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Students will examine data on manufacturing in Canada between 1900 and 1954 from various online editions of the Canada Year Book. They will reach conclusions about the manufacturing heartland in Canada during the first half of the 20th century, and use their research to create a concept poster. The theme of the poster is "Manufacturing's heartland—changing or staying the same?"
Intermediate
History, Social Studies
5 minutes for the introduction (steps 1 and 2)
45 to 55 minutes for worksheets (steps 3 to 6)
30 minutes for concept posters (steps 7 to 9)
Heartland – most important, central part of a country.
Industrial – relating to manufacturing or business, apart from agriculture and commerce.
Manufacturing – making goods using workers and machinery, usually in a factory—e.g., bicycles, t-shirts, chocolates.
Trend – a general tendency or pattern.
Review the definition of 'manufacturing' and present the class with this challenge:
What is manufacturing? Where does it often take place? Are factories typically in urban or suburban areas? What products do you see around you right now that were made in a factory? Checking the "Made in…" labels, find out where the factories that made them are located. Are most of them in Canada or elsewhere? Who knows someone who works in a factory? Do you think that there used to be more or fewer manufacturing jobs than there are today in Canada?
Suppose you are a Canadian looking for a factory job during the period from 1900 to 1964. Which provinces do you think might give you the best chance of getting a factory job?
Let's test our guesses using the various online editions of the Canada Year Book.
Provide support for students' concept poster project. Brainstorm items and format for posters:
We are trying to show that the industrial heartland of Canada was in Ontario and Quebec from 1917 to 1964, despite growth and change in numbers of workers, value of goods produced and number of factories in other provinces. Your concept poster should include basic information on the number of manufacturing establishments and employees, values of shipments, and wages and salaries to illustrate how the industrial heartland of Canada remained in Ontario and Quebec from 1917 to 1964.
Brainstorming will bring out some appropriate ways to illustrate your main idea. For example, you can show parts of the graph on page 565, examples of manufacturing sectors and graphic representations of numbers of factories or numbers of workers.
Students could investigate the state of manufacturing in Canada today and make some comparisons with the past in Canada and with other countries today (e.g., China, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, United States) using online databases.