Terra: An Immigration Simulation

By Carol White, 2002 Governor-General's Award Recipient

INTENDED GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT AREA

Grade 7 or 8 Integrated Unit of History, Geography, Language, The Arts

CONCEPTS

Immigration, problem solving, teamwork.

INSTRUCTIONAL OUTCOMES

Students will:

develop an understanding of the challenges faced by early immigrants;
use problem-solving and teamwork skills to simulate the immigrant experience;
communicate the results of their problem-solving using a variety of print, media and concrete products;
research immigration experiences in early Canada and compare them to those in their simulation in order to draw conclusions about what the immigrant experience was like.

RECOMMENDED TIME FRAME

Two to three weeks

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Emphasis throughout the unit is placed on teaching creative and critical thinking and problem-solving skills while developing and reinforcing history and geography concepts. Language and the Arts are integrated throughout the unit. The best way to develop an understanding of the challenges a new immigrant faces is to experience these challenges. Terra is a simulation of immigrants forced to leave Canada and settle in a new land. Teachers can use extensions to provide enrichment or expand ideas for individuals, small groups or their whole class.

ACTIVITY

Set the stage with the following or similar narrative.

It is 2020 and the world has run out of gas and oil. Nuclear power is all that is left. All cars, trucks, and planes can no longer be used. Millions of people are out of work and because of this many people are hungry. They start to fight each other for morsels of food. Canada decides to send a group of students by boat to find a new country. This decision is made to save their lives but also to preserve the Canadian culture.

A few weeks into their voyage they encounter a huge storm. Their boat runs into a sandbar and begins to sink. The students are forced to abandon the boat taking with them only their portable radio. They quickly load into lifeboats and head for a nearby island.

When they arrive on the island, they immediately tune in to their radio. They hear the news that their country is in terrible shape. Famine and poverty are all over the country. They decide the best solution for them is to create a new community on the island. They call their new community Terra, meaning “land.”

The students are the only inhabitants of Terra. The island is very beautiful and has a climate similar to the one they left behind in Canada. They find plenty of apples, pears, peaches and other wild fruits. There are plenty of fish in the waters, animals in the forests and fresh running streams in the mountains.

* Teachers may want to mandate what the new immigrants have with them to help them in their new land (e.g., tools, technology, etc.)

This project consists of three components:

Experience, first-hand, the challenges faced by new immigrants by participating in the simulation, Terra.
Research early Canadian immigrants to learn about the challenges they faced in their new land.
Compare the immigrant experiences in early Canada with those in Terra in order to draw conclusions about what challenges immigrants face.

Component One.

Day 1: The scenario is presented to the complete class and as a class students decide what they need for short-term survival (e.g., water, food, shelter, clothing, and some sort of leadership to keep their efforts organized and focused). The class is divided into groups with each group given the task of surveying and drawing a map of their new home that will show the physical features and natural resources needed to accomplish their goals.

Day 2: Groups present their maps and as a class decide which island will best meet their short-term survival and potential long-term needs. The teacher makes copies of the selected map and it becomes the basis of all future plans. In a teacher-led discussion the students determine why strong leadership is important to a community and candidates interested in leading the group are given time to prepare their focus statements. While potential leaders are preparing, the rest of the class discusses what they want in a leader and devise a rubric to help them choose their leader. Candidates are given two minutes to state their case and then students vote and chose their leader. From this point on, the new leader, rather than the teacher, leads all discussions.

Day 3: The class decides what jobs need to be done (e.g., acquire food, gather water, construct shelter, produce household furniture and goods, create clothing, provide fuel) and how many in the class are needed for that job. Students either sign up for the job of their choice or the leader, with input from the teacher, assigns jobs. Each job group then meets to plan out its job action and prepare a report, creative, or media presentation for the class. The groups then present their plans and make revisions as needed. Groups should include preparations for the winter months in their short-term plans.

Day 4: As a class reflect upon the simulation and come up with a list of challenges they needed to overcome and strategies they used to achieve their goals.

Extensions:

Discuss as a class sustainable development, and then have the groups develop their community for the future keeping in mind the goals of sustainable development. Decide as a class what is needed for a more permanent community (e.g., infrastructure, social and health services, transportation, communication, government, industry). Develop criteria for deciding whether future development will meet the needs of both progress and sustainable development. Small groups then would tackle the various components to come up with the community’s official three year, ten year and twenty year plans. Groups would present their plans to the class and be peer-evaluated on the effectiveness of their group’s problem-solving skills in: providing for basic needs; making maximum use of Terra’s resources; organizing their community; providing support services; and planning for future development and the preservation of their community.
As a creative writing assignment students could be asked to describe their community after twenty years of development.
Students could chronicle the history of their new community over a set period of time.
A group(s) could construct a model of the first attempt to create a permanent settlement on their island and/or their community 10, 20 or 50 years in the future.
A group could create a video about life on Terra either in its early days or after development or showing how the community has changed.

Component Two.

During the same time frame, students complete research of early Canadian immigrants from a set time frame and location (e.g., New France, British North America, the Canadian West) to discover their early difficulties, challenges and successes in their new land.

Component Three.

Again in small groups (could easily be done individually) students are required to compare the immigrant experiences on Terra with those of early Canadian immigrants and to draw conclusions about the immigrant experience. Teachers can choose whether to have the class present their findings orally or in written form.

Extension

As a class prepare a set of questions that students can use to interview new immigrants in their community. Students then conduct interviews and their findings are shared with the class. Compare as a class, in small groups or individually the immigrant experience today with that of the early Canadian immigrants.

EVALUATION

Self and peer-evaluation of group problem-solving skills
Teacher and peer-evaluation of group presentations
Teacher-evaluation of comparisons

MATERIALS/RESOURCES

Journals, letters, textbooks, websites for research of early Canadian immigrant groups and individuals
Art paper, markers, other supplies as needed by groups for their presentations

ABOUT THE EDUCATOR

Carol White brings Canadian history to life for her grade 8 students through field trips, simulations, multimedia and community study. She uses history as a vehicle to teach the skills students will need for the future. They explore the past through illustration, videos, models, dramatic presentations, overnight field trips and computer programs. In the immigration simulation, Utopia - Why Not?, students study culture in Canada and other parts of the world and create the perfect world.