Social Studies Grades 10-12

This playlist of videos, created by an Alberta teacher, covers all the units of the grade 10 social studies curriculum in Alberta.

The Anthropocene Education Program teaches students about the history and science behind the Anthropocene. Students can virtually explore the ways in which human activity is permanently changing the Earth’s natural systems using augmented and virtual reality, interactive art, photography and film.

Curious how Canada compares with other countries in the goods and services it produces? Have you ever wondered where most immigrants to Canada have come from? Or what major goods Canada imports and exports? Launch this online tool to explore more.

A site that allows students to see, based on their consumption, how many modern day slaves are involved in creating those goods for them

Some ideas about how we can stop plastic from polluting our planet forever!

Using climate change as an example, we look at how we analyse political issues at the global, international, regional, national, local and community levels. What is the global impact of Greta Thunberg's activism? At a local level, what can we learn from New Delhi's innovative approaches to cutting down pollution?

On the first page of the interactive, select different countries or regions to see how consumption patterns have changed in the last 50 years. Click on the "Meat Consumption" tab at the top to interact with the charts to see how each country or region's meat-eating patterns have evolved.

Explore the world's national parks, wilderness areas and world heritage sites. Use the interactive map to explore different areas of the world. This was created through a UN partnership with the International Union of Conservation of Nature, as well as other organizations.

The Story of Bottled Water, released on March 22, 2010 (World Water Day), employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand.

The second part of the Story of Stuff. This video explores how we can change our attitudes about stuff to build a more sustainable world.

The videos on this site explore the process of how things are made and informs you of what the hidden costs are and what we can do about it.

This video takes the unusual view of arguing that sweatshops are good for poor people who work in them.

Trace the history of the invention of plastic, and how the material ushered in what became known as the plastics century.

Many economists think that an eternally growing economy is necessary to keep improving people’s lives, and that if the global economy stops growing, people would fight more over the fixed amount of value that exists, rather than working to generate new value. Which raises the question: is infinite growth possible on a finite planet? Explore how economies can balance efficiency with sustainability.

This TED/BuzzFeed video explains how the cost of living differs from country to country, particularly the cost of basic food staples. How does this look around the world?

On July 26, 1943, Los Angeles was blanketed by a thick gas that stung people’s eyes and blocked out the Sun. Panicked residents believed their city had been attacked using chemical warfare. But the cloud wasn’t an act of war. It was smog. So what is this thick gray haze actually made of? And why does it affect some cities and not others?

Trace the globe-spanning journey of coffee as it goes from plant to brew, and the complex infrastructure that makes it possible.

You’ve filled up your cart and made it to the front of the grocery line when you’re confronted with yet another choice: what kind of bag should you use? It might seem obvious that plastic is bad for the environment, and that a paper bag or a cotton tote would be the better option. But is that really true?

Explore the paradox of welfare programs, and learn how they inadvertently reinforce generational poverty, and what we can do to fix them.

The World Food Programme has a collection of interesting and informative videos about food shortages and crises around the world. Below the featured video, users will find the most recent videos as well as a menu.

Elinor Ostrom, who holds a Nobel prize in Economics, explains the Tragedy of the Commons and how it can be solved.

If you’ve never heard the term “environmental justice” before, or if you just want to know more about it, watch our video.

Isaac Murdoch talks about Natural Law and the importance of Natural Law to the Anishinabek.

An American article about the recent influence of Indigenous perspectives on the practice of environmental law.

