How has the geography of the West shaped who we are?

Photo 8: Golden Skybridge Remember: you want your photo to not just represent what made and makes the West, but also you will need to explain how it shows one or more of the Five Themes of Geography. For now, you can put multiple photos on the page, then you will be able to edit and choose from them later.

Place Some parts of the west are very cold, some of the coldest places in the world. This environment allows for glaciers and ice fields.

Location This photo was taken at exactly LAT: 45.61064, Long: -123.944, Twin rocks Rockaway Beach, Oregon, USA.

There are five main themes of geography, Place, Location, Human-Environment interaction, Movement and Regions. What do each of these themes mean? Place- There are two main definitions of place. 1. The physical characteristics (landforms, flora and fauna, climate and resources). 2.The Human Culture (everyday life, land use and political ideologies). Location- There are two types of location. 1. The absolute location, given in latitude and longitude. 2. General location, for example “The room next to the library”. Human-Environment interaction is how we adapt to the environment, how we modify it and how we depend on it. Movement- How people, goods and ideas are moved from place to place. Some examples of movement are running (human movement), trains (product movement) and writing (idea movement). Regions- There are 3 types of regions. 1. Formal regions: regions defined by governmental boundaries, like cities and countries. 2. Functional regions: regions defined by a function like a post office or grocery store. 3. Vernacular regions: regions defined by simple characteristics, like The Rockies, China town and Deep cove.

What is the Frank Slide? In 1903 there was a rock slide that killed approximately 90 people. The Frank Slide was a one of Canada’s largest natural disasters

How does the Frank Slide relate to one of the 5 themes of geography? The Frank slide is one of the biggest geological events in the wests history. The main reason that the mountain slid is because of a major thrust fault on Turtle Mountain. The village of Frank is also a cold place so in the freezing winter nights when the water from the rain and snow froze and expanded it started cracking the rocks. All of this pressure caused a whole chunk of the mountain to collapse on to the small village of Frank.

How does the disaster of Frank Slide relate to the geography of the west? In the West (specifically the cordillera region*) we have lots of mountains and we have the third biggest mountain range in the world (the Rockies). The reason we have so many mountains here is because of the collision of tectonic plates, volcanic eruptions and glaciation. The Frank slide landmark represents some of the type of geological formations we have in the west and represents some of the dangers of living in this region.

How do I personally connect to the Frank Slide? The Frank Slide occurred in one of the most well-known mountain regions in the world. Where I live in Deep Cove we’re surround by mountains like Whistler, Cypress, Grouse and the closest being Mt. Seymour. Over 75% of BC is covered in mountains and we have 10 major mountain ranges including the Canadian Rockies, the Coast Mountains and the Selkirk Mountains.

*The cordillera region has mountains, valleys, lakes and rolling hills.

The author of this book is Mackenzie T. She’s in grade 9 and she has a dog named Bailey. She was inspired to make this book after she took a field study to Alberta with her PLP class.

Photo 7: Glacier Skywalk and Columbia Icefield Remember: you want your photo to not just represent what made and makes the West, but also you will need to explain how it shows one or more of the Five Themes of Geography. For now, you can put multiple photos on the page, then you will be able to edit and choose from them later.

Lake Louise is a beautiful lake with turquoise, glacier fed water. When we went there we did the Golden larch hike where we got to see beautiful golden larches. Larches are one of the few coniferous trees to change colour when they lose there needles in fall (for about 3 weeks) so this was a once in a life time opportunity.

Human- Environment Interaction We have modified the environment around us by building cities to make places for people to live, damning rivers to generate electricity and clearing forests, to make places for agriculture

Movement We use lots of things to transport goods and people but one of the most revolutionary inventions were trains. When we built the Canadian Pacific Railway it enabled us to send people, ideas and goods to and from the east of Canada.

What is the Cave and Basin Historical Site? The Cave and Basin is where the first National Park was turned because of the treasured hot springs. These hot-springs were created into a swimming pool because of how warm the water was, but then they noticed that there was a highly endangered species of snail called the Banff Springs Snail that lived only there so they shut down the pool and turned it into a historical site.

