THE NFB CANADA MAP RESOURCE MANUAL FOR ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY GRADES National Office Film Board national du film of Canada du Canada A French-language resource manual, entitled Guide pédagogique de la carte du Canada réalisée par t'ONF, is also available. Please address all product inquiries to: NFB Canada Map P.O. Box 6100, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3H5 Second Edition, 1985 ©National Film Board of Canada 1985 P.O. Box 6100, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3H5 Legal Deposit, 2nd trimester 1985 ISBN: 0-7722-0107-2 THE NFB CANADA MAP RESOURCE MANUAL FOR ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY GRADES One of the questions we get asked Born out of a conviction that there is most frequently about the NFB Canada a way of looking at our country that has Map is why the National Film Board of not been tried before, this impressive map Canada, essentially a film production and presents a space-age view of Canada. distribution agency, became involved in The NFB Canada Map is a new and in- this project. The answer is quite simple: novative teaching tool designed for a gen- we felt it was an exciting, innovative idea eration that has grown up with space that without the involvement of the NFB games and movies and accustomed to live might never get the support it rightly de- television transmissions from satellites served. and spacecraft. The NFB has a long-established The education of Canadian children record of breaking new ground in the has always been a priority for the NFB. In creation of visual materials oriented spe- the 1980s and beyond, the challenge to cifically toward Canadian interests: films, educate creatively will be more important filmstrips, slides, overhead transparen- than ever. We hope that the NFB Canada cies, multi-media kits and videotapes. The Map, a new vision of our country achieved NFB Canada Map, though somewhat of a through modern technology, will make a departure for us, is consistent with that contribution to that education process. tradition. National Film Board of Canada FOREWORD We develop a sense of place during child- rather than see the parts: to make a powerful but hood. We make mental maps of our house, our silent statement of unity. The beginning was an town, our country. In Japan, England or Botswana imaginary platform far enough out in space to see a child can, with closed eyes, reach out and Canada as it curves away and disappears over imaginatively touch country borders, but not so in the northern horizon, standing out boldly against Canada. Canadian children and adults alike are the blackness of space. The rest is the speed and unable to deal in a conceptually accurate way with accuracy of the computer and the artistry of Lome almost ten million square kilometres in this the and Ann Kask. second largest country in the world. It is too dif- I am grateful to many teachers in Campbell ficult to imagine ten million so we dismiss it, and River who worked with prototypes, and to edu- yet geographic enormity remains dominantly in- cators across the country for the originality and fluential in Canadian life. openness of their response to this project. I am Maps have a heavy influence on how we see grateful to the NFB and in particular to Mark Slade our land and how we develop a sense of place. and Bruce Pilgrim of the Pacific Region for their Thus, for most of us, Canada becomes the land wisdom and perseverance throughout. I have of the 8Va x 11 page. This project began as a very come to understand and appreciate the long- basic attempt to free us from 8Va x 11 thinking. I standing tradition of the NFB as mapmakers to was seeking a new axis of perception, to release Canadians, helping us see where we have been us to the vastness, grandeur and wonder of this and where we are going in this land. landscape. I wanted to help us realize the whole Geoff Goods/lip, Originator of the NFB Canada Map Concept THE STORY OF THE NFB CANADA MAP n 1978, Geoff Goodship, a teacher with the The map outline was produced using some Campbell River School District in B.C., noticed of the most advanced computer and satellite tech- that students iound it difficult to imagine Canada's nology in existence but the finishing touches had size. What teachers needed, he concluded, was to be done by hand. It took Lome and Ann Kask a map that would graphically convey the vastness the better part of a year to paint the map. In their of the second largest country in the world. Good- home on a rocky island in the Strait of Georgia, ship envisioned the map as a photo-like image of they consulted reference books and aerial and sa- the country as it would appear from outer space. tellite photographs for information on Canada's He explained his idea to West Coast graphic art- vegetation, climate and geophysical features. Us- ists Lome and Ann Kask and together they pro- ing acrylic paints, they brought the map to life, duced the first design of what today is the NFB depicting the mountain ranges, prairies, forests, Canada Map. northern tundra and ice-covered terrain that make At Goodship's request, teachers in the Camp- up Canada. bell River School District tested the Kasks' design Once the Kasks had finished painting the out- in the classroom. Both students and teachers line, Professor Angus M. Gunn, of the University liked the map's unconventional format, and edu- of British Columbia's Faculty of Education, and cators found the new teaching tool a valuable aid G.