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the linden school 10 rosehill avenue toronto on m4t 1g5 · 416-966-4406 · www.lindenschool.ca · linden@lindenschool.ca the linden letter winter 2010 highlights of this issue faculty conversations jennifer ross senior art teacher by kate raven when you ask jennifer ross the linden school s senior art teacher what her dream job is it doesn t take her long to answer my dream job i ve already got it she says with a smile jennifer took up her current position at linden at the beginning of the school year but her history with linden goes back much further a few years ago she taught grade 3 at the school and in 2004 she enrolled her eldest daughter emma here i decided to take her out of the public system because of the lack of a girl-centred environment she explains when i was looking for a new school i was really drawn to linden s holistic approach ­ the way all of the different subjects are integrated with each other but above all i chose linden for emma because i knew that here the girl-centred aspect of her education would be supported not questioned festival of lights page 6 linden s dream team page 8 jennifer as artist frida kahlo on halloween 2009 inside festival of lights environment news sports linden around linden drama linden science olympics alumnae update admissions update 6 7 8 10 12 13 14 16 teaching is jennifer s second career but art has always been a part of her life before she earned her teaching certification at the ontario institute for studies in education oise jennifer taught art in a nonacademic context for 25 years i taught at community centres after work she says eventually i realized that what i was doing after i finished my job was what i really wanted to be doing for my job after earning her visual art teaching qualification from oise she instantly knew she wanted to again pursue a career at linden in my earlier time at linden and through emma s experience i was finally seeing feminist teaching strategies in action and not just on paper ­ i really wanted an opportunity to teach art that way continued on page 2 the linden letter winter 2010 · 1

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faculty conversations interview with senior art teacher jennifer ross continued from previous page those who don t learn their art history are doomed to repeat it jennifer s students are working on a number of different projects in many different media but it all comes back to one common theme stick-thin models and only about 6 in every 3,000 women have this body type genetically she says however one of the many wonderful things about teaching art at linden jennifer says is that her students are accustomed to deconstructing media images of women the pump has been primed in terms of not believing the hype she says my students are quite willing to reject these standards because at linden there are so many other areas of life and achievement that are being supported and expressed like leadership social justice athletics and academics every piece of art we look at has to do with representations of women ­ especially with how those representations have changed throughout history she says for example we ll go back to the early paintings of the madonna that idealized motherhood and promoted female virtues and i ll ask my students `how would the women of that time have to this end many of jennifer s measured up to this standard favourite projects involve the girls often don t realize just playing with popular portrayals how restrictive portrayals of jennifer top second from left works with one of her art of women i love asking the classes earlier this year women were girls to work on pieces that show their `ugly sides or to create work that is both pretty so restrictive in fact that women represented in art really and ugly simultaneously she says art classes at many only fell into three main categories if an artist was going other schools encourage girls to make art that s pretty to represent a woman that woman could be represented if a girl was to create a piece that is dark disturbing and as the madonna as a goddess or as a historical figure ­ stormy teachers might say `why are you doing that here nothing else jennifer says these figures all typify female i encourage girls to explore their dark sides instead of virtues ­ they show women how to behave and how they suppressing them should look jennifer s emphasis ­ not focusing on pretty ­ is reflected though these main female figures remained constant in the work of many modern female artists there are lots of throughout the ages their appearances shifted according to women artists today who aren t interested in pretty or who the beauty standards of the age imposing further restrictions even purposefully create things that are ugly she says on women there has always been the photographer cindy sherman a beauty standard and it has always i m being encouraged to help for example often takes self-portraits been unanimous even if the beauty girls add to the canon of art that are disturbing even grotesque standard was attainable in one way it history and to make them aware would be unreachable for many women of a world they may never have many people especially men often in another jennifer says during the had access to otherwise and it s don t understand what motivates raphael period for example there was a artists such as sherman to create a very exciting world more forgiving portrayal of female bodies something ugly ­ and this jennifer but women were inevitably painted with -jennifer ross explains is the point so much of blonde hair and blue eyes art throughout history appeals to the `male gaze she says the male in looking at modern art and media with her classes jennifer gaze is a well-documented phenomenon throughout art points out that these standards have perhaps never been so history in paintings created to appeal to the male gaze unattainable as they are today most magazines portray female subjects are passive often demurely looking over 2 · the linden letter winter 2010

