The Ice Storm 1998: Maps and Facts Activity

Overview

In January of 1998, the people in eastern Ontario and western Quebec experienced an ice storm that left an indelible impact on them and their environment. Three months after it passed, Statistics Canada released a statistical portrait of this natural catastrophe.

The St. Lawrence River Valley 1998 Ice Storm: Maps and Facts contains a series of six annotated maps that illustrate the ice storm's impact on the population, environment, retail sales, land cover, dairy cows, and sugar maple taps in eastern Ontario and western Québec. Brief descriptions of the data accompany each map. But numbers are only part of the ice storm's story, as " ... it is hard to fully appreciate the pressure felt by people and the environment." (The St. Lawrence River Valley 1998 Ice Storm: Maps and Facts, page 2)

Help us put a human face on this event. Have your students write stories or prepare presentations on their personal experiences and send them to us. We will publish as many as possible on the Statistics Canada website. This activity, aimed at all grade levels, is designed not only to learn about the numbers and facts associated with the storm, but to foster an awareness of how the ice storm affected the people of the area.

In addition, the following activities were developed around the ice storm by teachers during a one-hour workshop at the fall conference of the Ontario Association of Geography and Environmental Education in 1998.

• Map Interpretation I
• Map Interpretation II
• Decision Making
• Researching on the Web
• Emergency Response Plan

Objectives

• To develop skills in reading and interpreting maps and data tables
• To develop creative writing and presentation skills
• To develop basic skills in electronic communication (e.g., e-mail)
• To relate personal experiences to a broader perspective
• To appreciate that statistical data represents real people and their actions
• To foster an awareness of how people were affected by the ice storm.

Suggested grade levels and subject areas

Elementary, Intermediate, Secondary
Language Arts (English or Français), Geography, Mathematics, Social Studies

Outcomes

Students will

• interpret ice storm data displayed as tables and maps;
• express their own experiences of the ice storm;
• revise and edit their work, focussing on content and elements of; style, independently and in collaboration with others; and
• use a computer to e-mail their stories or presentations.

Materials

• a copy of The St. Lawrence River Valley 1998 Ice Storm: Maps and Facts, available on the Internet free of charge (PDF format). Educators may reproduce all or part of the publication for non-commercial use
• an Internet-enabled computer with an active e-mail account and e-mail program.

Classroom instructions

1. Download The St. Lawrence River Valley 1998 Ice Storm: Maps and Facts, then select and copy the section(s) relevant to your students.
2. Have your students review a section independently or assign different sections to small groups.
3. Study the maps as a class and discuss the data.
4. Develop a list of focus questions on the impact the storm had on their lives. Some examples are:
   • Was your house without power? Did you have heat? Water?
   • What did you do after dark?
   • Was your school without power?
   • Were you able to get to school during the storm?
   • Was any of your property damaged by falling tree limbs?
   • Was your parent's business affected?
   • Did you leave your house during the storm?
   • Did you have difficulty finding a back-up generator?
   • How long were you without power?
   • Did you run out of money, gas, or food?
5. Once the class decides on a collection of questions, have the students answer them with a show of hands. Write the number of answers on a blackboard and categorize them according to theme (e.g., electricity, employment, etc.).
6. Ask your students to write a personal account of the ice storm, describing how they and those around them endured it. Outline your own criteria regarding page/word length, themes, and other aspects of the assignment.
7. Working in pairs, have students read each other's stories, then compare their personal accounts to the class data and, finally, the data in the publication.
8. Have your students type their stories directly into an e-mail message and send it, along with their first name, grade level, school, and community name, to education@statcan.gc.ca. Submissions will be reviewed for appropriate content, then translated into the other official language and published on the Statistics Canada website. Scanned photographs, drawings, and computer-generated graphics are welcomed, but must be attached to the e-mail message as a GIF, JPEG, or TIFF file that is 20K or smaller. Note: Submitting your files is considered permission to publish, so please have your students and their parents complete a "Permission to Publish on the Internet" slip which you will retain.

Stories from the Storm

Written by youth in elementary schools in the affected areas, these personal accounts describe the ice storm from their own perspectives and experiences.

Please e-mail comments or examples of how you used this exercise in your class.

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