Grade levels: Primary (1-3)

Starting off in Yellowknife, young cross-country ski champ Sarah Stephen takes us for a discovery tour. We check out some landmarks like the Bush Pilots Monument and a small houseboat community on the Lake. At Sirius Diamonds, Jamie and Jennifer discover how chunks of rock are cut and polished into some of the world’s finest diamonds. A quick flight takes us to the town of Fort Resolution on the south side Great Slave Lake. Here biologists with the Hook Lake Bison Recovery Project are breeding a disease-free herd of bison in an attempt to strengthen the population of one of North America’s largest land mammals. In Jay’s Gee! Ology, he demonstrates how diamonds are formed and make it up to the earth’s surface.

Starting off in Yellowknife, young cross-country ski champ Sarah Stephen takes us for a discovery tour. We check out some landmarks like the Bush Pilots Monument and a small houseboat community on the Lake. At Sirius Diamonds, Jamie and Jennifer discover how chunks of rock are cut and polished into some of the world’s finest diamonds. A quick flight takes us to the town of Fort Resolution on the south side Great Slave Lake. Here biologists with the Hook Lake Bison Recovery Project are breeding a disease-free herd of bison in an attempt to strengthen the population of one of North America’s largest land mammals. In Jay’s Gee! Ology, he demonstrates how diamonds are formed and make it up to the earth’s surface.

We explore the rich culture, lifestyle and landscape of this small inlet. We meet up with a young Inuit student who talks about how she is keeping the Inuktituk language alive: through hip-hop music. Then local historian, Theresie Tungalik, takes us out to the Meliadine Territorial Park where an archeological site provides evidence of how the ancient Thule people lived. Theresie explains that in a lot of ways, life has not changed dramatically over thousands of years. Finally a visit to the Matchbox Gallery gives Jamie and Jennifer a chance to learn about the art of traditional ceramics. In Jay’s Gee! Ology he explains the difference between the North Pole and the North Magnetic pole.

It’s high Polar Bear time in Churchill, Manitoba. These incredible animals are waiting for the ice to freeze on Hudson Bay before heading out in search of food. We hang out with Kyle Wolkoski, who helps out at his family’s Polar-buggy business. We go on Bear Patrol and visit the Polar Bar Jail with Manitoba conservation officer Pat Cronin to learn about what the town does to live with the bears this time of year. In Jay’s Gee! Ology he explains how salt effects the freezing point of water.

We explore Manitoba’s capital of Winnipeg with curling champ Elisabeth Peters, before heading to the rink for a lesson in how the game is played. At the Prairie Storm Prediction Centre, we learn why Manitoba has such extreme weather and what can be done to predict what’s coming. Just outside Winnipeg, the Mariash Quarry provides a peak at Manitoba’s ancient history as seen through layers of fossils deposited over 440 million years ago! In Jay’s Gee! Ology he explains how tornadoes are formed.

Our hosts pitch their tents on the grounds of one of the largest rodeos in the world – or the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, as it’s also known – the Calgary Stampede. They check out the Rodeo’s Chuck Wagon Village where they experience the thrill of chuck wagon racing. Then they set up camp at Indian Village where they learn about the history and customs of the Treaty Seven. Then they head up north of the stampede to the Composting Technology Centre at the Olds College Centre for Innovation to find out what happens to all the rodeo leftovers.

Jamie and Jennifer are island hopping through the Gulf islands, a grouping of over 200 islands situated between the BC mainland and Vancouver Island. On Salt Spring Island, they meet up with local brother and sister Eryn and Kim Krieger, 12 and 14. The Kriegers will show off their unique home that they also share with two llamas, take us on a sea-kayaking adventure before visiting a local spinning mill where llama wool is spun into yarn.

Jamie and Jennifer meet up at Roger Pass, British Columbia, in Glacier National Park. They are exploring the Columbia Mountain Range that runs west and parallel to the Rockies. Rogers Pass, located about 140-km from the Alberta border. Both the railway and the Trans Canada highway pass through the area. It’s also located in one of the most active avalanche areas in the country. Meeting up with 17-year-old Jeremy Weddle, the explorers learn about ski touring in the backcountry. He shares some of the knowledge he’s learnt through several avalanche courses about what to do to make backcountry exploring safe and fun. They meet Bob Shafto, who with the help of avalanche rescue dog Big Eddy, teaches them about various rescue techniques used when someone is caught in an avalanche. The three come across Jeff Goodrich, a senior technician with the Canadian Avalanche Control Program. Jeff demonstrates a number of techniques used for determining when and when avalanches might happen.

We check out Newfoundland’s whaling and Viking history up in the northern part of Newfoundland and southern part of Labrador. We travel across the Strait of Belle Isle to visit Red Bay National Historic Site of Canada, where the archaeological remnants of twenty whaling stations have been unearthed over the last 15 years. We then explore another National Historic Site, L’Anse aux Meadows, where we learn of the early Viking history of this area, and also of the early Dorset Eskimos who made their camps along the southern shore of the bay. We visit with a young air cadet boy who is obsessed with building and flying planes. Jay tells us about the differences between the landscape and life in both Newfoundland and Labrador and why the largest percent of the population lives in Newfoundland. In Jay’s Gee! Ology he explains why icebergs, which can weigh several hundred tonnes, float.

Their exploration of the foothills of the Canadian Rockies brings Jennifer and Jamie to the community of Crowsnest Pass. Adventure ensues when they join up with 12-year-old Riley Cann and his classmates in a town effort to keep Grizzly Bears at bay. Jamie and Jennifer head to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump outside Fort MacLeod and learn about the importance of buffalo to early plains Indians. Blood Tribe member Lorraine Goodstriker tells the hosts how her fore-bearers made use of the land’s topography in their buffalo hunt, and used every part of the buffalo in their daily life.