Friday, November 4, 2016

Social Studies Inquiry: Phase 2, with some links for research; looking at some everyday objects around the class using the Metric system

Social Studies Inquiry


The TDSB Inquiry wheel looks like this:

By now, all students should have completed the Exploring/Brainstorming stage of the project; we have now moved on to the Investigating section.  This is where you will start shaping your project and doing some research.

I am going to list a series of links that I think will help some of you begin your research.  So many of you are looking at different communities and I think this is great.  Hopefully, your research at one link will bring you to another.

Potential Links for Research

- remember to record the web address for where you get your information
- take only jot notes of key items of information
- these are not the only sites out there!
- remember that all websites may contain biased information and have a particular perspective

South Asians in Canada:  http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/south-asians/

A website for Bengali Canadians:  http://www.torontobengali.com/

A Toronto Star article on Bangladeshi Canadians:  https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2008/02/28/bangladesh_on_the_danforth.html

Information on the Indians to arrive in Canada:  http://asia-canada.ca/changing-perspectives/indians

Toronto Star article on the Irish in Toronto:  https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/03/14/19th-century-toronto-irish-immigrants-a-lesson-in-upward-mobility.html

Some historical information on Conscientious Objectors to war:  http://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/life-at-home-during-the-war/voices-for-peace/conscientious-objectors/

Maclean's article on Vietnam war draft dodgers:  http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/u-s-vietnam-war-draft-dodgers-left-their-mark-on-canada/

10 quick facts about Caribbean people in Canada:  http://www.newsamericasnow.com/10-fast-facts-about-caribbean-immigrants-in-canada/

Wikipedia demographics of Toronto: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Toronto

Wikipedia page on Venezuelans in Canada:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelan_Canadians

A Toronto Star article on the diverse Latin American communities in Toronto:  https://www.thestar.com/news/2008/12/06/the_gtas_growing_latino_problem.html

An article on the Latin American heritage of Toronto:  http://heritagetoronto.org/here-and-there-hispanic-heritage-in-toronto/

An article on Toronto's Ethiopian community: http://heritagetoronto.org/torontos-ethiopian-community/


"The Early Years" of Japanese Canadian History:  http://www.japanesecanadianhistory.net/historical_overview.htm

From the National Association of Japanese Canadians:  http://najc.ca/history-of-japanese-canadians/

History of Jews in Toronto, according to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Toronto

A site with some early Toronto Jewish History:  http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/toronto.html

Encyclopedia article on Chinese Canadians: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/chinese-canadians/

A webpage called "Toronto Chinatown":  http://toronto-chinatown.info/chinatown-history/

Vietnamese Association of Toronto:  http://www.vatoronto.ca/en/
Vietnamese Canadians, according to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_Canadians

Toronto Hakka ChineseYouth Association:  http://thccn.com/
Tsung Tsin Association of Ontario:  http://www.tsungtsinontario.ca/about_us.php
Wikipedia information on Hakka people:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakka_people

My next phase, minus the research

I have not done any research from the links I have posted, or any other Library books or resources.  I did use my initial questions to help focus my Inquiry and provide me with a sense of direction.  Here is what I came up with:


Once the Progress Reports are done, I will do some research to model what happens next.

Metric stuff

A morning investigation began when Hannah started to ask some questions about the Math homework, from a few days ago.  It concerned the issue of mass and how we might measure certain things.  

To have a benchmark of certain items, I looked in one of my Math crates and came out with a 1000.0g or 1.0 kg.  After doing some research, we learned the approximate mass of a paper clip is about 1.0 gram, so we  took turns feeling it:



So, upon some class chatting, we looked up some interesting things that came from the homework:

https://www.loblaws.ca/search/1478268082864/page/~item/banannas/~sort/popularity/~selected/trueThe question of how bananas are sold came up.  In this case, you can see the variation in price.  This type of math is also connected to the idea of unit cost and rate and ratio, something we will explore later.  
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/facts-about-trucks/

This teaspoon is approximately equal to 5 ml.  We were trying to figure out what it might feel like to hold the mass of sugar in some Pop.  So, this site was found:

http://www.rethinksugarydrink.org.au/how-much-sugar


Measuring


A couple of shots of the measuring along with a sample of what was to happen with the measurements:

This example, I did, for the length of my desk.  After the measurement was done, you were required to convert it to another unit, using the KING HENRY conversion chart.

Measuingt Josue.

Saya's turn

In the preceding video, I used the metre stick to show how it is broken down into the smaller units of that we may find on the KING HENRY Metric chart.  This mirrors what the Grade 6s are supposed to learn, in relation to the Place Value chart:  Moving to the tenths (decimetre), hundredths (centimetre), thousandths (millimetre).