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faculty conversations what are linden art students doing this year wondering how jennifer s approach to teaching takes shape here are two examples of the projects her students are working on this year pretty/ugly twisted faces what it is and why jennifer does it the purpose of jennifer s pretty/ugly projects is to encourage girls to deconstruct media images of women we take glossy impossibly perfect photos of women and `melt half of the face or create a composite image out of many magazines to make something grotesque jennifer says each girl brings her own unique perspective to this project and the resulting portraits convey a powerful message heel dedication what it is and why jennifer does it for this project each student chooses an influential woman whether it be a famous figure or someone from her own life and creates a shoe or pair of shoes dedicated to her the girls have to really try to tap into what that woman is all about jennifer says left by emma grade 12 a shoe dedicated to korean-canadian artist tanya kim in honour of her philanthropic work by daniela grade 7 right by jane grade 11 a shoe dedicated to her aunt an inspiration to try new things by sarah grade 7 left by kima grade 9 a shoe dedicated to legendary aviator amelia earhart by hannah b grade 7 the linden letter winter 2010 · 3

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faculty conversations interview with senior art teacher jennifer ross continued from previous page the barbie project at linden girls exposure to art is not confined to a single class the holistic approach to education used by linden teachers means that you can find elements of art in almost every subject and sometimes in some unexpected ways take math for example for the grade 7 unit on rate ratios and percent girls work in groups to compare the proportions of that ever-popular toy barbie with those ofone of their group members they compare that group member s height with barbie s height to find the scale factor and then using ratios they blow up barbie to be the same height as her after they ve done their calculations the girls trace their group member on mural paper and then put the blown-up version of barbie next to her when the girls discuss their results they examine the effects of barbie on girls body image and self-esteem and think about ways to challenge these effects this year the girls felt so strongly two grade 7 students about the potentially harmful effects playing work on the barbie with barbie can have project on a little girl that they decided to write a letter to barbie s manufacturer mattel using their calcuations to support their position the girls teacher michelle thinks the project is important for a couple of reasons it gives girls a space to share their thoughts about body image and self-esteem in a positive and critical way she says it also shows girls a real-world application for their math skills providing an example of how they can use math to challenge harmful social messaging 4 · the linden letter winter 2010 their shoulder or not looking out of the painting at all a well-known example of this jennifer says is the grande odalisque an 1814 painting by ingres the piece features a nude woman clearly posed for the pleasure of men in the last few centuries though both male and female artists have begun to shift their work away from this focus many more modern painters purposely have female figures looking frankly out of the painting with an expression showing there is an intelligent engaged person there jennifer says a great example of this is Édouard manet s le dejeuner sur l herbe painted in 1863 although the female subject is nude she is looking out from the painting and there is intelligence in her features the work of many current artists especially women seeks to carry on this new direction now many women overtly refuse to make themselves the object of the male gaze by creating female figures that are not visually appealing jennifer says just like these artists jennifer explains girls at linden are adding to the canon of art history we ve been seeing white male european artists for so long she says at linden i m being encouraged to help girls add to the canon of art history and to make them aware of a world they may never have had access to otherwise ­ and it s a very exciting world art and politics jennifer also uses her art classes to introduce her students to the challenges women around the world face ­ both in their artistic pursuits and in other areas ­ and to demonstrate how these women are fighting against them many modern female artists are using their work to comment on the politics in their countries she says she cites the example of iranian artist parastou forouhar after her work was censored by her country s cultural ministry parastou responded by mounting an exhibit ­ of empty picture frames she was saying `you re letting me show nothing jennifer explains it was such a pacifistic way of challenging the government and it got an incredible amount of support and international response studying art like parastou s jennifer says is an easier way for girls to understand and engage with such struggles because they can engage with the art they are much more receptive and sympathetic to the message it s sending than if they were reading a manifesto or political work she says because she has the full support of the parents students faculty and administrators at linden jennifer adds she can also show the girls controversial and maybe not conventionally pretty art if i show a girl an work of art and she says `i don t like it that s okay she says art continued on next page