-Andre Lachapelle and Jocelyn Beaupré, pe- in geography, mathematics, music, physical ed- dagogical advisors with the de Le Gardeur School ucation and Canadian studies classes. Encour- Commission in Quebec, took copies of the Kasks1 aged by their positive response, Goodship showed original artwork on a cross-country tour of edu- the map to Bruce Pilgrim and Mark Slade of the cational institutions. Educators, in general, were NFB Pacific Region and suggested that, because enthusiastic. Many offered ideas for improve- of the NFB's experience in producing visual ma- ments and suggested classroom applications. The terial for educators, it would be fitting that the map was then examined in detail by Dr. J. Lewis Board produce the map to complement use of Robinson, of UBC's Geography Department, and NFB audiovisual products already widely used by geography consultant Fernand Dulude, who in schools. Pilgrim and Stade wholeheartedly recommended several changes which were made endorsed Goodship's proposal and, by the fall by Lome and Ann Kask. of 1978, the NFB Canada Map project was G.-André Lachapelle and Jocelyn Beaupré underway. prepared a French-language resource manual for The NFB asked Dr T.K. Poiker of Simon elementary and secondary students. This En- Fraser University, an authority on computerized glish-language adaptation was produced by the cartography techniques, to produce an outline of NFB's Canadian Distribution Branch following ex- the map. Under Poiker's supervision, Wayne Lus- tensive consultation with educators and geogra- combe, a former graduate student at SFUT plotted phers from across Canada and with geographer the map using two sets of computerized data con- Julie Marie Stanfel of the NFB's multi-media taining over 700 000 points of reference for Can- production unit, Studio G. Special thanks to Ann ada's coastlines, rivers, lakes and borders. Vautier who coordinated and edited the final A major problem Poiker and Luscombe en- version of this resource manual. countered was finding a projection that would The National Film Board of Canada would like transpose the computerized outline onto a flat to thank all those who made the NFB Canada surface 480 cm x 80 cm {considered ideal for dis- Map possible. From design to production, the map play on classroom and office walls) and that would represents an unprecedented technical achieve- at the same time produce a relatively undistorted ment of a unique and imaginative concept. It is view of the country which, in reality, is almost the hoped that this new perspective of Canada will same distance from north to south as it is from contribute to an improved understanding of the east to west. Eventually, by experimenting with nation both at home and abroad. the Moilweide projection and by sacrificing a cer- tain degree of accuracy in the representation of Canada's sparsely inhabited north, the cartogra- phers succeeded in creating an impressive out- ine of the nation. (See p. 4 for technical details.) MI INTRODUCTION The NFB Canada Map is a modern-day conjunction with the suggested classroom activi- teaching tool. Unlike conventional maps which ties. These AV materials are available either from emphasize borders, cities and relief, the NFB NFB offices, school district AV centers, or from Canada Map depicts only the landforms, bodies the distributor indicated. of water, and vegetation of the country. More than Accompanying this manual and the NFB a map, it is a portrait of Canada. Canada Map are additional materials: three com- This resource manual provides background puter-generated outlines, showing Canada from information and classroom applications for this northern, eastern and western perspectives, and new teaching tool. The manual explains the un- a number of working maps and graphics that are usual features of this special map and offers sug- to be reproduced and used in classroom activi- gestions on how it can be used to enliven and ties. These working maps and graphics will be focus learning in geography, history, Canadian found in the NFB Canada Map Education Kit and social studies.