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Chapter One
The System of Things
Part One
Why does research and storytelling matter?
Why Nature?
We use nature as a metaphor to help explain your class lesson. Why?
Read Story Instead
Prefer reading instead? Here's the text version of your lesson.
Questions & Activities
Reflect on your lesson with short activities, or by exploring referenced articles, featured podcasts, term definitions, and more!
Featured Hot Take
Are the big, complex systems in our society important? Can they evolve? Absolutely! Just ask Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell, Canada’s first – and so far only – female prime minister.
We’re featuring this podcast across all five Nature Labs subjects. You might not like every course you take in school, but they are all related. By listening to this podcast, hopefully you’ll better understand why.
Reflection
- Do you agree that our democracy is fragile? And, if it is, how can we contribute to its health?
- Should more of us consider running for office, or is it fair to say that politics isn’t for everyone?
- Is voting during an election all that's required to be a good citizen, or is more required of us?
- Are too many of us ceding important decisions to a small group of political power brokers?
- How can we each help advance good policy? How can research and storytelling help?
- If you could use storytelling to advance one new policy, what would it be and how would you build support for your idea?
Part Two
THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES WILL HELP YOU BETTER UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPTS YOU NEED TO LEARN IN THIS CLASS. YOUR TEACHER WILL SELECT WHICH ACTIVITIES YOU NEED TO COMPLETE BELOW.
Truth vs Lie
What do you know? Try to trick your classmates in a friendly game of two truths and a lie.
Know the Terms
What terms and concepts will you discover in this unit? Learn and practice, and practice again!
Jeopardy!
The classic game, with a twist. Apply what you have learned so far and compete to win!
Part Three
HOW DOES THIS CLASS RELATE TO REAL-WORLD ISSUES?
Inquiry Media

Can we save every species?
Further Exploration
Latest News
Inflation and the Economy: Rate Cuts
Yesterday saw the Bank of Canada - our non-partisan central bank that stewards Canada's economic interests and monetary policy - cut interest rates by...
Happy National Wildlife Day!
National Wildlife Day is your chance to celebrate all the awesome animals that share this planet with us. From giant elk casually crashing the...
Predicting Our Year Ahead
Part One: Warm Up
Think of one event from the past school year — in Canada or the world — that left a strong impression...
What is Systems Change
Systems change is a process that seeks to reconstruct or evolve an entire system, impacting everyone and everything connected to it. Systems change often...
What is Design Thinking
Design thinking is a problem-solving methodology that focuses on needs and experiences to generate creative solutions. It is a human-centred approach to innovation that...
Terms
It’s important to build a base of knowledge for this class. First, let’s start with a few questions:
How do you define storytelling? Why does...
Resources From the Curated Library
Additional Resources
- Nature Research
- National Research Council of Canada
- UN Biodiversity
- Nature Labs
- Principles of Learning of First Peoples
- SciToons: Research
- PHILOnotes: Research Gaps
- Sarah Clark: Online Research Tips
- Nature Research
- fRI Research
- The Conference Board of Canada
- Library Archives of Canada
- The Library of Parliament: Research
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