B. People and Environments · Living and Working in Ontario

Be a Geographer: Investigating Land Use in Ontario

B2 B2.1 B2.2 B2.3 B2.4 B2.5 B2.6 B3.7About 45 minutes

Learning goals

I can ask an inquiry question about land use in Ontario.
I can gather and organize information using tally charts, tables, graphs and maps.
I can read my data and draw a conclusion using evidence.
I can share what I found using social studies words.

Words to know

inquiry
An investigation that starts with a question and looks for answers.

source
A place to get information, like a map, a book, a photo, a website or a person.

data
Facts and numbers we collect, like tally marks from a survey.

evidence
Facts that show something is true.

conclusion
What you decide is the answer after looking at your evidence.

Geographers are question askers

In Grade 2 you investigated a community far away. Now you will investigate land use in Ontario, and maybe in your own community.

Geographers follow steps called the inquiry process.

Step	What you do	Example
1. Ask	Write a question that is not just yes or no.	"How is land used near my school, and how does it affect the environment?"
2. Gather	Collect information from sources: walks, maps, photos, interviews, books, websites.	Walk around the block and tally what you see.
3. Organize	Put the information in a tally chart, table, graph or map.	Make a bar graph and a land use map.
4. Interpret	Look for patterns. What is most? Least? Why?	"Homes are the most common land use."
5. Conclude	Answer your question using evidence.	"Most land near my school is residential."
6. Communicate	Share what you learned using the right words.	A poster, a talk, a slideshow or a map with a legend.

The inquiry process

Is my source good?

Ask three questions about every source:

Who made it? A ministry, a museum, a First Nation or a municipality knows a lot about its own topic.
Is it up to date? A map from 50 years ago may not show new neighbourhoods.
Does another source say the same thing? Checking two sources helps you be sure.

Worked example

Let's follow an inquiry together

Lia asks: "What is the land near my school used for?" She walks one block around her school with her dad and tallies what she sees.

Gather: Lia's tally chart shows homes 14, stores 6, parks 2, factories 1.
Organize: She makes the bar graph below.
Interpret: The tallest bar is homes. There are more than twice as many homes as stores (14 is more than 6 + 6 = 12). There is only 1 factory.
Conclude: "Most of the land near my school is residential. There is some commercial land, a little recreational land, and very little industrial land."
Communicate: Lia makes a poster with her graph, a land use map with a legend, and her conclusion.

Lia's evidence shows that the land near her school is mostly residential.

Just for fun

Just imagine: Lia counted 14 homes, 6 stores, 2 parks and 1 factory. If she had tried to count every squirrel too, she might still be out there walking!

Lia's bar graph: homes 14, stores 6, parks 2, factories 1.

Comparing two regions

The Ontario curriculum asks you to investigate two or more municipal regions. You can compare your community with another part of Ontario. For example:

Question: "How is land used in Thunder Bay compared with the Niagara region, and how does that affect the environment?"
Sources: maps, photos, the municipalities' websites, books from the library.
Organize: a table with two columns, one for each region.
Conclude: "Thunder Bay has more forestry and port land because it is beside Lake Superior and surrounded by forest. Niagara has more orchards and vineyards because of its fertile soil and mild climate. Both need to protect their water."

A view from a hill over a town beside a river, with farm fields and forests stretching into the distance. — Photos like this are a great source for geographers. Can you find land used for homes, farms, forests and roads? AI-generated image

Worked example

Let's read a table of data

A class asked 20 families: "What kind of work does a grown-up in your home do?" Results: services 13, making goods 5, getting resources 2. What can they conclude?

Add to check: 13 + 5 + 2 = 20 families. ✔
The biggest number is services: 13.
The smallest is getting resources: 2.

Most families in this class have a grown-up working in services. Very few work in jobs that get resources from nature. This fits Ontario as a whole, where most people work in services.

The class survey as a bar graph. The services bar is the tallest: 13 of the 20 families.

Hands-on activity

Your own Ontario inquiry

You need: paper, pencils, a grown-up helper, and a map or map app.

Ask: choose one question. Ideas:

"What is the land in my neighbourhood used for?"
"How does a park or wetland near me help the environment?"
"How is land used in my community compared with another place in Ontario?"

Gather: go for a walk with your grown-up and tally what you see, look at a map, interview a family member, or read a library book.
Organize: make a tally chart and a bar graph. Draw a simple land use map with a title, legend, compass rose and scale.
Interpret and conclude: write two sentences: "I found that... I know this because..."
Communicate: share your poster with your family. Use at least three words from this unit (for example: residential, natural resource, landform region, municipality, environment).

Safety: stay with your grown-up on walks and near roads.

What to look for: an open question, organized data, a map with all its parts, a conclusion backed by evidence, and correct unit vocabulary.

Your turn

What is the first step of the inquiry process?

Name two kinds of sources a geographer could use.

Look at Lia's bar graph. Which land use did she see the most?

How many more stores than parks did Lia see?

What is a conclusion?

Name two ways to organize data.

How many things did Lia count in all?

More practice: warm-up

Is "Do I live in Ontario?" a good inquiry question? Why or why not?

What is data?

What is the last step of the inquiry process?

Name one thing a good map should have.

What does a bar graph show?

More practice: on your own

Why is it a good idea to check two sources?

Why might an old map be a poor source for land use today?

Write a conclusion for this data: on a walk in a farm area, Omar counted farms 9, houses 4, stores 1.

Change this yes/no question into a good inquiry question: "Is there a park near me?"

Name three social studies words you could use to share findings about land use.

Challenge

Plan an inquiry to compare land use in Toronto and Moosonee. Write your question, two sources, and how you will organize your data.

Lia's teacher says, "You only walked one block. Can you say that all of your town is mostly residential?" What should Lia answer?

Lia wants to show her results on a map. Describe what her map should include.

Check your understanding

Quiz

What is the first step in an inquiry?

Which is the best inquiry question?

In Lia's graph, how many homes did she count?

What is evidence?

Which is a good way to organize data?

Why should you check more than one source?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: The social studies inquiry process (ask, gather, organize, interpret, conclude, communicate) lets students investigate land use and its environmental effects in two or more municipal regions of Ontario, using maps, graphs and other sources, and then share findings with correct vocabulary.

How to help at home:

Help your child choose a question they are curious about and keep it manageable.
Go on the land use walk together; let your child do the tallying.
Ask, "How do you know?" to encourage evidence-based conclusions.

Common difficulties:

Yes/no questions. Turn them into how or why questions.
Conclusions without evidence. Use the sentence frame "I found that... I know this because..."
Over-generalizing from a small sample. One block is not the whole town.
Graph scales. Lia's graph goes up by 5s; help your child read bars that fall between lines.