Canada’s Natural Environment & Physical Regions

“What determines whether a certain area can be considered a natural region?”

Before we can answer this question we must first understand what a natural region is. A natural region is defined as an area which has similar natural characteristics throughout, which are different from the natural characteristics of the surrounding area.

For each of the following world regions identify one or two natural characteristics which would be found throughout the region (the first region has been started for you, but can you think of another natural characteristic for the Arctic Region?)

Region Common characteristic(s)

Arctic Region snow, ice, polar bears

Desert Region

Tropical Rainforest Region

Ocean Region

Can Canada be divided up into different natural regions?

Activity A. Follow the process outlined below:

1. Open Google Earth (Icon on your desktop)2. Type in “Canada” into the Fly To search bar and press enter.3. Zoom in, so that Canada takes up about 60% of the dialog box.4. Press + next to Borders and Labels

a. UNCHECK Labels (This should remove labels for the names of the lakes, cities, etc…)

5. You must use the Add Polygon from the top menu. In order to complete the following instructions:

a. Analyze the land cover of the image in order to determine 5 or 6 unique natural regions. (Note: It is not important that you know the names of the regions, because you care creating your own outline of naturally occurring regions)

b. You must outline these natural regions with different colours. (Note: similar regions refer to what the area looks like, think colour, vegetation, etc…)

c. Click Add Polygon from the top menu.

d. The following dialog box will appear. Type “Region 1” into the Name.

e. Now take your mouse and click next to a region you would like to highlight at “Region 1” and drag it across the area you want shaded as one colour.

f. Change the Line Colour and the Area Colour in the Style, Color tab (as seen above).g. Change the line width to 10.0. Choose 50% Opacity for the Area Colour.h. Do this 4 – 5 more times until you have the desired 5 – 6 unique natural regions

covered. (Note: Make sure each region is a different colour!)

6. When you have completed the previous steps, go to the File menu and click Save Save Image. Save this image in your Home Drive (H Drive) and title it “Unique Natural Regions of Canada”.

7. Insert this image in a PowerPoint presentation as your first slide.a. To do this you must delete the textboxes on the first slide already set up for you and

choose Insert Image H Drive Unique Natural Regions of Canada

8. Follow the instructions below to complete the rest of the assignment (PowerPoint presentation) Save the PowerPoint Presentation with the following title as: Lastname.Firstname.PhysicalRegions (Note: This is how you should save your file in your Home Drive)

Open the file “Canada Satellite with political borders”

The red lines on the satellite image are the provincial, territorial and international borders of Canada. Study the shape, direction and location of the provincial and territorial borders (ignore any border that is part of the international border between Canada and the U.S.A.).

Answer the following two questions using complete sentences. Type your answers to questions 1 & 2 into the second slide of the PowerPoint presentation.

Note: All questions in this activity must: Be written in 3rd person Be Written using complete sentences Demonstrate superior spelling and grammar

Question 1. To what extent are the shapes, locations and directions of the borders of the unique natural regions you have created similar to the shapes, locations and directions of the provincial/territorial borders on the satellite image?

Question 2. Explain reasons for the answer you wrote to question 1.

Activity B. Gathering Information

Make a list of any five natural characteristics and record them below.

Natural Characteristic

Research the Internet to locate maps of Canada which show regions based on the natural characteristics you recorded in the table above.

Insert these maps into the same PowerPoint presentation, with each map included on a separate slide.

The maps should be clear (not fuzzy or blurred), easy to understand, and clearly show all of Canada divided into distinct natural regions. Each map must include an appropriate title.

Activity C. Communicating, Analyzing & Making Conclusions Answer the following questions using complete sentences and insert them into the PowerPoint presentation

Question 3. How is a physical region defined?

Question 4. Look only at the borders of the natural regions on each of the maps you collected (i.e. ignore the satellite map with the red borders). Identify and describe any two similarities in the shapes, locations and directions of the borders of any two natural regions maps you collected (be specific).

Question 5. Explain why these similarities exist.