Lesson Plan: The Community Suffers

Lesson Plan

Before Exploring

In small groups, have the students identify any common object in the class and try to determine how many people and facets of industry it took to create the object. Have them list these to see how many connections they can find.

Outline the Opportunity

Ask these small groups to listen to and/or view the clips titled "It takes something out of you", "Thunder Bay suffers" and "Urban impact", from Devastating Dry Spells: Drought on the Prairies on the CBC Digital Archives website.

Then ask each group to create a web that shows the interconnectedness of industries that are associated with farming. Encourage students to find as many connections as possible.

Revisit and Reflect

Ask each group to look at its web. Have students imagine that drought has destroyed the crops. What products of farming are affected? Have students draw a line through each affected product on their web. Ask them to draw another web demonstrating the impact of this hole in the web. Once completed, have each group write a statement about how important it is for Canada to have successful industries at all levels.

Extension

Groups can revisit their webs and choose another industry aside from farming. Have them subtract that industry from their web and evaluate the impact of that loss to all the other industries. Ask them to compare this new information with the previous information and state what similarities and differences they find.