Chapter 7 Lesson 1 Inquiry
Completion requirements
Inquiry
What is the geography of the
Arctic Region
?
The Arctic region makes up over 40% of Canada's area. The word, Arctic, comes from the Greek word for bear. It is a cold, treeless land made up of ice. The Arctic contains both taiga and tundra. Taiga is the spruce or pine forests on permafrost, a layer of permanently frozen soil. Tundra has no trees and has very little soil on top of the permafrost.
Climate
At 67 degrees latitude, or the Arctic Circle, the Land of the Midnight Sun has one full day of darkness and one full day of sunlight per year because of the tilt of the earth's axis. At the North Pole, the sun sets once a year and rises once a year. The temperature can dip down to -63 degrees C.
Resources: Water, Oil, Metals
The Arctic contains about 10% of the world's fresh water. There is currently a battle for sovereignty, which means who can govern the Arctic, because of its oil resources. It's possible 30% of the world's remaining oil supplies are in the Arctic. The region also contains diamonds, gold, zinc, and copper.
It is difficult to grow food in the North. Only 2% of Yukon's food is locally grown. Therefore, food must either be flown in because the region lacks roads. Otherwise, food must be hunted and trapped in order to meet a body's nutrition requirements. For example, a serving of whale blubber contains half the daily vitamin C requirements for a person.
Resources for Inquiry
Resources for Inquiry
- Textbook
- Read pages 190 - 193.
- Read page 350.
- Library Books
- Arctic, pages 10 - 13
- The North, pages 6 -7, 12 - 13, 20 - 25, and 32 - 33
- Yukon, pages 6 -7, 10 - 11, and 16 - 17
- Nunavu, pages 6 -7, and 10 - 11
- Nunavut: Exploring Canada's Arctic pages 8- 11
- Websites
- Physical Regions of Canada (Scroll down to ‘The North’.)
-
Canada’s Physical Regions Knight’s Canadian Info Collection
(select 'Ecozones' in the left menu, and then scroll down to ‘The Arctic Lowlands.) - Tundra
- Taiga
-
Natural Resources Canada
Enter Arctic in the keywords search box and click search. Look at the pictures of the region to see what it looks like. - Arctic CBC
- Search for Arctic in Images on a web browser
- Extraordinary Arctic
- Videos
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Notebook
Click here to download, save to your Unit 7 Notebook, and complete Assignment 7-1 Arctic Region Map.
Submit your completed Assignment 7-1 on final page of this lesson.
When you feel confident about the information you explored in this inquiry, complete the Lesson 1 Self-Check on the following page.