Unit 3 – Managing Canada’s Resources & Industries / Activity 1 Comprehensive Notes
Introduction: Personal Connections to “Stuff”
Opening question: “How does my stuff connect me to other parts of the world?”
Everyone owns “stuff”; childhood favorites (stuffed animal, book, race car, doll) leave lasting emotional ties.
Parents can usually recall their own childhood favorites—illustrates universality of attachment.
Reference project: Gabriel Gallimberti’s “Toy Stories.”
Photographed 6-year-olds around the globe with their favorite toys.
Pre-investigation questions posed:
Would children from poorer countries own fewer or no toys?
Observed pattern: Regardless of nation, toys such as cars, dolls, and stuffed animals dominate.
Transition to adolescence/adulthood: toys replaced by electronics (phones, tablets, shared family devices).
Society is “face-down” in screens; minimal thought given to origins, materials, or impacts of devices.
Guiding questions introduced:
Where do smartphones come from?
What are they made of?
What social/environmental impacts arise from raw material extraction through disposal?
Key Terms: Resources & Industries
Course context: Unit 3, “Managing Canada’s Resources and Industries.”
Natural Resources: Materials taken directly from nature.
Examples: water, diamonds, oil, gold, copper, soil, fish.
Categories
Renewable Resources
Capable of replenishment in a short time frame.
Examples: fish, forests.
Non-Renewable Resources
Replace so slowly that current stocks are effectively finite.
Flow Resources (appears as “slow” in transcript)
In constant natural motion; energy harnessed without depletion.
Examples: wind, sunlight, moving/falling water.
Industry: Any exchange of goods or services for money.
Three sectors examined: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary.
Primary (Extractive) Industries
Function: Harvest renewable, non-renewable, and flow resources directly from nature.
Job Examples: loggers, miners, oil drillers, onion farmers.
Characteristics
Often dangerous, highly physical, skill-specific.
Geographically outside urban centers; continually evolving with technology.
Employment share in Canada: of total jobs.
Ownership/Scale spectrum
Small family businesses (e.g., cranberry farm – renewable resource).
Government operations (e.g., Hydro-Québec – flow resource).
Multinationals (e.g., Shell Oil – often non-renewable extraction).
Secondary (Manufacturing) Industries
Role: Transform raw materials into finished/processed goods.
Employment share in Canada: .
Operate mainly in factories; heavy use of automation to enhance efficiency and reduce labor needs.
Outputs include virtually every physical object used daily; even processed foods (e.g., onion rings in video).
Locational factors
Proximity to resource origin, consumer markets, or ideally both.
Range from small workshops to large corporations.
Tertiary (Service) Industries
Broadest sector; provides intangible services rather than tangible goods.
Employment share in Canada: (largest sector).
Job spectrum: nurses, pilots, wilderness guides, police officers, store clerks, museum staff, waste-management technicians (often overlooked but essential).
Identification rule of thumb:
Extracting resource → Primary.
Manufacturing → Secondary.
Anything else done “for” someone (service) → Tertiary.
Classroom / Assignment Workflow
Assignment 1 – “Three Types of Industry” worksheet.
Assignment 2 – Local industry discussion (evaluate desired development at community, provincial, or national scale).
Assignments integrated back into lesson for further discussion.
Consolidation: The Smartphone Case Study
Purpose: Trace the full life-cycle of smartphones through all three sectors.
Components visual provided (clickable to enlarge): highlights numerous raw materials.
Extraction Stage (Primary)
Global distribution of mining sites—example focus: tin.
Assignment 3 – “Tin Mining in Bangka Island.”
Watch three videos:
“Tin Mines of Bangka Island – Part 1”
“Coast Coral Community – Part 2”
“True Cost of Tin – Part 3”
Examine socio-environmental costs for miners, local ecology, and communities.
Manufacturing Stage (Secondary)
Resource-to-factory chain often shifts production to Asian nations rather than North America/Europe.
Reasons: lower labor costs, established electronics clusters, government incentives, supply-chain proximity.
Map “Social and Environmental Issues Behind Manufacturing of Mobile Phones” provided (click to enlarge).
Prompts reflection on positive/negative impacts for workers, communities, ecosystems.
Introduces concept of e-waste as both a manufacturing by-product and end-of-life issue.
Disposal / E-Waste Stage (Tertiary & Beyond)
Growing problem of discarded electronics once newer models replace them.
Will be examined in greater depth in next activity.
Assignment 4 – “Cell/Smartphone Reflection” prompts students to synthesize extraction, manufacturing, and waste considerations.
Ethical & Practical Implications Raised
Consumer detachment: Many users are unaware of hidden social and environmental costs embedded in everyday devices.
Interdependence: Smartphone supply chains physically and economically link Canada (and consumers globally) to remote mining communities, offshore factories, and international waste streams.
Responsibility questions:
Should consumers demand ethical sourcing or recycling programs?
How can industries (all three sectors) innovate to reduce harm while meeting demand?
Connections to Previous / Future Content
Builds on prior lessons about basic resource categories, sustainability, and geography of industry.
Prepares groundwork for upcoming deep-dive into e-waste management and potential circular-economy solutions.
Numerical Snapshot (Canada)
Primary sector employment:
Secondary sector employment:
Tertiary sector employment:
These figures highlight Canada’s strong orientation toward service-based work, with resource extraction and manufacturing still significant but comparatively smaller contributors.