The government of Ontario has recently implemented curriculum changes to the grade 9 geography, creating a new course CGCW1- Exploring Canadian Geography. The new course has 5 main strands. Strand A focuses on developing soft skills, as well as understanding the geographic inquiry process and the concepts of geographic thinking. This strand is expected to be woven into the other 4. Strand B focuses on natural processes and physical geography, as well as the effect humans have on it (and vice versa). Strand C focuses on Canada’s natural resources industry, as well as issues around sustainability and economic development. Strand D focuses on population demographics, and how global changes are relevant to Canada. Strand E focuses on land use by human communities, as well as the sustainability of human systems (transport, food, etc..).
GIS(geographic information system) software can be a valuable teaching aid, in helping students understand this content. GIS software connects spatial data (the where) and links it to descriptive data (the what). One GIS company, ESRI provides GIS software to k-12 educators for free. Including its main software ArcGIS ( a mapping tool used for all sorts of projects), and a variety of apps(which are various tools that interact with data in different ways including
collection, visualization, and more). ESRI also has 5 kinds of free resources to help use GIS software in the classroom which can be found on their k-12 resource finder. While some of these resources are built by ESRI, others are also built by their partner organizations, which are sometimes specialized in certain fields. Galleries and activities allow students to use pre-built apps or maps, to explore a wide range of topics. The latter resource also comes with questions
to help with student understanding. Tutorials walk students through how to use GIS software in certain ways(for example creating a map showing the occurrences of wildfires across a region).
While lessons get students using GIS software to create maps, and analyze data, to understand a topic, make a decision, or solve a problem. Finally, course collections are groupings of resources connected to a specific curriculum, including the grade 9 geography course. For more information on how to use GIS to teach CGCW1, check out this free recorded webinar by ESRI:https://resources.esri.ca/webinars/arcgis-your-sidekick-for-ontario-s-cgc1w-exploring-
canadian-geography-course#main-content.
