SINCE
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VOLUME 200 | SPECIAL EDITION
THEONTARION.COM
ONTARION Campers become junior reporters S U M M E R at journalism camp CAMP
TABLE OF CONTENTS STORIES 3.
4.
Famous science communicator demonstrated physics for junior journalists World's laziest raptor visits summer camp
Junior reporters interviewed Gryphons football coach
The Arboretum’s beautiful plant collections 5.
Chipmunk research seen on campus
The final showdown in FIFA World Cup 2026
6 & 7. Journalism camp in photos 8.
Marine life discoveries in the depths of the Pacific Ocean A camper’s review of Minecraft the Mountain Summer playlist
COMICS 9.
Comics by Maëlle Comics by Noa
10.
Comic by Will
11.
Comics by Noa Comic by Colin Comic by Runa Comic by Zoe S.
BECAUSE WE ASKED 12.
Photo by Runa
What was your favourite part of journalism camp?
Welcome to a very special edition of The Ontarion! In these pages, you won’t find any content made by our staff or university students. This issue has been taken over by the kids of Gryphon Summer Camps’ “Become a Journalist” day camp! For one week, our campers took on the role of journalist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, illustrator and all-around awesome helpers. Our junior journalists wrote the stories, took the photos and made the decisions. Now their hard work is here for you to enjoy. The stories are real. The pictures are great. All we’re missing are the readers! If you like what you see, feel free to drop us a line at info@theontarion.com and let us know if you learned something new.
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STORIES
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Famous science communicator demonstrated physics for junior journalists Campers learned how physics explains lightning; static electricity makes hair go wild STORY BY JOURNALISM CAMPERS & PHOTOS BY THE ONTARION
O
n Monday, July 20, Orbax Thomas gave a physics demonstration to the journalism summer camp in the MacNaughton Building at the University of Guelph. His demonstration included multiple physics experiments and explained the science behind them. “When I was a kid, I used to love watching science shows on TV…. Those people became what we [now] call science communicators," Orbax said, whose career was inspired by science communicators
like Bill Nye The Science Guy. “A lot of people learn stuff in different ways,” Orbax said. “People like me like to take things apart, play with them and figure out how they work and put things back together.” Orbax enjoys physics and wants other people to learn about it, which is why he volunteered to teach the summer camp attendees about what he does for work. He also provided the students an opportunity to gain real reporter experience in the field.
His demonstrations explained common scientific concepts in ways that make them reachable and interesting for all viewers. “There’s a lot of ways that [we] all intrinsically have a knowledge of physics,” Orbax said. One experiment in the demonstration was about static electricity. One camp counsellor, Morgan, volunteered to participate in the experiment. Morgan touched an electrostatic generator
which made her hair stand up. In another experiment, Orbax used two metal poles of different lengths to demonstrate vibration and sound. The shorter pole made a higher pitched sound because it gets rid of energy faster due to its length. “You know that things fall down. You know that when I throw something up, it goes up a certain amount, it comes back down to the ground,” Orbax said, while ex-
plaining the basis of physics. At the end of the demonstration, Orbax took many questions from the journalism campers, including questions from his favourite part of science to his best demonstration story. His final message to the camp was: “Science is more about failing than succeeding. It’s about trying something… it doesn’t matter if we succeed or if we fail. We keep trying.”
World's laziest raptor visits summer camp Three birds of prey made an appearance in the office to teach students about conservation
Photo by Will
HUNTER, MAËLLE, RUNA AND ZOE L.M.
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ild Ontario visited The Ontarion journalism summer camp to talk about their animals and how to help them. On Tuesday, July 21, Wild Ontario representatives, Sally, Rubina and Maria showcased three raptors.
Photo by Maëlle
The first bird that was introduced to the journalism camp was Raiju, an American Kestrel. Sally explained that this species of bird can dive and its speed can reach 110 km an hour. Raiju was held by Rubina and is with Wild
Ontario because it was abandoned in someone’s backyard when she was just old enough to leave the nest, and she then became dependent on people to feed her so she can’t be released into the wild. The next bird is named Freyja, a red-tailed hawk. Maria held her while Sally explained why Freyja is with Wild Ontario. Her flight feathers were burnt so she couldn’t fly. When she was released after her flight feathers grew back, she had become too dependent on people feeding her. Freyja is the laziest bird that was shown, and also the largest in the group. The final bird was Atwood, a northern saw-whet owl. She was
Photo by Noa
the smallest one in the group, and was held by Rubina. Atwood is with Wild Ontario because her wing was injured and it had trouble healing, so they would have had to break her wing again to heal it properly. They of course chose not to because it might have hurt her more. When Atwood was brought out, the campers all went “awe” at how small and cute she was. Wild Ontario works to ed-
ucate students and community members about science and the environment. During the presentation, Sally shared some tips to prevent more birds from being hurt. She said not to throw garbage and food waste out of your car window, as food attracts mice which will cause birds to dive down and potentially be hit by a car. Being cautious of this will help protect birds.
