Our Educational Resources
Our Roots educational partners create innovative learning packages in cooperation
with K-12 students and teachers. These educational modules provide Canadian youth
with engaging ways to make history personally exciting and relevant by bringing
local histories into the curriculum.
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History of Cowboy Culture
Stories of ranching and cowboy life have been sung and told around campfires in
the hills surrounding the Bar U Ranch for over a century. Two grade 3 classes from
Red Deer Lake School, a grade 2/3 class from Millarville School, and students in
grade 6 and 8 from McLaren School worked together on an inquiry study into the culture,
the challenges and the future of the cowboy. The untold stories, poems and memories
of cowboy life are retold in video, poems and stories through the voices of the
children. |
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Calgary Stampede and Treaty 7 First Nations: A Historical Perspective
Since the first Calgary Stampede in 1912, the Treaty 7 Nations have played an important
role in the annual celebrations. A Grade 1/2 class from Prince of Wales School and
a Grade 4 class from Piitoayis School worked together at the Stampede School classroom
on an inquiry study into this historical relationship. Traditions have been made
new again as the children experienced the Stampede cultural celebrations and new
friendships formed as the children researched this historical partnership, learning
from First Nation Elders and Stampede Historians. |
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Millarville Archaeology
Why did our teacher keep finding rusty nails and shards of pottery every spring
as she dug her vegetable garden? When our grade five teacher showed us what she
found, we became curious. How did they get there? Who left them there and why?
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Our Farming Roots in Castor
Since its beginning, Castor, Alberta has been a farming town. Like most towns, Castor
has many wonderful stories. What fascinates the students of Gus Wetter Elementary
School is how many of these stories revolve around how people fed their families
a long time ago. |
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Understanding Our Heritage Guides the Future
This full year focus for grade 2 & 3 students looked closely at the history
of the community and people of Millarville. Their discussions reflected an awareness
of issues of change to the environment, First Nations people, settlement and future
development. |
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Big Valley: Then and Now
This study looked at the cultural aspects of Big Valley at the height of the railway
boom, 1910-20's and at present day. Students determined what aspects of culture
were important to pass on to their generation as well as what should be passed on
for future generations. |
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The Artistry of the Land
A deeper level of sensitivity comes from the effort to understand, to appreciate
and recognize differences. Developing respect is the best way to mutually coexist
in harmony. Share our stories and discoveries as we begin to understand our First
Nations People.
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The Changing Family Farm in Spirit River, Alberta
Stories are all around us. They are in the voices of our ancestors, in the objects
we discover in our museums and there are some yet to be told. In this inquiry, budding
young journalists and historians tell the story of their community in compelling
and engaging ways.
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Richness of Words: A Journey Into the Past
A deeper level of sensitivity comes from the effort to understand, to appreciate
and recognize differences. Developing respect is the best way to mutually coexist
in harmony. Share our stories and discoveries as we begin to understand our First
Nations People. |
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Farming in the Palliser Triangle, Rockyford, Alberta
We are Albertans and we live in Rockyford, about one hour north east of Calgary.
Rockyford is small, with a population of 350. In Rockyford there is only one store.
There are three restaurants, two churches, one bank and one school. |
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Riverrun: Evolution or Genocide?
History is a story written from a particular point of view and what we have come
to know as the truth is shaped by these perspectives. Using primary sources, the
novel River Run and online resources, students explored the stories behind the vanishing
of the Beothuk people. |
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Exploring Canadian Identity: What Makes us Unique as Canadians?
Who and what are we? What identifies us as uniquely and peculiarly Canadians as
we make our way in the second century of our existence? These and other questions
will be explored as students engage in the activities of this unit. |
Other Resources
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Eclectica: Canada's Learned Societies in the 19th century
Learned Societies allowed Canada's intellectuals to share knowledge. Find out more
about the 19th century through publications by these Societies about topics of the
day. This educational exhibit links broad historical themes to our own Canadian
context in a fun, humourous way.
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Welcome to Inquiry-Based Learning
Computers are changing the way students think about history. Video, voice and music
clips, virtual museums, interactive web sites and digitized primary text and photographic
resources, such as those on Our Roots, are now at the fingertips of student and
teacher alike. The study of history is moving out of textbooks and into the community.
When those of us over 25 think about “Canadian history,” we recall some of the grand
sweep of events we learned about in school. Today, students have ready access to
a wide range of intriguing resources not only about those events, but also about
the places they live, the people who lived there before them, and the stories that
lie behind the familiar faces of their everyday lives. Today, even the youngest
child has access to materials that, in the past, were available only to determined
academics sifting through archives far from home.
This is exciting. Ordinary citizens and whole communities can find themselves and
their roots in the papers, photos, statistics, film clips and recordings of the
past. My story can become part of our story in ways that only free access to a wealth
of information makes possible.
As you will see on this site, students make history while they study it! In diverse
communities across Alberta, students are looking around them. What are the rusty
nails and shards of pottery that their teacher found in her back garden all about?
Who had left them there decades before, and why? In the wake of the Mad Cow crisis,
why had another’s parents returned to raising heritage poultry and seeds? Could
students create virtual museums of local places of importance to share with the
world?
Every community has its stories: the old railroaders in fourth generation railway
families who remember the early days of the CPR; native elders who know the stories
of the plants in the fields near the school, and when to harvest them for medicine;
the names of soldiers on the monument in the park that you walk past every day.
Maybe it’s your school, itself. Are there papers and pictures that give you some
insight into the moment in your community’s history when the school was built, or
abandoned? How about the wartime housing on your street, or the boarded up mine?
Who are the people in all those old photographs from our town that we found online?
Can we collect and tell their stories, too?
In big ways and in small, students and their teachers are composing and sharing
stories of their homes. They are learning how to work with primary sources, interviewing
people whose voices will soon disappear, making judgments about what they are seeing
and why these things are important. Students are becoming active members of the
community, creating websites and CD’s for local historical societies, and developing
materials by kids, for kids. On Our Roots, you can see how wonderful it is when
the study of history moves beyond materials someone else thinks are interesting
and important for kids, and puts the children’s questions right at the forefront.
We think that makes for exciting history and lively citizenship.
Galileo Educational Network
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Galileo Educational Network
The Galileo Educational Network Association working in collaboration with Our Roots
is an exciting nationwide project. This project involves students creating historical
online resources designed for others. Using inquiry-based learning, this project
uses Our Roots digital resources effectively and imaginatively to create engaging
and authentic tasks for students. Student work is published online and teacher narratives
explain and explore the thinking and processes that lie behind each inquiry.
We invite you to journey through the projects showcased on this website and to discover
what students are learning about their past. These projects were created using Galileo's
design process found at http://about.myio.org/.
New projects are being added on an ongoing basis.
Galileo educational resources are supported by the generosity of Shaw Communications
inc.
Alberta Online Consortium
The Alberta Online Consortium (AOC) takes a leadership role to advocate on behalf
of online educators. As well, AOC uses existing and new technologies to enhance
and optimize student learning. The Alberta Online Consortium collaborates with the
Learning Technologies Branch of Alberta Learning to cooperatively address the need
for online content. Content development initiatives allow teachers to work collaboratively
to build content that is shared and used in online learning situations.
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