General information

Title: The Acadian and Boreal Forest
Theme: Forestry Workers
Teaching level: Primary
Discipline: Social Science

General learning results:
- Organization of a community across its geographical area

- Changes in the organization of a community across its geographical area

- Diversity of communities across their geographical area

Transdisciplinary learning results:
- Communication
- Use of ICT

- Critical thinking
- Personal and social development
- Culture and heritage
- Work habits

Specific learning results:
Organization:
- Describe the main characteristics of the natural environment and inhabited areas of the New Brunswick

Change:
- Identify causes and consequences of some of the changes that have taken place in New Brunswick since its establishment as a province in 1784.

Diversity:
- Find similarities and differences between our forest in New Brunswick and that of another province in Canada.

Technical skills and civics:
- Share with other students in the classroom
- Use a vocabulary associated with concepts of time, geographical area, and society
- Follow directions on a map using the cardinal points.

Teaching preparation

Proposed task:
Students discover different types of forests and describe each type of forest (tree species). The work teams are invited to share the results of their findings using presentation software such as Power Point or illustration software such as Inspiration.

Interdisciplinarity:
- English
- Information technologies
- Mathematics (diagrams to present a summary of the species in the forests of New Brunswick and Canada)

Materials:
- Computers
- Internet sites
- Videos and pictures from the Internet site

Resource person(s):
Professor, forestry technician or government employee with responsibilities related to forest operations.

Learning preparation

Proposed approach:
Procedure :
- Explain the decline of tree populations in forests. (See changes on the environment)
- Identify tree species found in the New Brunswick forests (Acadian and Boreal)
- Discuss the diversity of forests in New Brunswick and Canada, and the reasons for those differences.

Preparation:
- A general review of prior knowledge on deciduous (leafy) and coniferous (evergreen) forests.
- Show pictures of the region to illustrate noticeable changes on the environment. Discuss reasons for changes in the past. Discuss why they are still happening.
- Show the students various species of trees that make up the New Brunswick forests (Acadian Forest and Boreal Forest).
- Construct a diagram such as a spider web, definition organizer, pictogram, bar graph, etc., summarizing the species of trees found in New Brunswick. Make a graph for deciduous (leafy) trees and one for the coniferous (evergreen) trees (mathematics).

Objectivation:
- What is a coniferous tree?
- What is a deciduous tree?
- Is the forest around us the same as years ago?
- What explains changes in the forest?
- What species of trees do we find in New Brunswick forests?

Learning realisation

Proposed approach:
- Divide the class into small work groups. (one Canadian province for each team)
- Ask the teams to research on the Internet the species of trees found in the forests of each assigned province. Find also the types of forest that exist in that province (ex.: Acadian Forest, Boreal Forest…).
- Each team must complete a chart containing the following information :
- Name of the province
- A shading of the province on an outline map of Canada
- Type(s) of forest(s)
- Species of trees
- Other pertinent information (ex.: fauna)
- Referring to the chart, the teams will construct a diagram such as a spider web, definition organizer, pictogram, bar graph…) summarizing their findings. (math skills)
- Each team shares the information found on the diagram of its province with the whole class. The presentation will be made using presentation software or illustration software.

Objectivation:
- Do we find the same species of trees in all provinces of Canada?
- How can we summarize all our data on one diagram?
- Are there particular species found in all provinces?
- Are there more deciduous or coniferous trees?

Learning integration

Proposed approach:
- Construct a bar graph to summarize all species of trees of Canada. (ex. : deciduous vs coniferous)
- Reproduce new diagrams using the software Inspiration (drawing graphic program).

Diversity :
- Compare the tree species of Canada with those of other world forests.
- Explain why certain tree species grow in some regions and not in others.

Objectivation:
- Do we find all the same species of trees in the forests of the world?
- What causes the diversity of forests?
- What type of forest is more appealing to you? Explain why.