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The Mighty River activity kit is intended to inform,
sensitize and educate children age 6 to 12 and those around
them to the concept of sustainable development. It makes children
aware of the active role they will be called on to play as the
adults and citizens of tomorrow.
More specifically, this kit is designed to encourage children
to feel a sense of responsibility and to develop their critical-thinking
skills by involving them directly in an innovative interactive
cross-curriculum activity.
• To stimulate an awareness of and interest in the environment;
• To provide the necessary information for understanding the
concept of sustainable development in an accessible,
stimulating,
interactive and hands-on way;
• To encourage reflection on the physical changes affecting
the
natural environment in order to bring about changes
in children's
and adults' values and lifestyles;
• To suggest concrete actions that can be taken in one's day-to-day
life in order to encourage and facilitate behavioural
change;
• To provide environmental education in a form accessible to
children and to help them incorporate these concepts
into their
day-to-day lives;
• To make children aware of the active role they will be called
on
to play as the adults and citizens of tomorrow.
The activities are primarily related to Competency 3 of the
Quebec school system's Visual Arts program (to appreciate works
of art and traditional artistic objects) and Competency 2 of
the French Language Arts program (to write a variety of texts),
at the Elementary level.
Leaders: Teachers and parents
Locations: Home, school, day camps, community
groups and centres
Participants: Children age 6 to 12
Over a million years ago, glaciers began gouging out the bed
of a colossal river that the Aboriginal people would call "Magtogoek"
(the path that walks), today known as the St. Lawrence River.
The Mighty River is a love song, a tribute to a gentle
giant whose beauty we have taken for granted. The film has a
lot to teach us: about the history of the river and its astounding
riches; and about the people who have lived, and continue to
live, on its shores. The story of the St. Lawrence is the story
of the rivers of the world. It is the story of life itself -
a fragile life that tentatively takes hold and then bursts forth.
A life that abounds seemingly without end, only to wither under
the relentless attacks of a rapacious and reckless humankind.
The film The Mighty River gave rise to a companion
book called Le fleuve aux grandes eaux. It illustrated
by Frédéric Back, the book is a gold mine of information on
the ecosystem of the St. Lawrence River and the history of human
settlement along its banks. It is thus an invaluable tool for
those wanting to understand our complex environmental heritage
and to learn how to preserve it better. Combining scientific
information with sumptuous images, the book is written by internationally
renowned biologist and science writer Claude Villeneuve, an
environmental expert much in demand by organizations such as
UNESCO. The book is not available in English; all excerpts
have been translated specifically for this website.
VILLENEUVE, C. Le fleuve aux grandes eaux, Les Éditions
Québec-Amérique and CBC/Radio-Canada, Montreal, 1995, 118 pages,
illustrations by Frédéric Back.
Video clips
People
make fortunes hunting everything in sight. Merchants crave the
great auk's oil.
(www.fredericback.com/cineaste/filmographie/
le-fleuve-aux-grandes-eaux/media_synopsis_V_1251.en.shtml)
Interview
with Frédéric Back on the pollution of the St. Lawrence.
(www.fredericback.com/cineaste/filmographie/
le-fleuve-aux-grandes-eaux/media_synopsis_V_0629.en.shtml)
Documents to be downloaded, photocopied and handed out
to the children for doing the preliminary activities:
ACTIVITY SHEET 1
What's
in a Name?
ACTIVITY SHEET 2
You
Never Step into the Same River Twice
Documents to be downloaded, photocopied and handed
out to the children for doing the workshops:
ACTIVITY SHEET 3
No activity sheet to be handed out
ACTIVITY SHEET 4
The
Changing Landscape
ACTIVITY SHEET 5
What
is Sustainable Development?
ACTIVITY SHEET 6
Take
Action!
Documents to be downloaded, photocopied and handed
out to the children for doing the follow-up activities:
ACTIVITY SHEET 7
The
River Nearest Me
ACTIVITY SHEET 8
Extinct
Species
CROTEAU, A. Les îles du Saint-Laurent, Saint-Laurent,
Trécarré, 1995.
ENVIRONMENT CANADA. Environmental Atlas of the St. Lawrence
River, from St. Lawrence Update Series, Montreal,
St. Lawrence Centre.
LASSERRE, J.-C. Le Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Hurtubise
HMH, 1980.
MIA and KLAUS. Le Québec des grands espaces, Montreal,
Libre Expression, 1991.
RAMADE, F. Dictionnaire encyclopédique de l’écologie et
des sciences de l’environnement, Paris, Édiscience International,
1994.
ROSSIGNOL, A. L’estuaire maritime et le golfe du Saint-Laurent
– Carnet d’océanographie, Rimouski, Institut national
de la recherche scientifique – Océanologie, 1998.
VILLENEUVE, C . Eau-secours, Sainte-Foy, Multimondes,
1995.
Download
Glossary
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All the necessary information for preparing children to
do the workshops in The Mighty River activity
kit. 
