Successful Resource-based Learning Strategies for the Geography of Canada Course

Prosper Torjman, Geography Department; Dianne Clipsham, Ann Hamilton, Teacher-Librarians, Merivale High School, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board
Joel Yan, University Liaison Program, Dissemination Division, Statistics Canada

• Abstract
• Introduction - Use of Cooperative Program Planning for the Population Unit
• Evolution of the Statistical Research Project Up to 1997
  • Student handout - assignment
  • Student handout - suggested list of topics
  • Primary Resources
• Math and Geography Departments Coordinated their Teaching
• Results
• Conclusion

Abstract

In Ontario and several other jurisdictions, all students take a grade 9/10 course dealing with the human and physical geography of Canada. One major unit of this course deals with the diversity of Canada’s population, and recent trends in the demographic make-up of Canada. Over the last eight years, geography teachers and teacher-librarians at Merivale High School have developed and implemented a resource-based statistical research project for all grade 9 students. This project actively involves students in using the latest population related resource materials from Statistics Canada and other sources. The students conduct statistical research on a demographic theme of their choice, produce statistical graphs for a bristol board display and then use this display for a presentation to their class. The project has been very successful in engaging students to critically examine current Canadian population issues and predict future trends. This article shares the teaching strategies used and discusses the results achieved. The activity can be directly transferred to other schools, using resources readily available in most school libraries. This teaching activity can also be integrated with other social studies topics.

Introduction - Use of Cooperative Program Planning for the Population Unit

The population unit in the geography course deals with the diversity of the Canadian population including issues such as the ethnic, and linguistic make-up of Canada. Other demographic issues such as the size and location of Canada’s native people, immigrant groups, and population by age and gender are also addressed. This unit has the potential to be, in some students’ eyes, a dull collection of statistics - or with imaginative student-centred teaching methods, as outlined below, a stimulating environment for cooperative resource-based learning.

The statistical research project on Canada’s changing population has been jointly developed and updated through "cooperative program planning" between geography teachers and teacher-librarians at Merivale High School. This approach has worked well, as it combines the expertise and access to information resources of the teacher-librarian and the curriculum knowledge of the classroom teacher.

When the Statistical Research Project was first developed at Merivale High School in the late 1980s for teaching the population unit, it was quite prescriptive. Students, working in pairs, were assigned a specific question. For each assigned question, very specific library resources were listed. Students then used those specific library resources to answer the question that had been assigned to them. Students prepared a bristol board display containing one or more statistical graphs and then made a 10 minute presentation explaining the trends to their peers. The presenters would then answer questions from their peers. These discussions were often very lively. The actual assignment and sample questions are contained in Table 1 and 2.

Evolution of The Statistical Research Project Up to 1997

The project has been updated regularly to reflect changes in curriculum, new population issues and the latest information resources available for these issues. The actual assignment and student handout has changed little over the years (cf. Table 1 and 3). However, the actual implementation of the research strategy has become more flexible and open-ended as times have changed. In 1997-98 this activity was run with eleven classes involving over 220 students in English and French.

With the move towards outcome-based education, we identified the following major learning outcomes to be achieved from the project:

• enhanced statistical analysis and graphing skills;
  
• improved critical thinking skills;
  
• enhanced oral communication abilities;
  
• knowledge of statistical graphic packages (e.g. Clarisworks, Excel);
  
• information literacy skills to locate and use the latest information resources including electronic (CD-ROM), Internet and textual statistical resources in the Library.

In 1995, the assignment was adapted to allow the students to select questions that they wanted to research (See Table 3 for the assignment). A list of broad topics and sub-topics (Table 4) prepared by the geography teacher and teacher-librarian was distributed and explained in advance. Students were given a few days to think about a broad topic and specific issue/ question that they would like to research. Educators told them that this is a unit that they and their colleagues will be teaching to the class. They could select from the list or identify their own topic. Where the students suggested their own topic the teaching partners had to confirm that they will be able to find relevant data. For example, "the homeless" is a topic of interest, but one which is more difficult in terms of finding appropriate data.

Then the students had two 50 minute periods to do research in the school resource centre looking through relevant statistical resources. In the first session, they were introduced by the teacher-librarian to the range of available resource materials from Statistics Canada and other sources that they could use, and they were shown sample student projects on bristol board from previous years. The list of primary resources currently used for these projects is given in Table 5. During the second library period, the students searched for, read and analysed the data they needed for their charts from these library resource materials. The teaching partners were available during these library sessions to encourage and assist the students in researching the data needed.

