The students have created a video, ‘Port Royal: Canada’s First Drugstore’, that can be viewed and voted for at www.myparkspass.ca/video-gallery
Voting continues until Feb. 22, and the top 10 public choice videos will then be judged by a panel in Ottawa closes to determine which grade 8 class in Canada wins a four day trip to Banff National Park in May.
ICS is the only Tri-County Region school to enter the competition and says one vote per computer internet address is allowed per day.
“Our school is so small in population, we are worried we will be swamped by larger schools and their voting weight,” said teacher Susanna Haley.
“Already, on day four of voting, our video is up against stiff competition. Our 60 votes pale in comparison to larger schools who have 600-plus votes.”
Last fall, the grade 8 social studies class at ICS headed to Port Royal to learn about local history and do some filmmaking. The students’ video is about Louis Hébert who is credited with being Canada’s first apothecary. He came to Port Royal in 1606 and was widely respected by French settlers and Mi’kmaq alike.
Bear River and Bear Island are both named after him, according to the Parks Canada website, Haley said.
“We thought his work in both farming and medicine made him an important person at the Port Royal settlement whose presence is sometimes overshadowed by other settlers such as Samuel de Champlain.”
Directed, edited and narrated by grade 8 student Carter Thurber, who has been receiving international and celebrity attention for his independently made and YouTube published Lego version of The Hunger Games preview, the video also includes the talents of Hannah Allbright, Taylor Barnaby, Dustin Campbell, Maeve Dixon, Cassidy Frost, Kassidy Harris, Andrew Le, Kelsi Sullivan—including a brief musical contribution—and Alyssa Teed.
