Slide deck for teachers - Mapping Electoral Districts | Elections Canada's Civic Education

Slide	Title	Text
1		Mapping Electoral Districts
2	Minds On	Imagine: You are at a family party to celebrate a grand-parent’s birthday.
3	Minds On	There are seven people at the party: two grand-parents two adults one three-year-old two teenagers How would you divide the cake so that everyone gets their fair share? [Teacher’s note: You can prompt students with additional questions, e.g. “Should everyone get the same-sized piece? Should the cake be divided based on age, size or other factors?”]
4	Inquiry Question	What makes an electoral district fair?
5	Activity	Did you know? Canada is divided into 338 electoral districts. In each district, voters elect one member of Parliament to represent everyone who lives there. To reflect changes in the Canadian population, the number of electoral districts is adjusted every 10 years.
6	Activity	When deciding on new boundaries, we consider: the size of the population geographic features social factors such as culture and language
7	Activity	Getting Ready Your group will need: the master map three reference maps language communities shared history population distribution info sheet for reference maps dry-erase markers [Teacher’s notes: The population distribution map is the same as the master map, only smaller. Students can use this map as a rough draft or to collaborate more effectively. You can prompt the students to make comparisons with their own community.]
8	Activity	Your task: Draw the electoral boundaries for an imaginary country.
9	Activity	Start by naming your country.
10	Activity	Use the reference maps to create eight electoral districts on the master map. Use dry-erase markers only. One district is already created.
11	Activity	Guidelines: Aim for a similar number of people in each district. Use the reference maps to guide your decisions. You can create more than eight districts, but you must explain why. [Teacher’s notes: Allow 20 to 30 minutes for the activity. Remind students to consider geographic features, population, language and shared history.]
12	Consolidation	Share your thinking: post your group’s map explain your thinking [Teacher’s notes: We suggest a gallery walk where one student stays with the group’s map and explains how they divided it as other students visit each map. Have this student switch with another in the group halfway through the process.]
13	Consolidation	Discussion: What similarities and differences do you see? What changes would you make to your map?
14	Consolidation	Interview with an Elections Canada geographer
15	Inquiry Question	What makes an electoral district fair?
16	Consolidation	Reflection: How important is each factor in defining electoral districts fairly? equal populations respect of communities of interest or identity respect of historical patterns of previous boundaries manageable geographic size [Teacher’s note: You can use the provided Exit Card handout, on which these questions are printed.]