The students finished their display and presentation with their partner at home. During this period, key concepts were taught or reinforced in class by the teacher. e.g. census, population pyramid, birth rate. One week later the student presentations began in the geography classroom. Usually two 10-minute presentations were completed per 50 minute geography class period. We allowed about 15-minutes for questions from the class and answers by the student presenters - and this was sometimes not enough as the discussions can be very intense. The teacher stepped in only occasionally to re-focus the discussion if it went significantly off-track.

How well has it worked? The students have been motivated to examine issues such as occupation by gender. With a class of 24 students working in pairs, it may take 6 periods to go through all the presentations. Students are asked to take notes and are informed that there will be a test on the materials presented. And by the end, the entire population unit has been covered quite thoroughly.

As a more formal conclusion to the unit, each pair of students submitted three questions on their topic for a class quiz. The geography teacher selects the best 15-20 questions for a class test on the population unit. The final exam which followed the project also included a question referring to the demographic findings.

Math and Geography Departments Coordinated their Teaching

One positive result of sharing expertise, was better coordination of the teaching of statistical graphing skills between the mathematics and geography departments. While students in grade 9 are taught graphing skills within the grade 9 math curriculum, previously, these skills were taught later in the year, often after this geography population graphing assignment was complete. In 1995, the heads of geography, math and the library departments met and agreed that the teaching of the graphing skills by the mathematics teacher be moved up to earlier in the year, such that this geography population assignment could reinforce and further develop the graphing skills already learned in math class.

A simplified more structured version of the population graphing project was developed from the Vanier Institute’s Profile of Canadian Families as an option for students. A series of 2-3 page worksheets were prepared with catchy titles including: "Many Teens Work Too", "Children are Big Ticket Items", "Ninety-six percent of Canadians come from somewhere else". The first page outlines the specific task, in terms of analysing the data, and making one or more graphs (see example in Table 6). The other pages contain the raw data or charts to be analysed.

Results

This assignment continues to be popular with the students, the subject teachers, and the teacher-librarians.

What do the students say about this assignment? One group of gifted students liked the resource-based learning approach used with this assignment so much that they asked if they could do the same type of project for their learning on Canadian agriculture using the book "Canadian Agriculture at A Glance". We at Merivale agreed and read out to them the names of the chapters in this book. By this method each student happily picked a topic he or she was interested in. Some of the chapters that were popular include "Udderly Amazing- Daisy’s Producing Lots more Milk in the Nineties, And This Little Pig Went to Market, Canada’s Ever-popular Potato, Apple Bits ". We received approval from Statistics Canada to photocopy the individual chapters. Each student in this class read his or her chapter, wrote a critique of the chapter, prepared a bristol board containing statistical highlights of the chapter in graph form and then made a presentation to the class. This worked very well and the bristol board displays were of high quality.

Teachers’ Assessment of the Assignment: We have found that students participate more in discussions when the material is being presented by their peers. Students often become very motivated by this assignment, especially when they have picked the topic they are interested in and they have become "the expert" on this topic. Students also try to come up with challenging questions to stump their peers. This project can give teachers a break from lecturing to a large group, allowing them to focus on pairs of students, motivating them and guiding their learning.

Grade 9 students now include their project reports within their individual "portfolios for success" as part of the demonstrated Skills for Life Long Learning that they can show to prospective employers and parents.

Selected Merivale students presented their projects and bristol board displays to officials at Statistics Canada’s head office. This further demonstrated that the students had grasped the information content in detail and were able to make intelligent projections on the expected trends in the data and able to answer questions.

Conclusion

At Merivale High School, we have found that this resource-based learning project works very well, and provides a range of valuable skills to the students. Skills include cooperative learning, critical thinking, statistical analysis and oral presentation skills. Students enjoy becoming statistical experts on specific topics of interest to them, as well as becoming confident managers of statistical information.

This project has been very successful in engaging students in critically examining Canadian population issues for today and the future. This article has shared the teaching strategies used and discussed the positive results achieved. The activity can be directly transferred to other schools, and adapted to use whatever resources are readily available in your school library. This teaching activity can also be easily adapted to other topics in social studies.

At Statistics Canada we are attempting to develop and make accessible a variety of teacher-friendly resources for social studies education, with cross-disciplinary application as well. We have observed that students have been highly motivated in working with our Canadian information when this teaching strategy has been followed at Merivale High School. We hope that our statistical resources and dynamic student centred learning strategies such as this activity developed by committed educators at Merivale High School will be useful in meeting today’s learning objectives for Canadian teachers and students.

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