This short inquiry-based activity, designed for Cycle 3 Geography, History, and Citizenship Education, invites students to explore how Québec society adapted its architecture to the sub-arctic environment around 1980. Students will learn about the “mur-écran” (windscreen) in Fermont, a 1.3 km long multifunctional structure built to shield the mining town from fierce winds and isolation, through text and video documents. The Canva presentation guides students through a four-step process: reading about the town’s iron-mining origins, watching videos of the structure, mapping the wall’s protective orientation against north-west winds, and finally answering how this unique building reflects territorial adaptationAdaptation - a skill or change of lifestyle that helps with survival.     Adaptation - une.... Students can complete the entire activity using the provided slide deck, created with Canva, which provides internal drawing and element tools for mapping. This activity thus helps promote dimension 2 of the Digital Competency (Technological Skills. Learn more about Digital Competency on LEARN’s DCA website.

Preview the activity using this public view link.

Teachers can apply for a FREE Canva for Education account here. You can then create a copy of this activity using this template link. From there, you can edit the content to better suit your teaching context. When you are done editing the content, you can assign the activity to your students using Canva, Google Classroom, or Microsoft 365.

As an alternative, Step 3, the mapping exercise, can be done using Google My Maps or Cartograf.

Please contact the LEARN team using this form if you have any questions about this activity or about using Canva or Google My Maps.