How does the Cave and Basin relate to one of the five themes of Geography? The Cave and Basin National Historic site is a very important area that represents some of the wests history. The main reason that the Cave and Basin was first created as a pool was because of the tourism of Banff from the CPR. There’s now a historical site that functions inform people about the species of Banff spring snails that live there.

How do I personally relate to the Banff Cave and Basin Historical site? When people think of Canada they think of a highly developed country, but when I was at the hot springs it was a reminder that we still have a lot of issues with endangered species and conserving our wildlife. There are still a lot of things we can do to improve our country and our home.

How does the historical value of the Banff Springs relate to the west? The first National Park was created in the west (now known as Banff National Park), to present some of Alberta’s natural beauty. The reason the hot springs are there is because of the water passing through cracks in the Sulphur Mountains, as it flows down through the mountain it picks up heat. Also Banff is located by a fault called the Sulphur Mountain Thrust Fault which is a big crack in the earths crust that releases heat from the mantle.

How does the Calgary Zoo relate to one of the five themes of geography? The Calgary Zoo is a location made to bring different animals from locations all over the world to one place so people can experience and learn about animals that they would probably never see in the wild. It also is a tourist attraction where people visiting Calgary can spend a day to learn more about the types of animals that live in the West and other global regions that they probably haven’t been to.

How do I personally relate to the zoo? I relate to the zoo because I live in an environment where I get to see a lot of wild animals that people go to the zoo to see. In Deep Cove there are animals like bears, seals, otters, salmon and even orcas. People in more populated countries don’t see animals like this in the wild because the environment is not hospitable for these animals.

How does the tourism of the Calgary Zoo relate to the west and the people that visit? The zoo brings animals from all different environments and places to the West as a form of education and entertainment. It also teaches us about habitat destruction and how we need to behave responsibly to preserve the environment to ensure biodiversity in the West.

Photo 1: The Last Spike Remember: you want your photo to not just represent what made and makes the West, but also you will need to explain how it shows one or more of the Five Themes of Geography. For now, you can put multiple photos on the page, then you will be able to edit and choose from them later.

What did I learn from the west Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump? The buffalo jump was a very important part of the Indigenous people’s food source. Without the buffalo jump they probably wouldn’t have enough food to survive the winter. In Vancouver we have the 3rd highest population of Indigenous peoples in our city with 61,460 Indigenous peoples living here. So we learn a lot about the Indigenous history in school and in my elementary school we got to do educational activities and games to learn about our countries past.

How would they use the buffalo? They would use the meat of the buffalo to make pemmican, which was ground, dried buffalo meat, berries and fat. Pemmican could last for many months so it was a great food source throughout the winter months. The buffalo bones would be used for tools and the buffalo hides would be used for clothing and shelter.

How does the Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump relate to one of the 5 themes of geography? Head-Smashed-In Buffalo jump was the location of one of the many cliffs used for killing buffalo, but many cliffs throughout Alberta were used depending on the location of the buffalo herd. The Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump was a functional region providing a food source for some of the Indigenous tribes of Canada.

What is Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump? Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is a cliff that was used by some of the Indigenous tribes of Canada. The Indigenous peoples would lead the Buffalo towards a designated cliff (the buffalo jump) and the Buffalo would jump of the cliff and die. They would use many different cliffs for buffalos jumps depending on where the herd was. The reason that Head-Smashed-In Buffalo jump is now a historical site is because it’s one of the oldest, most well preserved buffalo jumps that has been identified.

How does the Indigenous history of the Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump relate to the west? The buffalo jump was an important part of Canadian history. It was used by the Indigenous Tribes that were in Alberta as their main source of food. People on the coast didn’t need to use the buffalo jumps because they could get fish from the rivers, oceans and lakes and berries from the forest. The Indigenous tribes using the buffalo jumps were more nomadic, following the buffalo herds, where the Indigenous coastal people could build a settled community by the water and live there for many generations because their food sources didn’t move around.

Peyto Lake is a glacier-fed lake in Banff National park. We could see where the glaciers carved through the rock and left a U shape.

How does the Canada Pacific Railway (CPR) represent one of the five themes of Geography? The CPR is a very important part of the history of movement of goods and people through Canada. The CPR was built to connect the east side of Canada to the West. The CPR was very difficult to build because of the rough terrain of Canada. It was straightforward to build through provinces like Saskatchewan (the prairies) but it was almost impossible to get through the Rockies and it took extensive time and labour to construct a route.

