By: Melinda Butler Schaddalee, Goshen Middle School; Goshen, IN, 6/15/1997

Site Address: http://ellesmere.ccm.emr.ca/ourhome/Home.html 

Theme: The Atlas of Canadian Communities - Our Home

Grade Levels: 4-8

Annotation of Site:

This site is written by students in Canada in various cities - and ages from elementary through high school. It covers 30 different cities - 13 from Alberta; 4 from Manitoba; 3 from Ontario; 2 from British Columbia; 2 from Newfoundland; 2 from Saskatchewan; 1 from Nova Scotia; 1 from New Brunswick; 1 from Quebec and 1 from the Yukon.

A standard format is used to convey information for each city, however, because this is a student (classroom) generated project, written by different level of students the information within each category varies. The categories include: Information about this community, Regional scale map, Boundary information, Things to change about this community, Best things about this community, Community overview , Place name information.

Each city is interestingly represented by the students and many have included pictures of their area. Information on the students is also available, again many with photographs of the authors as well. One site I found was written by a fourth grade class. It had a variety of subjects from personal interviews with family members that had migrated to the area to official information from the city.

Atlas of Canadian Communities offers a student an opportunity to get a view of an area in Canada first hand -- from those their age that live there.

Just a note... not all towns or cities are represented in the same way. Some of the information is quite extensive for some areas, while others have limited information. Many have personal accounts that include family experiences, these I found very valuable in

Geography Standards Addressed:

• #4) The physical and human characterisitcs of places.
• #5) That people create regions to interpret Earth’s complexity.
• #6) How culture and exprience influence people’s perceptions of places and regions.
• #9) The characteristics, distribution, and migration of human populations on Earth’s surface.
• #10) The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth’s cultural mosaics.
• #11) The patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth’s surface.
• #12) The processes, patterns, and functions of human settlement.
• #13) How the forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of Earth’s surface.
• #14) How human actions modify the physical environment.
• #15) How physical systems affect human systems.

Indiana Social Studies Proficiency Guidelines Addressed:

- Explain the relationship between physical and cultural features in the Western World

• * identify cultural characteristics of regions that influence cultural development.
• * identify ways in which people have used and adapted to their environments.

- Using the cultures of the Western World as a context, develop an understanding that all cultures share common elements regardless of their diversity.

Note: Site is a part of National Atlas of Canada: http://ellesmere.ccm.NRCan.gc.ca/wwwnais/wwwnais.html