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faculty conversations interview with senior art teacher jennifer ross continued from previous page should provoke a response whether it s positive or negative it s meant to expand your way of looking at the world if a girl wants you to take a piece of art away it means an assumption of hers has been challenged jennifer constantly reminds the girls that it s not necessary for them to feel they fully understand a piece of art a lot of people feel intimidated by art because they think they don t get it and even as an art history post-grad i sometimes feel that way too she says to work against that my curriculum really emphasizes getting girls to form critical opinions i always tell them that they can have whatever opinion they want ­ there s no right or wrong answer ­ but they have to be able to back up their opinion with evidence art and the modern workplace all subjects helps develop many of the skills employed in creating art the students here already have a level of skill much higher than the average because they ve been practising in their other subjects jennifer says when you re putting together a display for the science and technology fair for example you re creating an art project as well as a science project this same approach also shows girls the value of taking risks which is crucial in creating artwork they re not coming to art class with a fearful attitude because there s no reward for doing something the `right way ­ there s more encouragement for trying something that may or may not work out she says if an art project doesn t turn out the way a girl had expected i want her to be able to say `this didn t go the way i wanted it to so i ll do it differently next time students at linden are also used to thinking outside of the box and coming up with creative today s workplaces are constantly solutions ­ something jennifer points out changing but certain skills will always may not be encouraged in all art classes franz marc s 1913 work blaues be valuable ­ and art jennifer says pferd i jennifer feels marc sends reinforces many of them in art girls a few years ago my daughter kate came a great message about creativity get to do all of the things that are in my opinion creativity is having home from school deflated she recalls going to be important for the rest apparently her teacher told her she was the courage to do things in of their lives she says for our purposefully misbehaving because she was unconventional ways she says youngest girls we have no idea what image source commons.wikimedia.org drawing blue cows and i thought `why say their workplaces will look like but we to a kid she can t draw a blue cow or a blue know they ll need skills like critical thinking working as a horse or even a blue person for that matter have you team problem-solving and risk-taking ever heard of marc chagall or franz marc in my opinion creativity is having the courage to do things in unconventional art can also impact attitudes and world views that will be ways kate a grade 7 student now also attends linden beneficial in the future jennifer contends art exposes girls to many different interpretations of the world and as this view is at the heart of why jennifer loves teaching art we become even more of a global community exposure to here if the girls are coming to class and they are engaging these interpretations will be invaluable she says they re brave enough to take risks and they haven t had people telling them that they re `bad at art then they can all because responses to artwork are so subjective art succeed in the subject she says at linden it s not just students also learn tolerance and respect for the opinions of the most elite athletes who play sports it s about a personal others that s so important jennifer says because they ll best be encountering so many opinions in the future studying art shows them that even though two people may have different there are also many different areas of art where a student opinions one is not inherently more valid than the other can potentially excel a girl can always find an area she s strong in jennifer says if a girl doesn t have great fine taking risks motor skills maybe she can take wonderful photos art is though it may not be readily apparent at first the holistic an area where every girl can be super-strong ­ and as a education linden students receive from their teachers in teacher what s more fun than that the linden letter winter 2010 · 5

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festival of lights here are just a few of the many highlights from this year s festival enjoy 6 · the linden letter winter 2010

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environment news linden gym switches to green energy by the linden environment club as our mission statement says linden promotes girls voices and encourages us to take responsibility in our local national and international communities the environment club s bullfrog power initiative demonstrates our mission in action after deciding that one of the environment club s goals for this year would be to get part of our school powered by bullfrog power we talked to the co-principals who agreed that switching to clean energy would be an excellent way to put our mission into practice bullfrog power provides 100 clean energy to several canadian provinces it uses wind and low-impact hydro power from plants that meet environment canada s ecologo starting in january 2010 the school will decide on a monthly donation and bullfrog power will then feed the appropriate amount of clean energy into the grid we will symbolically put this clean power into the gym the gym is the biggest room in the school and it is used by all of us not only for sports but for greetings all-school the science and technology fair the art show drama nights and other school events it is a meeting place for the entire linden community by choosing the gym to represent the amount of bullfrog power the school will be using the whole community will be a part of the initiative using bullfrog power will increase the school s power bill but more importantly it will benefit the linden community our local community outside of school and the international community by lowering our carbon footprint and supporting clean energy generation at present much of our electricity is generated by fossil fuels a non-renewable resource that is quickly disappearing the extraction of fossil fuels from the ground releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere greenhouse gases are naturally occurring and keep the earth at a livable temperature however using fossil fuels releases too much greenhouse gas causing the earth s climate to change climate change is extremely dangerous animals are losing their habitats and people including those in our own country are losing their homes their livelihoods and even their lives to floods hurricanes drought and thawing permafrost using fossil fuels as electricity also pollutes the air water and soil causing many severe health problems such as cancer and asthma the canadians with the greatest political power are choosing to neglect this serious issue so the linden school has decided to take the responsibility to use our own resources to protect our wider community and our future generations families considering using bullfrog power in their own homes should take a look at the website www.bullfrogpower.com home/home.cfm greening your energy costs 3 cents per kilowatt hour usually about 80 cents a day for an average home in ontario if you are interested in signing up residentially please contact michelle munk teacher advisor to the environment club for a promotional code that will allow you to receive up to $25 off your first bill journalist may jeong speaks about copenhagen climate conference by samantha grade 5 on december 1 2009 a student from the university of toronto named may jeong came to linden to talk about the un copenhagen conference and about climate change may talked about what climate change is how it started and what scientists are planning to do about it she said that if worst comes to worst scientists are planning on shooting a yellow chemical in the sky which will create another layer around the earth to stop the sun from coming down since we have too much heat may also talked about what the copenhagen conference is because she will be going there herself when may came to the university of toronto she found that they were using styrofoam cups people were taking two cups because their drink was too hot and even stealing cookies with the cups may did not like it so she and a friend found out about a company that sold environmentally friendly cups that weren t too expensive she called the company had a meeting with them and now the university of toronto has eco-friendly cups that s how she got interested in this issue her talk was very interesting and i really enjoyed it the linden letter winter 2010 · 7

