Activity 2.1:
Snapshots - A Historical Perspective
TIME FRAME
2-4 weeks
OBJECTIVES
Students will:
- develop a sense of history of their local environment;
- research and gather data on economics, demographics, and the environment in
their local region;
- interview long-term residents, museum curators, First Nations elders, etc.;
- develop a scenario of what the local region was like in a variety of earlier times;
and present their scenario to the class.
MATERIALS REQUIRED
- information sources (library, museum, old newspaper articles, historical pictures,
etc.)
- tape recorders for interviewing
- computers and software for presentation preparation (optional)
- video camera equipment for presentation preparation (optional)
- overhead display transparencies
- regional/local maps
PROCEDURES
1. Present the topic: This activity is designed to be used in conjunction with other research and presentation activities in Global Change and Canadians: A Teacher's Guide . The class is divided into three groups, and each is assigned to one of the time periods noted.
Divide the class into groups. Assign each group a research activity. Each group will conduct a study and develop a class presentation on the historical scenario of the local or regional ecosystem. This assignment is a research assignment and will require time for library research, interviewing local residents and experts, and preparing presentations. It can also be conducted as a long-term independent study project, with adequate time in class made available for consultation, cooperative planning, and library research.
2. Prepare an assignment sheet outlining the research sources available at your school. Cooperatively plan with your teacher-librarian to coordinate research strategies, prepare a list of local organizations with historical material and organize human sources. If available in your school, access electronic sources such as CD ROM databases, online information services such as Dialog Classmate, or access to the Statistics Canada E-STAT database. Senior students can be made aware of and responsible for out of school resource sites (community college, university, public, and special libraries).
3. Note that each group should focus on what the local region or community was like:
- Before European settlement
- In the early years of European settlement
- 100 years ago
- 50 years ago
- 20 years ago
4. Presentation: Students will work cooperatively with others in their group to develop a presentation based on the information gathered in the research phase of this activity. Encourage students to be creative in their presentations. If your school has a video recording camera, a historical video could be made. Another way of presenting research findings for a "scenario" is to create a display of drawings, photographs, informational reports, and "old" newspapers.
The students are responsible for "teaching" the other members of their class about the information they have gathered and prepared. This could take the form of a "historical fair" with the classroom set up as a display area, or it could involve a series of presentations by the student groups in a more formal classroom situation.
ASSESSMENT
Students must be assessed on the product of their research, and can also be assessed on their presentations. If the teacher wishes to focus more on cooperative learning, or using a variety of research skills, or using a specific set of criteria for developing research skills, then the assessment must also focus on the research process.
Assessment must also relate to the original objectives of the lesson:
- Did students develop a sense of history of their local environment?
- Did students research and gather data on economics, demographics, and the
environment in their local region?
- Did students interview long-term residents, museum curators, First Nations
elders, etc.?
- Did students develop a scenario of what the local region was like in a variety of
earlier times?
- Did students present their scenario to the class? How well did they do these activities?
Activity 2.4: A Cross-Canada Glimpse
TIME FRAME
3-5 days
OBJECTIVES
Students will:
- compare their local ecosystem (biome) to a variety of ecosystems (biomes)
across Canada;
- create a large wall map of Canada;
- differentiate the various Canadian ecosystems;
- work in pairs or small groups to investigate different ecosystems;
- gather data about a variety of Canadian ecosystems;
- write brief reports about the ecosystems; and
- demonstrate understanding of information gathered by others.
MATERIALS REQUIRED
- Global Change and Canadians
- overhead projector
- national atlas of Canada
- The Canadian State of the Environment Report
- Statistics Canada E-STAT or print documents
- colored markers, pins, string, paper
- magazine pictures depicting various aspects of the ecosystems presented
PROCEDURES
1. Day 1: Use the map in Global Change and Canadians
(Figure 3, page 5) to create a large wall map of Canada. Photocopy the map from the handbook on to an overhead transparency sheet. Place the transparency sheet on the overhead projector. Turn on the overhead projector and focus the map projection on to the wall at a height which allows students to trace the outline. Tape a large sheet of white paper on the wall, large enough to contain the map outline.
- Students will work together to trace the Canada map outline. They will include
the outlines of the various ecosystem regions.
- Turn off the overhead projector.
- Students will use their Global Change and Canadians handbooks to color each of
the ecosystems on the large wall map and label each according to the kind of
ecosystem it is. (i.e. boreal forest, prairie grassland, wetland, Arctic, glacier, mountainous, etc.)
2. After planning the research process with the teacher-librarian, assign each group or pair (or individual, depending on the size of your class) of students an ecosystem to investigate.
3. Day 2-4 (this may be a homework assignment, or used as an in-class research assignment): Students will gather data, pictures, newspaper or magazine articles, etc. about their assigned ecosystem. Students will prepare typed or written displays of the information, along with pictures, articles, etc. to be placed on the wall map.
4. Day 5: The information sheets, pictures, articles, etc. are pinned, stapled or taped around the wall map. Each "presentation area" is connected to the appropriate ecosystem with coloured string. Each group, pair, or individual student outlines what they have discovered about their ecosystem to the rest of the class. All students are responsible for recording and learning about their "own" ecosystem, as well as the ecosystems that other classmates have displayed.
ASSESSMENT
Assessment should focus on the learning objectives and the activities assigned.
- Did students work together to create a large wall map?
- Did students differentiate the various ecosystems across Canada?
- Did students investigate different ecosystems? Did they incorporate their
investigations into reports, graphical displays, etc.?
- Did students connect their investigative results to the appropriate ecosystem on
the wall map?
- Did students prepare their information in such a way that other
students were able to learn about the ecosystems presented?
- Did the students use the material developed by their fellow students to
learn about a variety of ecosystems?
- How well did they do these things?
EXTENSION
One way for students to help each other learn the information that they gathered about their assigned ecosystem is to prepare summaries of their reports for distribution to the rest of the class.
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