Series Topics
Global Indigenous Peoples
Topics
Our Ancestors, Our Families
- Explores connections between people, their communities, and their cultures.
- Focus on the Kwakwaka’wakw, Secwepemc, and Māori.
- Subjects include social roles and responsibilities, how skills are learned, protocols, and models of government.
The Land is Our Home
- Explores connections to the land.
- Focus on the Tsay Keh Dene, Gitga’at, and Guaraní Kaiowa.
- Subjects include connections to plants, animals, and water, stewardship, and technology.
Our Words, Our Stories
- Explores connections to language and story.
- Focus on Stó:lō, Haida, and Kanaka Maoli.
- Subjects include oral traditions, storytelling, teaching, and place names.
Honouring Our Ways
- Explores connections that are created by shared beliefs and cultural practices.
- Includes groups in previous modules as well as the Ainu, Métis, and Inuit.
- Subjects include seasonal gatherings, ceremonies and celebrations, events and activities, and diversity.
First Peoples and European Contact
Topics
Land, People, and Identity Students explore the diversity of British Columbia’s peoples as shaped by the traditional territories where they reside.
Trade: Conflict and Cooperation Students explore the interactions between First Peoples and Europeans during the coastal fur trade, and investigate whether First Peoples were equal partners in the trade networks that connected the coast to the world in the 1700s.
Judging the Impact Students explore how the influx of European settlement and changes to the landscape impacted First Peoples, and determine what the consequences of those changes are.
Changes and Consequences Students explore the ways in which important events have shaped British Columbia and will investigate why British Columbia joined Canada and how it impacts the relationship between First Peoples and government.
How We Remember Students will investigate the Chilcotin War of 1864 to explore how the same event can take on a very different level of importance for different people. They will also investigate other events from the past to determine their significance from a First People's perspective.
Making Responsible Choices about the Land Students explore the uses of land from a variety of perspectives and consider solutions to the question of how resources and land should be used responsibly in British Columbia.
Canadian Issues and Governance
Topics
O Canada, or O Canadas?
- Explores if there is a “Canadian identity” and what could influence it.
- Subjects include stereotypes, diversity, the influence of geography on identity, changes to identity over time, and the influence of the media and technology.
Our Home and Native Land?
- Explores the influence of geography on the lives of Canadians and the connections between First Peoples and the land.
- Subjects include diversity of climate and geography across Canada, natural resources, protecting water, the history of treaties, and stewardship of the land.
True Patriot Love?
- Explores the legacies of Canada’s treatment of diverse peoples over time.
- Subjects include residential schools, the Indian Act, internment of Ukrainian and Japanese Canadians, the history of voting rights, Chinese immigration, the 1907 Vancouver riot, and the Komagata Maru incident.
From Far and Wide?
- Explores immigration in Canada.
- Subjects include push and pull factors, Canadian immigration policy (including how it has changed over time), the policy of multiculturalism, and how immigration affected First Peoples.
Glorious and Free?
- Explores Canada’s governments and the electoral system.
- Subjects include democratic rights, how Canadians choose their governments, different types of representation, how different levels of government affect Canadians, how the government gets and spends money, how laws are made, First Peoples’ governments, and the organization of the federal government.
Does Canada Stand on Guard for Thee?
- Explores human rights (in Canada and around the world).
- Subjects include the formation of the United Nations, what human rights are, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention of the Rights of the Child, discrimination and equality, the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the rights of First Peoples in Canada, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and how the courts uphold rights.
Global Issues and Governance
Topics
People and Places Students explore the concept of place — their own and others’ — the intersection of land, culture, history, and individual lives; how can boundaries both establish place and become a source of conflict?
Media, You, and the World Students explore the roles of media and communication technologies, good and bad; does media serve our interests and build common understanding?
Let’s End Poverty Students explore the causes and consequences of poverty; how can we work together to achieve a more equal world for everyone?
On the Move Students explore the movement of people, especially to cities; what are the causes and consequences of human relocation and migration?
Going Global Students explore how globalization has brought us closer together, for better and worse; what happens when our self-interests conflict with our need to cooperate for survival; must we further the interests of others in order to further our own?
Pathways to Peace Students explore why humans enter into conflict; what is the role of governmental organizations, NGOs, and groups representing indigenous peoples in building peace?
The Ancient World to the 7th Century
This course examines the early developments of human cultures around the world, the challenges early peoples faced, and the foundational developments that endure today.
- Students discover the connections between life today and life in the ancient past and explore how individuals, cultures, and the human family all have stories that begin in the past and carry lessons for the present.
- In the student resources, emphasis is on developing good questions and opportunities for student-‐initiated inquiry, examining events and developments, applying concepts, and drawing conclusions.
- The student resources will support students in their appreciation of the connections between their lives and our shared human past, as well as the diversity of human culture.
- Students will discover how different cultures survived, thrived, and sometimes died— and why.
Topic Overviews
The Human Story
This topic explains why and how we study history, connecting students’ lives to the past and helping them to see the past in the present. Includes: ways of knowing, oral history, worldviews, and perspectives. The topic begins with the student, asking: What makes your story? What makes you human? This connects “the story of me” to the human story.
One Family
Students explore how human cultures reveal “what it means to be human.” Includes: the common features of human cultures; Indigenous Peoples (“from time immemorial”), human diversity, anthropological origins, features and characteristics of cultures and civilizations, and how cultures survive, thrive, and sometimes disappear.
A Place in the World
Students explore the impact of the land/place on culture. Includes: climate, landforms, natural resources; wayfinding, and mapmaking.
Innovations
Students explore material culture—the artifacts, technology, and architecture of ancient cultures—and study what this reveals about those cultures, what it tells us about the challenges people faced, and how they solved problems.
Ways of Believing
Students explore the common human need to formulate and express belief systems. Includes: the spread of major religions and the reasons behind them.
Rules and Rulers
Students explore political and legal systems and structures in the ancient world. Includes: how and why these systems and structures evolved, and their continuing relevance in the contemporary world.
Interactions: Ancient Trade Networks
Students explore how cultures interacted through trade, transportation, conflict, and cooperation, as well as the consequences for their own culture.