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Junior reporters interviewed Gryphons football coach Head Coach Mark Surya shared insights about coaching and life VIOLET AND ZOE S.
I
n an exclusive interview with The Ontarion, Gryphons men’s football Head Coach Mark Surya spoke with two junior reporters about his
experience coaching football. “I actually didn’t know that I wanted to coach football…I thought that I wanted to teach at
Illustration by Violet
university as a professor… and then the head coach at the time [at Wilfred Laurier University] asked me if I would be willing to help out coach receivers on the side,” Surya told the reporters. “It was really simple at first, you’re just there for practice, and then it grew into my career and something I get to do all the time,” said Surya, who played receiver at Queen’s University. He has now coached football for 14 years and really enjoys his time. “I wouldn’t change my decision for a second,” he said. “You start to find something you’re really passionate about, something that you love doing, and so when I woke up in the morning, it was the only thing I wanted to do, to coach and be a part of a team,” Surya said. “So I thought if I could do that all the
Photo by Zoe S.
time, why wouldn't I try to pursue that?” Surya also provided the junior reporters with positive advice that he likes to share with his athletes: “Most people think about failure, but I like to use this analogy: If we were to climb Mount Everest, it’s not going to
be a straight shot,” he explained. “There are going to be times where you want to give up, fail, want to turn around, and it’s the ability to keep pushing through.” Surya shared his personal experience through education and coaching, which was very inspiring for future athletes!
dangered species in Canada. “Something that’s interesting about trees is that they are not within one taxonomic group,” Langlois said. “Trees, as a kind of form, have evolved many times throughout natural history.” Langlois also taught the campers how to find out the age of trees in the Arboretum. Each tree has a tag with a number in the
top right corner. Their last three digits tell the date the tree was planted. For example, the campers saw a tree with the numbers 003, which means it was planted in 2003. Overall, all the trees in the Arboretum are unique and beautiful in their own ways. It’s worth a trip to the Arboretum to check them out!
The Arboretum’s beautiful plant collections An exclusive interview with a naturalist from the Arboretum NOA
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he University of Guelph’s Arboretum is home to more than 2,000 species of trees and woody plants, but they also have many other plants in their collections. The Ontarion had an exclusive interview with Naturalist Joseph Langlois to learn more about the Arboretum’s plant collections. The Arboretum is currently home to 26 different plant collections, including five main gardens. Their plant collections have been around since 1971 and are still growing today. “There’s the Gosling Wildlife Garden, which is broken up into five smaller gardens,” Langlois told The Ontarion. There’s also the Italian, English and Japanese gardens, which
were designed based on gardens in Italy, England and Japan. The Italian garden was built in 2002. It has hedges, a fountain pond and stone statues. Langlois said his favourite garden is the Japanese garden, which was designed in 1995. It includes traditional plants like yew trees, Japanese maples and magnolias. The English garden was dedicated in 1998 and features a Sun Garden, Sky Garden and Moon Pathway. In the Sun Garden are plants and flowers with warm colours like yellow and orange. They rise up earlier in the spring and begin to set towards the end of fall. The Sky Garden has cool colours, like blues, whites, purples and lilacs,
Photo by Zoe S.
and the plants are different shapes and sizes to represent all the kinds of clouds we can see in the sky. On the Moon Pathway are four moon gates that you walk underneath, holding up a vine called the ‘Blue Moon’, which blooms into pea-like lavender-blue flowers. The Arboretum helps to take care of rare plant species like the Cucumber Tree, which is an en-
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Chipmunk research seen on campus Biologist researches how chipmunks handle stress in their environments BRIAR AND EVYNNE
D
uring a walk in the garden on campus, the campers discovered a chipmunk trap. Some campers wanted to investigate more, so they went to the Summerlee Science Complex to interview Brendan Delehanty, the biologist who has been studying chipmunks on campus for two years. He spoke with the campers about his research. Delehanty shared that he works with chipmunks and his colleague Amy Newtown has researched savanna squirrels. He has captured red squirrels, owls, ground squirrels, gray squirrels, gray jays and chipmunks. They lay city traps and forest traps to compare which animals are different after adapting to their new environment. The traps located in the campus garden are city
traps. Delehanty sets different traps because he and other scientists want to know how different environments affect chipmunk physiology, and how chipmunks are different in a forest compared to a city. Delehanty does his research by first putting squirrels and chipmunks to sleep. He shaves the inside of the animal’s back leg and draws a tiny bit of blood to study. Then, he releases the squirrels and chipmunks back into the wild. He shared that when scientists collect data, they put it into a scientific journal to share the information with other scientists. So far in his research, Delehanty has studied 200 chipmunks and will continue to study them in the future.
