Bring the new curriculum to life with Nature Labs, where history, citizenship, and real-world connections meet interactive learning. Designed to align with Alberta’s focus on critical thinking, active citizenship, and understanding modern Canada, Nature Labs empowers students to:
- Explore Canada’s history, government, and society through hands-on, inquiry-based activities
- Develop analysis and reasoning skills by investigating real-world social issues
- Connect economic, political, and identity related concepts in engaging, memorable ways
- Celebrate diverse perspectives, including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit voices
Nature Labs isn’t just a resource, it’s a learning adventure that transforms the classroom into an active, thoughtful exploration of Canada and the world. Prepare students to be informed, engaged, and confident citizens with Nature Labs, the perfect partner for the new Grade 9 Social Studies curriculum.
Organizing Idea: Systems: Evaluating processes and structures of organizations builds understanding of decision making in the world.
Guiding Question: How do parliamentary democracies ensure accountability?
Learning Outcome: Students examine how Canada’s political system reflects the needs of citizens.
Knowledge
Canada is a democratic nation that balances government control and protection of citizens’ individual rights and freedoms.
Canada’s government policies and programs reflect changing perspectives and impact individuals and groups in different ways.
Changes in legislation extended individual rights that were once denied to people based on
- age
- race
- gender
- income
- ethnic origin
- religious or spiritual beliefs
The Canadian Bill of Rights (1960) was the first federal legislation outlining rights and freedoms.
Canada gained sovereign control over its constitution through gradual patriation, culminating in the Constitution Act (1982), which entrenched the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982) defines individual and collective rights, including
- fundamental freedoms
- democratic rights
- mobility rights
- legal rights
- equality rights
- official language rights
- minority language educational rights
- Canada’s multicultural heritage
- Indigenous peoples’ rights
Section 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms recognizes that reasonable limits may be placed on rights and freedoms, including censorship of hate speech, e.g., racism, antisemitism, or Islamophobia.
Changes to the Constitution Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms can be made through
- the amending formula that allows the federal government to make additions
- the notwithstanding clause that allows provincial governments to exempt certain sections
Attempts to amend the Constitution of Canada to encourage national unity include
- the 1987 Meech Lake Accord
- the Charlottetown Accord
Rights afforded to Canadian citizens come with responsibilities of
- obeying the law
- taking responsibility for oneself and one’s family
- serving on a jury
- voting in elections
- helping others in the community
- protecting Canadian identity and the environment
Understanding
Protection of individual and collective rights evolves based on societal change.
Skills and Procedures
Determine significance of individual and collective rights for self and others.
Relate ethical considerations to changes and growth in Canadian rights and freedoms since Confederation.
Interpret evidence in legislation that affirms pluralism in Canada.
Relate advocacy to the changing social and political landscape of Canada.
Explain how amendments to legislation contribute to the development of Canadian multiculturalism and immigration.
Discuss historical and contemporary issues where reasonable limits have been placed on rights and freedoms.
Evaluate the impact the Constitution Act (1982) had on Canadian identity.
Discuss the relationship between rights and responsibilities afforded to Canadian citizens.
Explore the significance of the Meech Lake Accord and the Quebec October Crisis.
Organizing Idea: Time and Place: Exploring the dynamic relationships between people, place, and time supports understanding of perspectives and events to make meaning of the world.
Guiding Question: In what ways can events transform a nation’s role in the world?
Learning Outcome: Students examine ways in which international participation contributes to Canadian identity, sovereignty, and collective security.
Knowledge
Canada played an important role internationally to foster global peace and collective security after the Second World War, and played a diplomatic role in military and non-military alliances and organizations such as
- the United Nations, or UN
- the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT
- the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO
- the North American Aerospace Defence Command, or NORAD
Understanding
There is a reciprocal relationship between participation in world events, sovereignty, and national identity.
Skills and Procedures
Relate Canada’s important roles in history to its identity as a global contributor to peace and collective security.
Justify whether Canada should continue to be part of international organizations and interventions.
Guiding Question: How successful has Canada been in building a cohesive nation?
Learning Outcome: Students examine the impact of government policies on people in Canada over time.
Knowledge
The War Measures Act was replaced by the Emergencies Act, which requires review by parliament and is subject to the Canadian Bill of Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Emergency security legislation has been controversial and divisive.
Recognition of the impacts of emergency security legislation resulted in legislative changes and government apologies.
Regional identities emerged to challenge national unity by asserting their regional and provincial interests.
Feelings of nationalism among many Francophones challenged national unity and gave rise to Quebec separatism.
Provincial resistance to the National Energy Program, aimed at energy self-sufficiency, gave rise to western alienation.
The Canadian government made use of enfranchisement policies in an attempt of assimilation under the Indian Act.
First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children endured attempts of assimilation.
Residential schools and day schools in Canada were created by the government and operated by churches and were designed to assimilate First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children.
The Indian Act was amended (1894), mandating all First Nations and Inuit children be sent to residential schools.
Generations of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children were removed from communities and sent to residential schools and day schools.
The Sixties Scoop was an attempt to assimilate First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children by adopting or fostering them into non-Indigenous families and away from their culture.
Section 25 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects existing Indigenous rights and can be used to reconcile infringements by other Indigenous rights.
The Canadian Human Rights Act and the Alberta Human Rights Act protect human rights such as
- the right to live free from torture or slavery
- the right to equality, to dignity, and to live free from discrimination
- the duty to accommodate
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada reports documented the testimonies of former students, family members, and community members affected by residential schools.
The Government of Canada has taken action to redress injustice, including
- extending rights to previously excluded groups
- launching inquiries
- making acknowledgements such as apologies
- providing compensation and reparations, such as funding for education, commemorations, and counselling
Understanding
Government policies can impact national unity.
Assimilation impacts generations of people.
Government policies can reflect changing perspectives.
Skills and Procedures
Relate the use of emergency security legislation to national unity.
Investigate historical or contemporary issues related to regional identity that challenge national unity.
Describe the National Energy Program and its contribution to western alienation.
Discuss the impacts of enfranchisement policies on assimilation.
Discuss the experiences of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children at residential schools and day schools.
Describe the effects of the Sixties Scoop on First Nations, Métis, and Inuit.
Evaluate the impact of government policies on Canadian identity.
Describe how Section 25 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects Indigenous rights.
Explore the Truth and Reconciliation Commission reports.
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