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sports linden linden s dream team by deidre macpherson linden s junior basketball team put on a show this season with only four players from last year s team returning this fall it was a year of building and developing new skills and strategies over the threemonth season the players certainly rose to the occasion and conquered every challenge with confidence and gusto these athletes exhibited endless enthusiasm and energy for the game and it was a true pleasure to spend time with them at practice and at games linden played second place tws in the first game and it was a truly unique experience as official toronto raptors in-stadium announcer herbie kuhn acted as commentator for the entire game he began by introducing each team s starting lineup and then announced every substitution foul and basket during the game it was definitely a tournament highlight for the players and the coaches the game was very competitive but linden s the team went undefeated in dream team rose to the regular season winning the occasion learning seven games against some new positions and new tough opponents in the small strategies on the fly laura the junior basketball team poses after their convincing schools athletic federation mahal and aisha each championship win in the ssaf final four tournament ssaf south league with had a dominant scoring their first-place record the performance solidifying a team earned a bye into the second round of playoffs in commanding 42-18 win linden was off to the finals for the their first playoff game the girls faced fourth-place voice first time in junior basketball history intermediate school for the chance to advance into the final four tournament at bond academy the girls showed tight with bond defeating ums by 1 point in overtime in the coverage on defense strong rebounding at both ends of the second semi-final match the stage was set for an allcourt and an amazing south final game again linden started off strong playing offensive prowess nearly flawless defense and often double-teaming bond s with a dominating 47 talented point guard laura and mahal again turned in stellar performances creating numerous turnovers making 22 win precise passes and driving to the basket but the entire team the final four executed all aspects of the game impeccably when the tournament saw whistle blew linden celebrated their 32-10 win and their linden and bond first-ever capture of the ssaf elementary girls basketball academy the top two banner teams from the south league and toronto deidre would like to thank all of these amazing athletes waldorf school for all their hard work and dedication aisha laura mahal tws and unionville stephanie hannah b adriana alison noa kia kathryn montessori school b sarah c nicola marlee nicole sylvia and jessie also ums the top two a big thank you to nora and katie for volunteering their time teams from the north to score-keep all the basketball games over the season and league ready to finally a huge thank you to elizabeth mira andy michelle mahal aisha and laura pose with compete against nasrin dawn janice martha natasha brittany and all the linden s banner parents/relatives for their support and encouragement at the each other games it was truly a basketball season to remember 8 · the linden letter winter 2010

