Grade 5: BC Communities and Their Resources

Teacher Resource - Understanding the Land

The main purpose of the exercise is to have students think about how natural environments shape culture and are in turn shaped by human activities. There are various possible answers to some of the questions asked on the handout I am the Land. Below are some suggested responses.

1. What are my main geographic features?

• rivers, lakes, swamps
• mountains and hills
• valley

2. What animals and plants live in these environments?

• fish
• frogs and fish
• forests, ferns, etc.
• various kinds of animal life

3. How can human beings use the environments I provide?

• rivers, lakes, and swamps for fishing
• mountains for hunting and trapping and for timber and firewood
• valleys for shelter, farming, and raising domestic animals
• mining for gold

4. How have humans changed me in the last hundred years?

• draining lakes
• building dikes
  
• constructing highways
  
• building housing
  
• diverting rivers
  
• clearing forests for farming
  
• digging up the land for mining

5. Why have humans changed me?

• need for housing
• need for land for farming
• protection against flooding
• mining activities