Photo by Briar
Photo by Paisley
The final showdown in FIFA World Cup 2026 Spain won against Argentina to steal the victory in the last 14 minutes of extra game time GRACE AND HATHAWAY
S
pain won 1-0 against Argentina in the 2026 FIFA World Cup final last Sunday. The match took place on July 19 at Metlife Stadium in New Jersey. Spain is now the first European country to hold both the women’s and men’s World Cup titles. The game stretched on with no goals from either side during regulation play. Argentina took no shots during regular play on Spain’s goalie, Unai Simón, who had a historic performance during the World Cup. Argentina’s goalie, Emiliano "Dibu" Martínez, had a near-shutout against Spain and saved 19 out of 20 shots.
Late in regulation play, Argentina’s Enzo Fernandez was red carded, leaving the team with only 10 players for the rest of the game. That made it more difficult for Argentina to score and defend their net during extra play. After 90 minutes with no scoring, the game went to 30 minutes of extra play. It was minute 16 when Spain’s number 7 Ferran Torres wowed the crowd by scoring the only goal in the entire game. It was Torres’s first and only goal in the 2026 World Cup. “It was a goal scored by 47 million people,” Torres told reporters after the game.
There were many history-making details about the World Cup final. Spain’s coach, Luis de la Fuente, 65 years old, is the oldest man to lead a team to a World Cup title. He told reporters, “Accompanying them on this journey is an honour.” Spain will be the defending champions for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which will be hosted in Brazil. When the Spanish men return to defend their title in the 2030 FIFA Men’s World Cup, they could play at home. The three host countries will be Spain, Morocco and Portugal.
Illustration by Violet
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SPECIAL EDITION | PHOTOGR APHY
THE ONTARION
Photo by Briar
Photo by Charlie
Photo by Zoe L.M.
Photo by Briar
Photo by Colin
Photo by Charlie
Photo by Grace
Photo by Evynne
Photo by Colin
Photo by Grace
Photo by Hathaway
Photo by Evynne
Photo by Zoe L.M.
Photo by Zoe S.
Photo by Noa
Photo by Will
Photo by Will
Photo by Zoe S.
JOURNALI IN PH
VOLUME 200 | PHOTOGR APHY
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ISM CAMP HOTOS
Photo by Hunter
Photo by Runa
Photo by Hunter
Photo by Kiera
Photo by Owen
Photo by Kiera
Photo by Maëlle
Photo by Owen
Photo by Maëlle
Photo by Violet
Photo by Hathaway
Photo by Noa
Photo byViolet
Photo by Will
Photo by Owen
Photo by Runa
Photo by Will
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SPECIAL EDITION | NEWS
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THE ONTARION
ocean. One abyssal sea anemone was spotted on a manganese encrusted reef 4,100 metres beneath the surface.
Marine life discoveries in the depths of the Pacific Ocean
Rattail fish Rattail fish have big, blue eyes and a long, sharp tail that looks like a rat. They grow up to one metre long. They live in the depths of the ocean, as far as 7,000 metres below the surface. Rattail fish live in complete darkness and are part of the most common family of deep sea fish.
In 2024, a group of scientists and researchers spotted new and exciting creatures PAISLEY
A
n expedition in the depths of the Pacific Ocean revealed extraordinary creatures never spotted before. The expedition was made up of a team of researchers led by British scientists, including Chief Scientist Dr. Adrian Glover. The expedition took place in the spring of 2024. The scientists made their expedition on a re-
search boat and made the discovery using underwater technology, around 4,000 metres below the surface. In addition to the extraordinary creatures below, the scientists also found a type of sea sponge called the giant volcano sponge that lives for 15,000 years, which is longer than any other animal.
‘Barbie’ pig The ‘Barbie’ pig is a type of sea pig named for its hot pink colour and tiny ‘feet’. It was named by PhD researcher Bethany Fleming. It lives near the sea floor, about 4,000 metres deep. People should care about the ‘Barbie’ pig because it is a unique marine creature, and its habitat is threat-
ened by deep sea mining. Abyssal sea anemone
Brittle stars
Sea anemones attach to the sea floor, and have tentacles to draw in food. Since they live deep in the ocean, they primarily eat marine snow, which is made up of tiny particles of organic waste that sink down from higher in the
Brittle stars are a type of sea star with long, spindly arms. They can voluntarily sever their arms when they’re threatened and regrow them after. Some sea star species are old as dinosaurs.
person and they, eventually, after plot twists, adventures and more,
become friends. I think you will like this book because it is cool. I could not stop reading it! The book is cool because it is based on a video game that is about survival. The characters barely survive and you get to imagine how they survive because it is not a picture book. There were two lessons in the story: 1. Friends keep you sane. 2. When the world changes, you have to change with it. Both books were five-star ratings, but I liked the first one more because it was harder for Guy to survive in the first one. The characters travel the world and try to find the real world in the end. I felt a bit empty after reading Minecraft the Mountain because it was the end of the series. I wish there were more books.
