“Why does the world need more Canada? We are a great country, with a strong government and beautiful environments, but what aspects do we have that other countries could greatly benefit from?”
This question, our driving question, was asked to us at the beginning of the year. At first thought, people could say many things such as our government, our nature, and our immigration system. While these are important, they only touch the surface of what Canada has to offer. Throughout this project, we dived deeper into exploring why the world truly needs more Canada.
At the start of this unit, our teachers thought the best introduction to the project would be to show the class some advantages and disadvantages of Canadian society, and would do so through The National. The National is a Canadian-wide televised news network that discusses and reports on major and current events daily. We were all tasked with watching it every night, as well as participating in Thinking Thursday, where we head to learn about a specific current event, connect it to the driving question, and present it to our peers on our allotted day. I was assigned the first Thursday, so I spent my week researching and writing about my topic, “B.C implements new guidelines to help protect bears across the province.” Doing this activity as a precursor to the multi-paragraph composition, helped me get a full grasp of what the teachers are asking of us to consider for this project.
The next step in the project was in my opinion, the most beneficial part of the whole learning process. We spent many days as a class in split classes, one teacher teaching us how analyzing Canadian literature for allegories and concise arguments could benefit us in our essays, whereas the other taught us about Canada’s presence on the world stage. It was really difficult at first trying to find the hidden meaning behind stories while studying about Canada in the UN, NATO and NORAD. It helped me understand how to identify the underlying messages in a piece of literature, and be able to connect it to different topics, as well as supply information on Canada for my multi-paragraph composition, which was the end product of this unit.
The hardest part of this project by far was indeed the multi-paragraph composition. Before we could start writing it though, we had to pick a topic that shows how Canada has helped them in the past. I was racking my brain trying to come up with a topic, but when I considered what I cared enough about to write an essay that fit the criteria, only one thing came to mind. I quickly jumped into my research, reading and analyzing anything to do with Canada’s support of Ukraine. Canada has the biggest Ukrainian immigrant population, and my father has been one of them since he immigrated in 1979, so this topic was personal. It wasn’t difficult to find the information but to format it in a clear, concise and clever way, that was the issue. I must have written about 6 different drafts, but every time I thought I had completed the “perfect” draft, I found a flaw in it that ultimately made me start to rewrite that part. After what seemed like hours of writing, corrections and editing, I ended up with an end product I was very pleased with and was happy that the only hard part was over. But I was wrong.
This project flowed between Humanities and Maker, so we had some overlap during the middle of the project. Once we had finished our multi-paragraph composition, we had the task of turning it into a podcast script. The podcast was mainly maker-focused, but the manufacturing of the script and the creation of the podcast were equally as difficult as the essay. I had to pair down so much information for it to all fit in 5 minutes, including time for a brief interview with my dad, and the problems didn’t stop there. After it was recorded, I had to pair the interview and information even more to make sure it was interesting, informative & fit the time frame. After hours of staring at my iPad fixing audio files, I was finally finished and ready to hand in. This project was possibly one of the most challenging ones I’ve ever been tasked with, but the skills and information I’ve learned through it are things I can use to make other assignments easier, and I wouldn’t trade that for an “easy” project any day.
In conclusion, the world needs more Canada for a multitude of reasons. Not only does Canada have a strong government, beautiful environments, and a welcoming immigration system, but it also has a rich history of supporting and helping others on the world stage. Through exploring Canadian literature, current events, and personal connections, we discovered the importance of Canada’s global presence and impact. From protecting wildlife in British Columbia to supporting Ukraine, Canada has shown time and time again that it is a valuable ally and leader in making positive change in the world. By embracing the values and lessons that Canada has to offer, we can work together to create a more compassionate, inclusive, and supportive global community. Let’s strive to embody the spirit of Canada in our own lives and actions, making the world a better place for all.