Lesson Plan: Earthquakes in Eastern Canada

Lesson Plan

Before Exploring

Provide students with an outline map of Canada and have them indicate, by drawing or labelling, all of the locations where they think earthquakes take place in Canada. Place students in groups and have them compare their maps. Ask each group to provide a reasonable rationale for the locations chosen.

Outline the Opportunity

Direct students to Clips #2, 3, and 5 on the topic Canada's Earthquakes and Tsunamis on the CBC Digital Archives website. Have them examine the clips titled "Predicting the unpredictable", "The Grand Banks earthquake and...", and "Quebec shaken".  Students should also read the information in the accompanying Did You Know? sections and visit the following Earthquakes Canada for information and maps.

Using the information they have gathered, students create a historical newspaper article for one of the following earthquakes to hit eastern Canada: 1925, 1929, 1935, 1944, or 1988. The article title should be "Looking back at our shaky history," and students may use the narrative voice in their article at times. The article must identify both the physical and human effects of the earthquake.

Revisit and Reflect

Group the students by the earthquake that they wrote about and invite them to share their articles. Select one article from each of the five earthquakes and have a student read it aloud in class.

Extension

Students can examine recent earthquakes in Canada using information from Natural Resources Canada.  They should start with the most recent year of information and work backwards to determine the ratio of earthquakes in eastern Canada to those in western Canada.