This collection of readings the Environmental Law Centre, links to the Social Studies 10, 20, and 30 curriculum in Alberta. It is designed to be used after the Fundamentals of Environmental Law

This collection of readings the Environmental Law Centre, links to the Social Studies 10, 20, and 30 curriculum in Alberta. It is designed to be used after the Fundamentals of Environmental Law

This collection of readings the Environmental Law Centre, links to the Social Studies 10, 20, and 30 curriculum in Alberta. It is designed to be used after the Fundamentals of Environmental Law

This collection of readings the Environmental Law Centre, links to the Social Studies 10, 20, and 30 curriculum in Alberta. It is designed to be used after the Fundamentals of Environmental Law

This collection of readings the Environmental Law Centre, links to the Social Studies 10, 20, and 30 curriculum in Alberta. It is designed to be used after the Fundamentals of Environmental Law

Kelly and Dakota provide students with some follow up thoughts about Natural Law. Note: This video should be watched after "The Importance of Natural Law"

This lesson plan, from the Environmental Law Centre, links to the Social Studies 10 and 30 curriculum in Alberta. It is a good way to encourage students to work their way through the website as it is an amalgamation of numerous environmental law issues

This lesson plan, from the Environmental Law Centre, links to the Social Studies 10 and 30 curriculum in Alberta. It is designed for use after the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms lesson plan. The objective of this session is to familiarize students with the law and legal concepts underlying the Court process.

This lesson plan, from the Environmental Law Centre, links to the Social Studies 10 and 30 curriculum in Alberta. It is designed to be used after the Fundamentals of Environmental Law

Is it possible that overfishing, super germs, and global warming are all caused by the same thing? Garrett Hardin realized that a pattern of human behavior that explains some of history’s biggest problems.

An animated video for elementary students that explains environmental justice without using any words.

The Indigenous Environmental Justice project explains what Indigenous environmental justice is and who it involves.

This 12-minute video describes a complex story of globalization. In this video (part 1/2), follow the complex path of a t-shirt before it reaches stores. The video describes global trade and some positive benefits of globalization.

In this 14-minute video (second in the series about globalization), the host questions whether globalization is a net positive for humanity. What are some of the negative effects of globalization? Note: teachers may want to preview the video.

What are the main causes for globalization? In what areas is it most prominent? And who are the winners and losers of globalization? These are the questions this animated video short deals with.

A website that answers the question of what it would be like to have been born in another country.

What would society look like if the world was 100 people? This 2:27 minute video shares the breakdown of several factors including who has access to clean water, who controls the money, languages spoken and more.

A 2019 infographic from Statistics Canada that looks at the amount of trade Canada engages in with our free trade partners.

Poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality: The world faces many great and terrifying problems at the same time: it is these large problems that our work at Our World in Data focuses on.

This two-part interactive game introduces the concepts of interdependence and globalization through the geography of food. Educators will find the game and teaching guide for Grades 6-10.

Refugee Flow is an interactive data visualization project that "examines one of the direct fundamental causes of the global refugee crisis, the collapse of order and stability in today's international landscape."

The Social Progress Index is a new way to define the success of our societies. It is a comprehensive measure of real quality of life, independent of economic indicators. The Social Progress Index is designed to complement, rather than replace, economic measures such as GDP.

Resources to use with students exploring the concept of globalization. If you click the links, there is a sign-in prompt -- but you can bypass the sign-in by clicking the image instead and you will be able to access all the Google slides associated with that image

"Explore population growth from 1 C.E. to 2050. Watch population growth appear as dots representing one million people. Learn about important milestones in human history and view other key data including land use, fertility rates, CO2 emissions, life expectancy, and urbanization."

Explore our changing world using the best statistics on health, income, environment and much more. Gapminder has charts, maps, and resources for teachers.

The map, as an innovation, is extremely important. But we continue to add and alter this medium, in ways that allow for greater understanding of our world and even of ourselves.

Overview of who we consider state and non-state actors in global politics. This video will look at Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs), and Transnational Companies (TNCs).

Welcome to the global issues web site; a site aiming to show how numerous global issues are inter-related.

You can use this interactive map to see if there was a residential school in your community. Once you identify the school in your community, read the survivors' stories. The residential school system separated 150,000 Indigenous children from their families; the last one closed in 1996.

