Oak Bay High School had the opportunity to host the 2024 Water is Life convention in which they hosted high school students from 12 countries with the goal of providing students with a science, literacy, and cultural experience.
From June 29 to July 6, dozens of students from across the world came to Oak Bay to participate in the conference in which they had the chance to write a scientific paper about water and water security and later have it judged. They got to present posters to their peers and created a performance to share their individual cultures to the rest of the participants.
"Water is one of the topics that unifies across countries, across cultures, across continants," said Derek Shrubsole, a teacher at Oak Bay High School and an organizer of the event.
Students had the opportunity to write a scientific paper and create a poster about water in the environment that they are from. They created projects about sustainability, technology, social issues and stewardship, which was then judged in a competition setting and later in the week the best team was named as the winner.
"Some [of the students] are high-level, high-functioning, high-achieving, motivated students," said Shrubsole. "The idea is to give them real-world skills, but then the other part is to give them a cultural experience."
Throughout the week, participants went whale watching, hiked East Sooke Park and Goldstream Park, and they went to the Royal B.C. Museum to immerse themselves in local culture. At the end of the week they held "international afternoon" where students got to perform a dance, music, or other presentation representative of their home country.