How does the physical environment influence the nature of political, social and economic change ? Initially, settlers were hindered from travelling to the West coast of Canada. The Rockies were a obstacle that was difficult traverse and was only attempted by a few adventurous individuals. The CPR allowed a wider variety of people to make their way to the West. This allowed news and ideas from eastern Canada to spread. Politically, the CPR allowed politicians to travel to small towns to campaign. Economically, the increased flow of people created demand for shops and hotels near rail stations, allowing opportunity for new businesses to develop.

How do you personally relate to the photo? Metro Vancouver is a hub for the movement of goods.The port of Vancouver receives incoming goods from all over the world. This goods are loaded on to trains and distributed throughout Canada. Goods from the eastern part of Canada - grains, fertilizers, coal and other goods travel via train into the Port of Vancouver to be sent all over the world. The city where I live is a vibrant place due to the movement of goods to and from the Port of Vancouver.

How does the Columbia Ice Field relate to one of the five themes of Geography? The Cave and Basin National Historic site is a very important area that represents some of the wests history. The main reason that the Cave and Basin was first created as a pool was because of the tourism of Banff from the CPR. There’s now a historical site that functions inform people about the species of Banff spring snails that live there.

What is the Columbia Ice Field? The Columbia Ice Field is a glacier near Jasper National Park. It’s one of the largest ice fields in the North American Rockies. Every year the glacier is receding by 35 meters due to climate change.

How do I personally connect to the Colombia Ice Field? A couple of years ago I took a cruise to Alaska. On this cruise I got to see lots of interesting animals like wild sea lions, orcas, whales but one of the highlights was, the glaciers. With the glacier I saw, you could see the different layers of ice from different periods of time which was fascinating but we didn’t get to walk on or drink the glacier.

How does the glaciers melting effect the west and how people react to climate change? The glacier is receding a huge amount of 35 meters a year. The fact that its receding at this rate shows us how climate change is really effecting the environment. Glaciers will slowly melt over time but humans have sped it up to an unnatural rate which has a lot of consequences like rising oceans levels. If I had taken this photo a couple decades back in time most of the valley that you see would be part of that glacier. This really shows how fast our glaciers are melting and the urgency of this problem. But how does this relate to the west? Lots of places in the west are taking charge of trying to slow down climate change. For example in BC we plant 3 seedlings for every tree we cut down (approximately 200 million trees planted a year), and the Alberta government dedicated 176 million dollars to 16 emission projects in hopes of cutting green house gases by 70% by 2023. The Columbia Glacier Tour Company is trying to help the glacier by providing information to the general public about climate change on the skywalk.

Regions One of the most well-known regions in Canada is The Rockies. The Rockies are a mountain range that stretches from the border of BC and Alberta south through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and all the way to New Mexico. The Rockies were created at the fault line of the Pacific and North American plate.

Finished Comic Life We then had to make a comic life describing the five themes of geography. In my comic I used different fonts, titles and other aspects to make it pleasing to look at and clearly explain the 5 themes of geography.

Pg.1-7- Introduction Pg. 8&amp;9- <a href="bookcreator://page/Ia1vlhafTFO4LciCzsncNA">The Last Spike</a> Pg. 10&amp;11- <a href="bookcreator://page/iFAN6gxPTEyBk-oOtN5MIQ">Downtown Calgary</a> Pg. 12&amp;13- <a href="bookcreator://page/DTILPIn8R--4FV6SoVP6hg">Calgary zoo</a> Pg. 14&amp;15- <a href="bookcreator://page/1kKB4br1QzeQNHOP_o8JBw">The Frank Slide</a> Pg. 16&amp;17- <a href="bookcreator://page/H6SBjcNnQsSX3chiMM__vQ">Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump</a> Pg. 18&amp;19- <a href="bookcreator://page/B9KmtHFQREWbniG1Lty_dw">Cave and Basin National Historical site</a> Pg.20&amp;21- <a href="bookcreator://page/SAlQ6FZ1S2eChyVT7cvcgw">Columbia Ice Field</a> Pg.22&amp;23- <a href="bookcreator://page/afwCKQZZT6S766wIwCCWOg">Golden Skybridge</a> Pg.24-29- Extra activities Pg.30- <a href="bookcreator://page/6Bwh7IZlRmul4HC9QCvpbw">About the Author</a>

How does the tourism in the West relate to the People that live there? The Golden Skybridge is a tourist attraction. People of different cultures come to visit these landmarks and experience the west’s beautiful nature. One main economic drivers for the west is tourism, so there are lots of places like the Golden Skybridge all around BC and Alberta.