A camper’s review of Minecraft the Mountain A really fun read with a good ending OWEN
M
inecraft the Mountain is the second in a series of two books by Max Brooks. Keep reading for my review and recommendation for this book. But first, I will tell you a bit about the first book. The first book, Minecraft the
Island, is about a guy named Guy waking up on an island and trying to survive. My rating of the second book is five out of five stars. The second book, Minecraft the Mountain, is about Guy (the same one from the last book), who is
The Ontarion's Summer Camp Playlist
Briar We No Speak Americano DCUP
Charlie Believer Imagine Dragons
traveling at sea and finally finds a mountain. He finds another
Grace Golden KPop Demon Hunters
Maëlle Human Rag 'N' Bone Man
Hathaway Lush Life Zara Larsson
Noa Stupid Song Olivia Rodrigo
Colin We Will Rock You / We Are the Champions Queen
Hunter Yeah! Usher
Owen Seven Nation Army The White Stripes
Evynne Dandelions Ella Langley
Kiera Vampire Olivia Rodrigo
Paisley Thunder Imagine Dragons
Runa Drop Dead Olivia Rodrigo Violet I Knew It, I Knew You Taylor Swift Will Island in the Sea Willie Nelson Zoe L.M. Don't Stop The Music Rihanna
Photo by Will
Zoe S. At the Risk of Feeling Dumb Twenty One Pilots
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COMICS
By Maëlle
By Maëlle
by Noa
by Noa
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SPECIAL EDITION | COMICS
by Will
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VOLUME 200 | COMICS
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by Noa
by Noa
by COLIN
by Runa
BY ZOE
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SPECIAL EDITION | BECAUSE WE ASKED
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BECAUSE WE ASKED...
What was your favourite part of journalism camp? Reading the newspapers with Evynne Briar
Seeing things with a camera you can’t see with your own eyes Hunter
Photography Charlie
Making buttons Paisley
I loved the birds Runa
Writing the comics Kiera
Photography outside where it’s nice and calm Violet
Making a comic Colin Seeing the birds Maëlle Reading the newspapers with Briar Evynne
Walking around and exploring the university Will Taking photographs and learning about the 6Ws Noa
Taking photos Grace
Making the newspaper Hathaway
The Ontarion Inc. University Centre Room 264 University of Guelph N1G 2W1 ontarion@uoguelph.ca 519-824-4120 Editorial: x 58250 Advertising: x 58267 Accounts: x 53534 EDITORIAL STAFF Editor-in-Chief Rachel Fioret Associate Editor Emmerson Jull
Zoe L.M.
I’m looking forward to the launch party Owen
PRODUCTION STAFF Graphic Designer/Art Director Paige Stampatori OFFICE STAFF Executive Director Patrick Sutherland Accountant Laurie Arnold BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chair Katelynn Huong Vice Chair Paula Henry-Duru Treasurer Denver Bakhareva
Making buttons
Taking photos Zoe S.
DIRECTORS Simran Aujla Oliver Bullingham Nathaniel Diamant Mariana Erazo Maia Galletta Marah Husien Huda Shoaib
GRACE
CONTRIBUTORS BRIAR CHARLIE COLIN EVYNNE
RUNA
HATHAWAY HUNTER KIERA MAËLLE NOA OWEN PAISLEY VIOLET WILL ZOE L.M. ZOE S.
The Ontarion is a non-prof it organization governed by a Board of Directors. Since The Ontarion undertakes the publishing of student work, the opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of The Ontarion staff and Board of Directors. The Ontarion reserves the right to edit or refuse all material deemed sexist, racist, homophobic, or otherwise unfit for publication as determined by the Editor-in-Chief. Material of any form appearing in this newspaper is copyrighted 2026 and cannot be reprinted without the approval of the Editor-in-Chief. The Ontarion retains the right of first publication on all material. In the event that an advertiser is not satisfied with an advertisement in the newspaper, they must notify The Ontarion within four working days of publication. The Ontarion will not be held responsible for advertising mistakes beyond the cost of advertisement. The Ontarion is printed by Master Web, Inc. Funded in part by the Government of Canada