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sports linden senior basketball team trumps teachers by elizabeth forbes the girls had one more opportunity to show off their skills and teamwork in the annual studentsversus-teachers basketball game the girls were determined to make held at the last all-school before the playoffs after a bumpy start to the winter break the teachers the season which saw one of their have come away with a win from teammates out with an injury each every game in recent memory and game they rallied right to the end bragging rights are always on the always playing their strongest in the line in the last few minutes of the fourth quarter the team overcame game the teachers were up by three numerous challenges this season baskets the senior team rallied and still managed to play some of and true to their regular-season the best basketball they have played play came on strong at the end in the last couple of years at the end when it counted most with a basket of the regular season the girls came in the last few seconds of the game senior basketball team member jillian on strong winning an important game the students came away with their lines up for a free throw and were fighting to make the playoffs first-ever victory over the teachers they ended up one spot out but the it was a fantastic way for the girls to end the season coaches are thrilled with their level of improvement and their congratulations girls on all you have accomplished this determined spirit on the court year determination was the driving force behind the senior girls basketball team this season peace circles teach conflict resolution techniques by katie and tate grade 8 on friday november 27 2009 the grade eights participated in peace circles with cathy anne kelly a conflict resolution trainer at the beginning of the peace circles we played ice breaker games then cathy ann told us a story about a girl who got in a fight with her when she was in high school and explained how the fight could have been avoided she talked to us about conflict resolution and at the end of the day we threw a ball of yarn around as we talked about our day at the end of the peace circles the yarn formed a giant web at right the web formed by the ball of yarn at the end of the peace circles the linden letter winter 2010 · 9

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around linden grade 3/4 class discovers casa loma by sophia grade 4 on monday november 16 2009 the grade 3/4 class went to casa loma i think it is fascinating that sir henry pellatt wanted his castle to some day be a museum and now it is one also i think it s very interesting that he invented the power generator and his friend was e.j lennox a famous architect who had a statue of a crouching gargoyle who is wearing nothing but has funny hair another one of my favourite places was the secret passages secret passages are very useful rick our tour guide said just in case your castle is being taken over by your enemy you can use the secret passages to run and hide the most important places in the castle are the basement and the queen s chamber there is another one but i forgot it since my brain is packed in the afternoon we learned how to do archery from a guy who was in the olympics it was so cool we got to hold the bow and put the arrow on ourselves and fire it when we wanted the arrows went into some hay made into squares on the other side of a barn so so so much fun after we all went out the door christine gave us each a starburstyum what a great trip sir pellatt was a retired my favourite things at casa soldier and built casa loma were the tunnels and sameena works on loma he was not that the gardens the reason why her archery skills is because i love flowers and the way tall but very wide when casa loma the building is made also i think that was being built he would just supervise kiwanis is a very nice club to keep casa and make sure all was going well with everything over all i think that loma going and in good condition everyone loved the casa loma tour the group poses inside casa loma students in grades 7 8 hit the math trail by abi grade 8 on monday december 14 2009 students in grades seven and eight left for a day of math on the math trail the math trail took place in downtown toronto it started at the commerce court and continued to the eaton centre on the math trail we answered math questions about the things we saw downtown my favourite question was measuring the circumference of a fountain because we got to run around the fountain to count the number of blocks that made up the outside my second favourite question was finding the height of an elevator and figuring out how long it took to reach the top of that elevator this math trail was very fun and i learned a lot from the experience grade 7 students hannah b brittany and nico having fun on the math trail 10 · the linden letter winter 2010

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around linden senior drama students visit the tarragon theatre by jenn stewart on november 11 2009 students in grades 9 to 11 drama went to the tarragon theatre for a workshop and performance of the drowning girls in the workshop the girls learned the difference between movement and gesture and how to use each effectively in telling a story they completed two timed writings ­ a rant and an apology ­ and created gestures to accompany key words in the pieces after lunch we saw the drowning girls a performance workshopped by three canadian women the women each end up married to george joseph smith a victorian serial killer who drowns each wife in the bathtub the staging was simple three baths filled with water the women used the baths as various locations as they themselves adopted multiple characters in the telling and intertwining of the women s individual stories we were all amazed at how they managed to successfully switch characters and how they endured being in wet clothes for the entire performance linden competes at fall certamen by jenn stewart on november 5 2009 the linden school competed in its 3rd certamen the certamen is a quiz-show-type event run by the national junior classical league in which schools compete in teams of four for top honours in their knowledge of roman history mythology daily life and vocabulary and derivatives it s a long day filled with knowledge competition and of course pizza our senior team placed 7th out of 15 teams and our two junior teams competed very well answering some tough questions one team tied with two other teams for last place while our second team placed 10th out of 17 teams at left and below senior drama students practise their movement skills at the tarragon theatre linden s certamen competitors with their well-earned participation certificates grade 9 student emma t had this to say about the event it was fun and now i feel like i can understand the roman world so much better at first i was very nervous about the idea of using buzzers since i couldn t get any of the questions at the practices i was scared about competing against the kids from markham personally i am happy with how i did since i overcame my fear of the buzzers and the markham kids and answered some questions congratulations to the girls on their excellent work preparing for and competing in the certamen the linden letter winter 2010 · 11

