Name _______________________________________________ Date ____________________________ Class ____________
Population Patterns for Ontario and the Factors that Affect Them
Key Term: Population density (in agriculture standing stock and standing crop) is a measurement of
population per unit area or unit volume. This may decrease or increase over time due to specific factors.
Learning Goals:
1. Writing > Developing and Organizing Content: students will develop ideas to
further demonstrate their understanding population patterns
2. Geography: Global Settlement: Patterns and Sustainability> Inquiry: students will
generate ideas, formulate questions and gather and organize data and information
to demonstrate their understanding about factors that affect the sustainability of a
population
Thinking Matrix: Relate/Reflect > Interpret data and Extend Understanding (green
on the matrix
Task: To demonstrate your understanding about population patterns create a scenario in
which the population of one of Ontario’s cities could change drastically. Remember to
support your ideas with evidence. (Hint: your scenario could include economy (agriculture,
manufacturing etc.), cultural life (sports and recreation etc.), government and society
(education, health care etc.), and land (soils, climate etc.). Please note that your city could
be flourishing or experiencing hardship and it is the factors (your own ideas) that will
make the changes.
Read the article below to get you in the right path. This will also give you
an overview of Ontario and help you select your specific city.
Before the arrival of Europeans, larger aboriginal settlements often were concentrated at
seasonal meeting places. The agricultural peoples in the southern part of the region settled
in longhouse-based farm villages
Today in Northern Ontario, settlement has little agricultural base and is largely connected
with major industries and transportation routes. Thunder Bay, located at the head of the
Great Lakes navigation system, is the transshipment point for western wheat. Sudbury is
the centre of a major mining area, as are such communities as Timmins, Kirkland Lake, and
Geraldton. Sault Ste. Marie is both an important lake-navigation port and a centre of large
steel and paper industries.
Agricultural settlement is more intensive in Southern Ontario, where many farms are
family owned. Fields and townships are laid out in a rectangular grid pattern. In a few areas
of old French settlement (as in the Windsor area), the long, narrow fields typical of French
Canadian strip farming may be seen. European settlers’ villages originally grew up at
water-power sites, at convenient distribution points, and around early garrison centres.
Kingston, the first important town, combined those advantages.
Major urban growth has been confined almost entirely to the southern parts
of the province. The metropolitan complex known as the “Golden Horseshoe” sprawls along
the Lake Ontario shore from Oshawa to St. Catharines and includes greater Toronto and the
port and industrial city of Hamilton. Toronto is Canada’s largest city. Its hinterland
embraces not only much of the province but also a good part of the country. Greater
Toronto has a very high rate of growth, which has led to largely uncontrolled suburban
sprawl that devours high-grade farmland and threatens the Oak Ridges Moraine. Other
important urban concentrations include Windsor, London, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph,
and Ottawa.
Demographic trends
Until the 1970s, natural increase contributed more to population growth than immigration.
Since the 1980s, though, the falling birth rate has meant that immigration has contributed
far more to population growth than has natural increase. The vital statistics (i.e., the birth
rate and the death rate) and the rate of population growth for Ontario were roughly the
same as the Canadian rates for most of the 20th century. The provincial population more
than doubled in the first half of the 20th century and doubled again during the next 35
years. Since then, however, owing to the declining birth rate, growth has slowed, except in
the greater Toronto area. Nonetheless, Ontario’s share of the Canadian population has been
gradually rising. The province is now overwhelmingly urban, with more than four-fifths of
its people living in cities, towns, and suburbs.
Ref: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/429340/Ontario/272147/Settlementpatterns
Lost
First,
list your
your ideas that you will use in your scenario. Secondly, generate questions prior to researching.
E.g., what impact will continued urbanization have in this area? What are the costs of the encroachment of
human settlement on agricultural or wilderness areas? Lastly, select which form you will use to publish your
work (storyboard, written report, article etc.).
Categories and Criteria
Level and Feedback
Knowledge and Understanding
Demonstrates knowledge and
understanding of the text form and format
*The scenario contains a beginning, middle
and end.
*The details relate to the main idea or event
*logical reasoning that supports the
proposed point of view
*summary of opinion
Thinking
*Generates ideas that are connected and is
able to support ideas with details and
reasons (e.g., supports main ideas with
relevant information)
*Demonstrates critical and creative thinking
processes to enhance writing (e.g.
understands/writes from a perspective,
writes with imagination)
Communication
*Expresses and organizes ideas in a scenario
format with an imagined or projected
sequence of events
*Communicates for audience (any reader)
and purpose (to inform) (e.g. style, voice,
tone etc.)
*Uses conventions (e.g. grammar, spelling,
punctuation) and appropriate vocabulary
(e.g. descriptive language of scenes and
setting, and linking words and phrases
between paragraphs)
Application
*Transfers knowledge and skills (population
patterns/density can change drastically
(good or bad) based on specific factors, such
as economy, culture Land etc. ) to the
writing task
*Demonstrates an ability to make
connections among topic (how population
changes affect people directly), personal
experiences and life situations to enhance
writing (e.g. Why should we care about
cities and how they prosper?)