Grade 9 Social Studies
8 units matched to the BC Curriculum.
Big Ideas
- Emerging ideas and ideologies profoundly influence societies and events.
- The physical environment influences the nature of political, social, and economic change.
- Disparities in power alter the balance of relationships between individuals and between societies.
- Collective identity is constructed and can change over time.
Units
Unit 1
Enlightenment & Revolutions
Enlightenment ideas about reason and rights, why the American, French and Haitian revolutions happened, and who was and wasn't included in the rights they promised.
Learning standard: Emerging ideas and ideologies: the Enlightenment and the American, French and Haitian revolutions
Unit 2
The Industrial Revolution
How steam power and factories changed work and cities, child labour and early unions, railways, and the environmental and social effects of industrialization, including in Canada.
Learning standard: Industrialization: causes, technologies, urbanization, working conditions and environmental effects
Unit 3
Imperialism & Colonialism
Why powerful countries built empires, the Scramble for Africa, British rule in India, the Opium Wars, new technology, and the lasting effects of colonial rule and resistance to it.
Learning standard: Imperialism and colonialism: motives, methods and effects on colonized and colonizing societies
Unit 4
Confederation & Expansion
Why the colonies united in 1867, how Manitoba and BC joined, the building of the railway and who built it, Louis Riel and the Métis, and how expansion affected First Nations.
Learning standard: Canadian Confederation and territorial expansion: BC joining Canada, the CPR, the Métis and western settlement
Unit 5
Indigenous Peoples & Canada
Treaties and unceded land in BC, the Indian Act, residential schools and the potlatch ban, and the ongoing work of reconciliation. This unit describes hard history factually, without graphic detail; consider talking it through together.
Learning standard: Indigenous peoples and colonial policies: treaties, the Indian Act, residential schools and reconciliation
Unit 6
Migration & Population
Push and pull factors, famine, gold rushes and urbanization, why the world's population grew in the 1800s, and how migration to Canada and BC shaped communities.
Learning standard: Global demographic shifts, including patterns of migration and population growth
Unit 7
Canada's Landscapes
Canada's main landform regions, how glaciers, erosion and plate tectonics shaped them, and how landscape and resources have influenced where and how people live.
Learning standard: Physiographic features of Canada and geological processes; how the physical environment influences settlement and change
Unit 8
World War I & Canada
The causes of WWI, Canada's part in it (including Vimy Ridge), the conscription crisis, the war's effect on women and on people who faced discrimination, and how Canada's role in the world changed.
Learning standard: World War I: causes, Canada's participation and the effects at home, including conscription and women's roles
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