High School Block:

Canadian Geography 120

This human geography course builds on the general introduction to geography in the Grade 9 Canadian Identities course and explores how geographical thinking can be applied to many Canadian spaces, places and peoples. Learners will examine Indigenous perspectives on land and place, develop a personal concept of place, address interdisciplinary questions about Canadian places, human movement and migration, and explore concepts of stewardship. The Canadian Geography 120 course brings awareness to collective experiences, interactions with, and views about the natural and human worlds. 

Learners will have opportunities to explore themes relating to the latest technologies, Canadian treaties, laws, and policies. They will engage with demographic realities, examine resource management, discuss economic challenges, research migration and immigration, examine geopolitical investment and security, and analyze how geography influences each of these realms.

By the end of the course, learners will be able to express an awareness of the interrelationships between their physical space, perspectives on place, treaties and other key factors that influence those relationships. Learners will be able to articulate the ethical implications of stewardship and discuss the collective responsibilities of Canadians to Canadian places, spaces and peoples. 

CONTEXTS AND CONCEPTS

Perspectives on space and place

  • Tools and methods:
    • Maps and map projections
    • Satellite photographs
    • Stats Can and other demographic data
    • Data visualizations of geographic information
    • GIS tools
    • Story, vernacular knowledge and oral tradition
  • Change in place over time
    • Evidence of
    • Representation of
  • Federalism and regionalism
    • Who is responsible for what departments and services
    • How regionalism shapes spaces
  • Perspectives on spaces
    • NIMBYism
    • Reclaiming spaces
    • Contested spaces
    • Neighbourhoods as culturally defined spaces
Indigenous perspectives on Canadian geography

  • Indigenous peoples in Canada
  • Indigenous ways of knowing
  • Wabanaki territories
    • Regional stories (ask Elders)
  • Imposition of political borders on physical space
  • Treaties and treaty relationships in Canada
    • The Treaties of Peace and Friendship
    • The Numbered Treaties
  • Creation of reserve system
  • Historical and contemporary land-based advocacy
    • Examples of
    • Evidence of effects
Patterns and systems in the human and natural worlds

  • Critical Thinking:
    • Geographical Thinking
    • Map projection analysis
    • Bias and worldview
  • Migration and settlement
    • Push and pull factors
    • Internal migration
    • Immigration
    • Forced relocation
  • Economics and resource use
    • Natural resources and industries across Canada
    • Primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary industries
    • Extractive capitalism
  • Environment and environmental changes
    • Environmental changes and climate change
    • Adaptation and mitigation
    • Environmental justice
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GRADE 12

Strand: Canadian Geography 120

Big Idea: Perspectives on space and place

Skill Descriptor: Explore quantitative and qualitative tools and methods for understanding space and place.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Investigate data sources used to make decisions about planning and development
  • Analyze how maps are used to communicate geographical information, including size, scale, etc.
  • Analyze how maps are used to convey characteristics of place (e.g., language, identity, ownership, power, etc.)
  • Examine the compatibility of Indigenous ways of knowing with GIS and other technological systems.
  • Identify how oral tradition and story are used to communicate knowledge about space and place

Skill Descriptor: Use geographical reasoning to apply historical, social, political and economic perspectives to place.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Assess criteria for what makes a place significant
  • Consider how individuals and groups can be marginalized or erased, visible and celebrated in space and place
  • Investigate how perspective influences decision-making around use of place (including resource development)

Skill Descriptor: Discuss changes in perception of a Canadian region over time.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Use qualitative and quantitative tools and methods to define a region
  • Collect evidence from a range of data sources that reflect perceptions of the region
  • Examine the concept of regionalism as a way of understanding place, space, and identity in Canada
  • Reflect and report on the factors that have influenced the change in perception

Big Idea: Indigenous perspectives on Canadian geography

Skill Descriptor: Explore Wabanaki peoples’ interactions with, and on, the land.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Reflect and report on a range of Wabanaki perspectives on sovereignty
  • Identify Wabanaki perspectives on land use
  • Discuss tensions and competing interests around land use on Wabanaki territory

Skill Descriptor: Examine the effect of treaty relationships on perceptions of place.

Achievement Indicators:

  • List the treaties the Canadian government has signed with Indigenous peoples in Canada
  • Investigate how geography influenced the treaties, and how the treaties have influenced geography
  • Examine land use pre- and post-contact, and pre-and post-treaty

Skill Descriptor: Research the ways Indigenous people advocate for sovereignty and sustainability.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Identify patterns and themes in historic and contemporary advocacy
  • Examine a contemporary example of Indigenous land-based advocacy in a region
  • Communicate the political, social, economic, and environmental effects across a range of advocacy efforts in Canada

Big Idea: Patterns and systems in the human and natural worlds

Skill Descriptor: Examine concepts and models that seek to explain geographical phenomena.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Analyze how different types of geographical modeling reflect human perspectives and values.
  • Discuss how human values affect the ways place is conceptualized

Skill Descriptor: Examine how social relationships and identities are shaped by natural and built environments.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Discuss how the natural environment shapes regional and national identities and cultures
  • Explore the concepts of geopolitics and borders
  • Evaluate the impact of migration on human and natural environments
  • Examine the motivations for, and impacts of, planned development in Canada, including urbanization and forced relocation

Skill Descriptor: Explore interrelationships between humans, place and environment.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Represent resource use in Canada over time
  • Explore transitions from resource-based to service- and knowledge-based economies in Canada
  • Explore the process of developing non-extractive relationships with rightsholders and stakeholders
  • Evaluate scenarios for mitigating or adapting to environmental changes caused by humans
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