View video clips about Chinese immigration and the lives of new Chinese-Canadians. Scroll down to access additional videos and resources about the topic.

This 13-minute video addresses the post-World War II breakup/collapse of European empires, particularly Africa and Asia. It describes some of the challenges of decolonization. Note: teachers may want to preview this video.

This 13-minute video explains European Imperialism in the 19th century, with a focus on Africa and Asia. Learn how these European countries managed to leverage the advances of the Industrial Revolution to build empires. Note: teachers may want to preview this video.

This excellent document explains the "Doctrine of Discovery" which was first proclaimed in Papal Bulls of the 1400s in Europe and was used to as the justification for colonial dispossession of lands.

Watch the story of Chanie "Charlie" Wenjack, whose death sparked the first inquest into the treatment of Indigenous children in Canadian residential schools.

Watch this video about the making of Treaty 9 from the perspective of historical witness George Spence, an 18-year-old Cree hunter from Albany, James Bay.

The online, interactive LandMark map shows indigenous land throughout the world. This map provides information on lands that are collectively held and used by Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Dig into the Rubber Terror, the period in which King Leopold II’s horrific regime in the Congo resulted in the deaths of 10 million people.

Sometimes a single unlikely idea can have massive impact across the world. Learn how frustration drove Malcom McLean, a small-town truck driver, to invent the shipping container. Containerization was born, and it transformed the modern global economy.

Tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water –– and from sugary Turkish Rize tea to salty Tibetan butter tea, there are almost as many ways of preparing the beverage as there are cultures on the globe. Where did this beverage originate, and how did it become so popular?

Dig into how foreign corporations exploit African nations like Mali for their gold mining, and often deny them proper compensation.

This map allows you to choose several options for map background: natural regions, river systems, Treaty areas or Métis Nation of Alberta Regions. Then, you can choose the overlay of cities, highways, First Nations, Métis settlements or other places of FNMI significance.

Through this online book, you can explore the history of Canadian aboriginal children who were sent to residential schools.

How were goods and ideas exchanged across countries 2,000 years ago? This TED video "unfolds the history of the 5,000-mile Silk Road, a network of multiple routes that used the common language of commerce to connect the world's major settlements, thread by thread." (site)

Playing this game is a great brain exercise and benefits someone afflicted by severe poverty. As you play, 20 grains of rice are donated for each correct answer. Move beyond vocabulary; change subjects if your specialty is math, literature or geography.

What would society look like if the world was 100 people? This 2:27 minute video shares the breakdown of several factors including who has access to clean water, who controls the money, languages spoken and more.

The basic idea of human rights is that each one of us, no matter who we are or where we are born, is entitled to the same basic rights and freedoms. This video explains the history of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the subtleties and difficulties of protecting human rights.

This interactive map allows users to search for a country and then compare its actual surface area against other countries and regions on a global map.

This map is designed to provide a glimpse of some of the challenges in developing countries and the progress made toward achieving five of the MDGs. It uses the United Nations Development Programme's human development index (HDI) to show which countries have achieved high levels of development.

In this video, John discusses the three myths at the center of Bill and Melinda Gates's 2013 annual letter:
1. Poor countries are NOT doomed to remain poor.
2. Foreign aid is NOT a waste of money.
3. Saving children's lives does NOT lead to overpopulation.

Bill Gates and John Green discuss progress in Ethiopia, designing technologies for poor countries, improving childhood nutrition, the blessings and limitations of capitalism, and Ethiopia's road to achieving middle-income status by 2025.

In this video, John talks to students at Addis Ababa University (and Bill Gates) and discusses the diversity and complexity of contemporary Ethiopia.

Track world hunger with this downloadable hunger map from the World Food Programme. The map is colour-coded to show the prevalence of undernourishment in the population (percent).

The World Food Programme has a collection of interesting and informative videos about food shortages and crises around the world. Below the featured video, users will find the most recent videos as well as a menu.