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drama linden senior drama night by geneva grade 9 at linden s first senior drama night of the year drama students in grades nine to twelve performed a series of short skits all of the performances were developed by the students with the exception of death and the king s horseman act iv which was written by wole soyinka and performed by the grade ten drama class the grade nine drama class performed a series of movement pieces for which they selected the music these stories were delivered using only movement and facial expression the grade eleven and twelve drama students performed three short plays the first was an accident written by grade 11 student nina and the second was in between visits by grade 12 student charlotte the very last performance of the night was lady arbury s bedchamber written by grade 11 student sinead the evening s performances displayed all the great talent and effort that the students put into this event to make it an overwhelming success kat and alexis confront monica in death and the king s horseman sinead and arlie console noa in lady arbury s bedchamber tessa geneva and lucie perform their movement piece grade 8 drama night by emmanuelle and lucie grade 9 in november the grade eight class put together their version of the play romeo and juliet they modified shakespeare s text to fit their own actors and settings i think it was a good performance with professional quality and genuine clarity they used their props well and made their voices loud and clear being a relatively new drama teacher lindsay t did an extraordinarily good job with directing the grade eights in order to put on this fantastic play with all the work jenn and lindsay put into this production it turned out extremely well it was a job well done by all a scene from the grade 8 class s performance of romeo and juliet 12 · the linden letter winter 2010

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science olympics students explore science at science olympics by mackenzie grade 3 science olympics was so fun the students in grades 1-4 were in groups the astronauts the sailors the pirates and the swash-bucklers i was in the astronauts and our cheer was we are aliens we re the astronauts we go up in space we visit mars and saturn-what a place half of the people in my group sang the alien part half sang the astronaut part there were lots of science games to do and one of them was a game where you had to make a bridge out of the things they gave you to hold as many pennies as possible we had the highest score-our score was 155 there were awards at the end for points and the astronauts came in second although the sailors beat us by a few points we were really happy with how we did and we still got a prize the prizes were cool sparkly pens i got a purple one but i gave it to sistering they need pens the swash bucklers finished in third place and the pirates finished in fourth place it was the best day ever left grade 7 and 8 students work together to build a boat above avery helps mad scientist katie with a demonstration above the astronauts show off their polished pennies the linden letter winter 2010 · 13

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alumnae update digging around in chile by gillian gardhouse linden `04 greetings from the summery southern hemisphere ­ northcentral chile to be exact only after it has been baked and is cooling on the rack while you smugly admire it with a mug of a warm beverage do you remember that there is a clump of raisins sitting somewhere in the middle of the loaf not to worry ­ you will just cleverly figure out exactly where the clump is carefully extract it and innocently pretend that you had intended to make plain raisin-less bread from the beginning after spending a year in round mountain nevada i arrived in chile in june 2009 to kick off my second year in kinross gold corporation s generation gold program through this new graduate work program to find the clump you make a generation gold employees hole into the loaf with a straw have the opportunity to spend and extract a small sample the a year at four different mining first few samples include only operations in brazil chile the white bread but as soon as ecuador russia and the united you hit little pieces of raisins you states the program was are able follow your suspicions developed in 2007 to meet the and situate the next holes where increasing need for engineering you think you will find even more geology and business graduates raisins however to prevent your and recruits five new people beautiful loaf from looking like a each year with my degree in holey slab of swiss cheese you geological engineering i can make only enough holes to give effectively wear two hard hats you a very basic idea of where as either a geologist or an the clump is gillian outside of the mine in chile engineer at present my skills are needed more on the geology side of things which is how based on your samples you build a picture of what the raisin i ended up in chile body looks like by pretending that you have cut the loaf into slices each pretend slice includes the clues gathered from kinross has two operating mines and several exploration the holes you made with the straw you correlate the raisin properties in chile i work at la coipa a mine nestled 4,000 clues like a game of connect the dots to make a closed metres above sea level masl in the domeyko cordillera a polygon when you put the slices of bread back together to mountain range of the andes the mine is nearing the end form a loaf the polygons from slice to slice can be connected of production but despite nearly 20 years of ore extraction essentially forming a three dimensional interpretation of what there is still much to be understood about the geological you believe to be the location and extent of the clump of nature of the deposit my work has revolved around raisins you cut the bread with great precision successfully developing updated geological models of the area remove the offending clump and share your fresh creation what do geological modelling and a loaf of bread have with your impressed friends and family in common and now back to chile let me explain the concept of geological modelling in simpler more familiar terms imagine you re making a loaf of raisin bread you ve made the dough and have just added a pile of raisins when the phone rings there s a knock at the door and you smash a plate on the floor simultaneously not surprisingly you forget to mix the raisins in you plop the dough in the pan to rise deal with the door the phone and the broken plate accomplish fifty million other pressing things in the time that the dough takes to rise and eventually stick it in the oven 14 · the linden letter winter 2010 the analogy of finding the raisin clump in the loaf of bread is more or less what i ve been up to only the raisins are gold the loaf is the earth s crust the data set includes hundreds of drill holes dating back more than thirty years and the modelling is done with sophisticated software the modelling process is repeated for different sets of data that have been gathered from the drill holes including lithology the characteristics and composition of rocks alteration a mineralogical change at low pressures due to invading fluids or the influence of oxygen mineralization the conversion of

