Inquiry

What natural resources are found in the Cordillera region?

Rare earths are used to build lasers, magnets, laptops, cellphones, MRI, batteries, defense systems and almost every other high tech resource used today.  It is important that Canada have access to this strategic material. 

  • If China owned all the rare earths in the world, what resources does China not have that they needed from a place like Canada?


  • Consider what you have learned so far about the regions of in Canada. What resources does Canada have to trade with China to gain rare earth materials?

  • Could Canada build the technology to recycle old cellphones to reuse rare earths?
What natural disasters occur in the Cordillera region? 

Possible natural disasters in British Columbia are

  • earthquakes
  • severe storms
  • floods
  • tsunamis
  • forest fires
Forest fires can cause people to leave their homes quickly.  What people own, can be burned in the fire. Sometimes, forest fire smoke can harm the lungs and make breathing difficult even for places very far away from the source of the fire. Air quality can be bad for weeks or months. Why would people choose to live in a forest?

Resources for Inquiry

  1. Textbook
      • Read pages 174, 175, 178, and 179.
      • Look carefully at the map on page 350.             
      • Review page 161, focusing on the tourism industry.             

  2. Library Books
      • The Cordillera, pages 30 – 33
      • Cordilleras, pages 26 – 27

  3. Websites
  4. Video 


Notebook



Click here to download, save to your Unit 6 Notebook, and use Cordillera Resources web to note information as you complete your inquiry.


 


  Skill Builder


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When you feel confident about the information you explored in this inquiry, complete the Lesson 9 Self-Check on the following page.