How does the Golden Skybridge relate to one of the five themes of geography? The Golden Skybridge is the highest suspension bridge in all of Canada. When you walk across it you get to see an amazing view of some of BC’s famous mountain ranges like the Rockies and the Purcell Mountain Range. We also modified the environment, by building the bridge to increase accessibility to the beautiful forests of BC.

How do I personally connect to the Golden Skybridge? I’m afraid of heights so when I went to the Golden Skybridge I had to face my fears. I was able to enjoy myself and the zip line was very exciting.

How has the Geography of the west shaped us? The geography of the west has shaped us by affecting the types of people and cultures that live and visit Canada. The multicultural diversity of the west comes from centuries of immigration. The most diverse region in Canada is BC, almost 30% of people in BC have immigrated from another country and Vancouver is one of the most diverse cities in the world. The geography of the west provides work opportunity’s in many different ways including agriculture, construction, forestry and tourism. This leads to a high level of immigration. We also have a lot of tourists in BC because of our spectacular scenery, world-renowned lakes, many mountains and popular vacation towns like Tofino, Whistler, Victoria and Kelowna. In 2020 the tourism industry of BC generated 7.1$ billion dollars and its considered one of BC’s leading economic bases.

Takakkaw Falls is a waterfall located in Yoho National Park. It’s the second longest waterfall in Canada after the Niagara Falls. It has a total height of 373 meters. 

How does the geography effect the population density of the West? Downtown Calgary is a densely populated city surrounded by little towns, farms and prairies. Many places in the West of Canada are like this because there is a large area with only 11.09 million people. In the west we have big cities with high population density and rural areas with low population density.

What is my personal connection to Downtown Calgary? Calgary is the biggest city proper* in Western Canada while 1.2 well Vancouver the city I live in, is the biggest metropolitan area with 2.4 million. This means that these 2 places have many things in common with how they’re built because they need to sustain more people. In both Vancouver and Calgary there are skyscrapers because having tall skinny buildings that can hold a lot of people is essential in a small area. There are also lots of statues and expensive buildings because both these cities are fairly rich due to larger economies.

How does Downtown Calgary represent one of the five themes of geography? In downtown Calgary you can see how developed the environment is. In Alberta they have a much flatter landscape because of the huge prairies, this makes it easier to build large buildings then it would be in the Rockies where you have to clear through huge forests and deal with steep terrain.

*What is a city proper? A city proper is the geographical area contained within city limits.

What made and makes the West? In this section of the project we built knowledge to answer our driving question “What made and makes the West”? We learned how bison, the CPR and a strong economy made the West what it is today. Bison Matter- Buffalo are a very important part of Canada’s history. The Indigenous peoples used to use buffalo jumps to kill full herds of buffalo to eat through the winter. When the Europeans came they saw how important the buffalo were for the Indigenous people and they thought if they could kill all the buffalo they could make it so the indigenous people relied on the Europeans for a food source. The Europeans almost hunted the buffalo to extinction and now there are only 500,000 left in the wild. The CPR- The CPR was built in 10 years to connect the east side of Canada to the West. It was challenging to build the railway because of the rough terrain and there was a risk of getting killed by forest fires, grizzly bears and other threats that the Canadian wilderness presented. When the CPR was built it gave opportunities to small business to expand and make more money by building hotels and shops along the railway stops. A strong economy- The West had a strong economy, for example BC had the second-fastest growing provincial economy in 2017. This economy was sustained by strong real estate and media sectors in Vancouver. The 4 main contributors to the BC economy are Real Estate (18%), Construction (9%), Manufacturing (7%), and Health Care/Social Assistance (7%).

How the Culture of the West is defined by Geography

Name

Safari may block some audio or video from playing automatically and ‘read to me’ will skip these. You can configure this in Safari’s preferences.