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alumnae update digging around in chile tall tidbit changes in air pressure related to altitude have some interesting implications for the human body at sea level where the elevation is 0 masl the air pressure is 101.325 kpa while at 4,000 masl the pressure is only 61.651 kpa the ideal gas law indicates that pressure and volume have an inversely proportional relationship ­ when one goes up the other goes down so when the pressure decreases moving from sea level to 4,000 m the volume of air increases ­ and this includes the air in our bodies an organic substance to an inorganic substance silver and copper quantities and of course gold values my travels are limited to the two-hour bus ride up to the mine with a population of about 150,000 copiapo is a gritty mining town surrounded by factories and farms when i m not at the mine i live in an apartment that overlooks the plaza de armas or main square which makes me privy to every fair performance wedding and protest in the city along with the shouts of late-night revellers and the chorus of stray dogs the highlight of my incredibly relaxed weekend is a trip to the local market where i buy kilos upon kilos of delicious fruits and vegetables grown in the region you may be wondering about the issue of language as chile is a spanish-speaking country and yes all of my antics to date have been conducted in spanish and no i did not take spanish at linden or at university ­ i began learning it through a computer program while still in nevada and when i arrived in santiago for the first time i had never actually had a conversation in the language with another human being needless to say i initially spent a fair amount of time in a state of complete incomprehension my supervisor at the mine speaks english as well as my roommate and a handful of others but my direct co-workers speak only spanish chilean spanish or castellano is spoken rapidly and often without pronouncing certain consonants and to further add to my confusion it is also filled with modismos or slang in all i have managed to negotiate public transit return defective products to the store and generally prevent starvation so i would say that my spanish is progressing successfully when compared to earlier interpretations of the deposit the new and improved model usually identifies more gold this increase means that the mine can continue to operate and produce gold for longer than previously predicted ­ and that means that the approximately 800 men and women who work at the mine can keep their jobs for a while longer by 800 men and many employees at the mine women i really mean experience headaches that there are less than dizziness fatigue and breathing difficulties when they 15 women in professional initially ascend to the mine i m positions roughly 20 generally plagued by plugged in unskilled labour and perhaps another 50 in the ears mild headaches and subcontracted support sleeping difficulties including services that include incredibly crazy dreams cooking and cleaning the good news is that the but regardless of who symptoms go away in a day or two but for those of us who is bringing home the paycheque mining is work a four day-shift it s time an extremely important to descend just when we ve gotten fully acclimatized over contributor to the chilean time you do kind of get used to economy and the wellpaying secure positions the altitude but you still can t are highly sought after in fully overcome the ideal gas fact many of the people law i work with travel great distances from their homes to the mine for their rotation of either four days or seven days life in and out of the mine i spent my first four months in chile traveling about 1,000 km to the capital of santiago whenever i had time off however in october i officially moved to the city of copiapo and now top 10 things not to be taken for granted in canada 1 understanding and being understood 2 quality drinking water 3 effective and accessible recycling systems 4 the absence of regular small-scale earthquakes 5 large automatically igniting ovens with temperature dials 6 the absence of stray dogs 7 two-ply toilet paper 8 fresh milk 9 cheddar cheese 10 real coffee i.e not instant the linden letter winter 2010 · 15

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