t and was excited to present her project.

“It was fun putting this together because I got to create a slideshow, which is great, and I had so much fun working with the different colours, and researching facts about [Emily],” she said.

Congratulations to all three GNS students for presenting at the BC Heritage Fair!