Critical+Challenge+4c

Three Dramatic Events

Outcomes

How did the First World War contribute to the industrialization and urbanization of Canada?

In what ways did the Great Depression of the 1930s affect ways of life in urban and rural communities?

How did the economic boom immediately following the Second World War affect ways of life in Canada?

The Canadian Encyclopedia Subject Index Images Canada Edmonton: Alberta's Capital City. City of Edmonton Archives Virtual Museum of Canada

Students learn about the dramatic effects of World War I, the Great Depression of the 1930s and the economic boom immediately following World War II by assessing the impact of these events on the economic well-being of the nation. Students examine the impact on industries, agriculture, natural resources, transportation, movement of people and urbanization. Collect a number of photographs of life from pre-1900 to the end of World War II, showing various aspects of Canada's economy; e.g., industries, agriculture, urban and rural communities, transportation, jobs. Photographs can be found on //Images Canada// Web site (see References) by typing in keywords such as "industry" and "agriculture." Display the photographs. You may wish to review the terms "economy," "industry" and "urbanization" by using a current event such as oil sands development. Draw a timeline on the board and ask students to sequence images at appropriate years to show how Canada's economy has changed over time. Ask them to justify their decisions. Inform students that there were three dramatic events that impacted Canada's economic well-being during the first half of the 20 th century: World War I, the Great Depression of the 1930s and the economic boom immediately following World War II. Briefly explain each event. Assign students to research one of the three events to discover the impacts—positive and negative—on these aspects of economic life: Suggest that students use a three-column organizer by listing the aspects of economic life down the left-hand column, and the positive and negative effects in the other two columns. Encourage students to use online and print resources for their research. Online encyclopedias, such as //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia// and the //Youth Encyclopedia of Canada// (see References), provide overviews of these events and Canada's economic history. You may want to adapt the chart Comparing Information found in [|Collecting Information] (Support Material) to structure and assess student note taking. Invite each group to assess the impact of their event on the well-being of the nation. Create a wall-sized rating scale or a visual bar graph, similar to the one below. **Assessing the Impact**
 * Introduction to economic life in Canada**
 * Place photographs on a time line**
 * Introduce the key economic booms and crashes**
 * Research one of three major economic events**
 * industries
 * agriculture
 * employment opportunities
 * urbanization; e.g., growth of cities
 * movement of people—immigration/migration
 * resources; e.g., wheat, lumber, oil
 * social well-being of Canadians; e.g., health care, education, welfare
 * transportation.
 * Rate the impact of these events**
 * +5

0 ||||||||||||||||  ||
 * 0

-5 ||||||||||||||||  || Opportunities || Urbanization || Movement of People || Resources || Social Well-being of Canadians || Transportation ||
 * || Industries || Agriculture || Employment

Distribute to each group a different coloured felt pen to use to indicate the degree of impact of their event on each of the aspects of economic life using the scale from -5 (very negative effect) to +5 (very positive effect). Invite each group to justify its ratings. Ask the class to rank the three events in terms of the significance of their impact on Canadians.