Would the world be a better place if Canada took it over? Probably not, but Canada is an amazing country so does the world need more of it?
Introduction
Canada isn’t a perfect country, that doesn’t exist. But there are many lessons we can learn from our country that could be beneficial for the rest of the world. I recently participated in a Humanities project called “The World Needs More Canada”, where we had a conversation about Canadas greatness. The driving question for this project is, why does the world need more Canada? I helped answer that question by making a podcast, reporting on a current events issue, and reflecting on short Canadian relating stories.
My answer to the driving question
As mentioned the driving question is, why does the world need more Canada? My answer to the driving question is that, Canada is a pretty well off country compared to the world average, the rest of the world would benefit from having some of Canadas traits. Examples of Canada’s beneficial traits are strong economy, universal healthcare, being a first world country, being culturally diverse, being a free country with free speech, having good international connections with strong global trade, exporting many goods, and having a democratic government.
The evidence I am most proud of
My podcast is a project I am currently very proud of. Honestly it’s pretty rare that I’m proud of a school project I do, but that’s changing this year. Our task was to make a five minute long podcast about a reason Canada is so awesome. I chose to focus on the topic of immigration, and the benefits of it. Before working on our podcast we had to make a topic pitch, a graphic organizer, a multi paragraph composition, and a podcast script. I am so proud of my podcast because I feel it is something I would actually use to take notes or learn about Canadas immigration, while being entertaining. My podcast is a bit over the time limit at seven minutes, but since there is so much to cover for the topic I think it would we a good tool for others to get a better understanding of the topic. In the podcast, I interviewed my immigrant grandparents, informed the viewer with statistics, and asked thought provoking questions. My podcast is a proficient-extending level in my opinion, because of the depth it goes into the topic for such a short time, and how high quality it is.
The other peice of work I am most proud of is my Thinking Thursday Discussion. I reported on the CBC National’s news story on landlords raising rents and how it has affected Canada’s housing crisis. On top of summarizing the report, I voiced my own opinion on the topic and did plenty of other research from other sources to come up with a unbiased conclusion.
The national thinking Thursday
Struggles
The first task of this project was to analyze five short stories, writing or describing a summary, setting, characters, protagonist, antagonist, POV, conflict, theme, and mood. Since I was sick for about a week and a half, I struggled with this task. Especially after seeing a very confusing story like bread, I struggled to figure out what to write, and think I definitely could have done a better job on this section of the project. I think my understanding of the short stories is limited, and my analysis shows that. This affected my final podcast project slightly, because I probably would have realated immigration to these short stories in more detail if I had a better understanding of them.
Core Competency
The core competency for this project was “responsible learning” and I can use my tools and thinking to contribute to a class project to share a quality podcast with the world that celebrates and builds a sense of community among Canadians. I will build my own appreciation for where I live.
So, have I completed the core competency? Definitely. I used my thinking to make a quality podcast and I celebrated and built an appreciation for where I live. If someone asked me why Canada is such a great place, I could think of five reasons within a second. My podcast was super high quality, and I covered why immigration has made Canada a better place and why other countries should let in immigrants concisely.
Curricular Competency
The curricular competency was “questioning”. I can ask questions, research information, and share ideas. What conclusions have you reached about the driving question? What did you learn to help you reach that conclusion? Explain.
I asked questions, researched, and shared ideas in my thinking Thursday discussion, already covered my conclusions on the driving question in this post, and learned from the research needed to make my podcast and thinking Thursday. During the podcast I literally asked questions to immigrats and was asking the viewer questions in both projects.
Conclusion
In all this project was the most well made one I’ve completed in PLP (until my artifact). I learned to plan projects better, how to come back from a two week sickness, and of course all about how great Canada is. Although I had some struggles I feel like I have some part of this project at a extending level like my knowledge on the housing crisis and Canadas immigration. The study habits I used in this project could be implemented into the next project where if implemented even better could pass this project and become my best humanities work yet.