Grade by Grade
A. Heritage and Identity · Communities in Canada, Past and Present

How Has My Community Changed?

A3.9 A2.2 A2.4About 45 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can describe significant changes in my own community over time.
  • I can gather information about my community from primary and secondary sources.
  • I can read and interpret population data and photographs to find changes.
  • I can explain causes and consequences of a change in a community.

Words to know

change over time
How something becomes different from one period to another.
continuity
Something that stays the same over time.
archives
Places that keep old records, photos, maps and documents.
population
The number of people living in a place.
immigration
People moving into a country to live.
cause
Why something happened.
consequence
What happened because of something.

Let's start with a question

Ask a grandparent or an older neighbour: "What was here when you were my age?" You might hear about a field where your school now stands, a store that closed, or a new bridge.

Every community changes. Historians look for what changed, what stayed the same (continuity), why it changed and what it meant for people.

A small-town main street with old red-brick buildings beside a newer building and a bike lane.
Look for change and continuity: old buildings that stayed, a new building that was added and a bike lane that shows how people travel now. AI-generated image

Kinds of change

  • Population: more or fewer people; newcomers arriving.
  • Land use: farms turning into houses; factories closing; new parks.
  • Transportation: a railway station, a highway, a bus route, bike lanes.
  • Work: new kinds of jobs, or an old industry closing.
  • People and cultures: new places of worship, languages, festivals and restaurants.
  • Indigenous presence: the community is on Indigenous land; there may be a nearby First Nation, Métis community or a friendship centre, and newer recognition like land acknowledgements, Indigenous street names or art.

A change is significant if it affected many people, lasted a long time, or changed how people live.

Where to find information

Primary sources (made at the time):

  • old photographs and postcards
  • old maps and fire-insurance plans
  • newspapers from the time
  • interviews with long-time residents, Elders or newcomers (an interview is a primary source about that person's experience)
  • census data from Statistics Canada

Secondary sources (made later): local history books, museum displays, the municipality's website.

You can find many of these at the public library, a local museum or archives, and online.

190180019512 40020019 600202115 200
Population of a made-up town, Maplewood (not a real place). The height of each bar shows the population in that year. Careful: the years are not evenly spaced (50, 50, then 20 years apart).
Worked example

Let's interpret the population graph

Use the graph of made-up Maplewood. When did the population grow the most, and by how much?

  1. Read each bar: 1901: 800; 1951: 2 400; 2001: 9 600; 2021: 15 200.
  2. Find each change: 1901 to 1951: 2 400 − 800 = 1 600. 1951 to 2001: 9 600 − 2 400 = 7 200. 2001 to 2021: 15 200 − 9 600 = 5 600.
  3. The biggest increase is 7 200, from 1951 to 2001.
  4. But careful: that period is 50 years; 2001 to 2021 is only 20 years. Per year, 5 600 ÷ 20 = 280 people a year, compared with 7 200 ÷ 50 = 144 a year.
  5. So the fastest growth was from 2001 to 2021.

The biggest total increase was 1951 to 2001 (7 200 people), but the fastest growth per year was 2001 to 2021 (280 people a year).

Just for fun

Ask an older relative what a treat cost when they were your age, and get ready for the gasp: "It cost how much now?!" Prices are one of the easiest changes over time to spot. 🍫

Worked example

Let's explain a change with cause and consequence

In made-up Maplewood, a big subdivision of houses was built on old farmland in the 2000s. Explain the causes and consequences.

  1. Cause: the population was growing quickly (the graph), and families needed homes. A new highway also made it easy to drive to jobs in the city.
  2. Consequence 1: farmland was lost; some farm families sold their land.
  3. Consequence 2: a new school, a bigger grocery store and more bus routes were needed.
  4. Consequence 3: many newcomer families arrived, bringing new languages and opening new businesses.
  5. Continuity: the old main street, the river and the community festival stayed.

Growth (cause) led to new housing, lost farmland, new services and more cultural diversity (consequences), while some things stayed the same (continuity).

Maplewood in 1951 (made-up town)rivermain streetfarm fieldsMaplewood in 2021 (made-up town)rivermain streetnew houses + a highwayCHANGE: farms became houses. CONTINUITY: the river and main street stayed.
Change and continuity in made-up Maplewood: the farmland became a subdivision and a highway was built, but the river and main street stayed the same.

Different perspectives on change

Not everyone sees a change the same way. A new highway might feel like progress to a commuter and like a loss to a farmer whose land was taken, or to a First Nation whose land it crossed. Ask: who gained and who lost?

Hands-on activity

Then-and-now detective

You need: paper, a pencil and a grown-up.

  1. Find one old photo of your community: ask family, a library, a local museum website, or search your town's name with the words "historical photos".
  2. Go with your grown-up to the same spot today (or find it on a street-view map). Draw or describe what is there now.
  3. Make a chart with three columns: What changed, What stayed the same, Possible causes.
  4. Interview one person who has lived in your community for a long time. Ask: What has changed the most? Was it a good or a bad change for you? Why?
  5. Decide which change you think is the most significant, and explain why in two sentences.

Stay with your grown-up and be careful near traffic.

Your turn

1

Name three kinds of change a community can go through.

2

What is continuity?

3

Name two primary sources you could use to study your community.

4

In made-up Maplewood, what was the population in 1951?

5

How much did Maplewood's population grow from 2001 to 2021?

6

What makes a change significant?

More practice: warm-up

1

What are archives?

2

Is an interview with a long-time resident a primary or secondary source?

3

What is a cause?

4

What was Maplewood's population in 1901?

5

Who collects census data in Canada?

More practice: on your own

1

How many times larger was Maplewood's population in 2021 than in 1901?

2

Give one consequence of a new highway being built near a town.

3

Why should you ask more than one person about how your community changed?

4

What could be one sign of growing recognition of Indigenous presence in a community?

5

Why is a local history book a secondary source?

Challenge

1

Maplewood's biggest total growth was 1951 to 2001, but its fastest growth was 2001 to 2021. Explain how both can be true.

2

A factory that employed 500 people closes in a small town. Predict three consequences.

3

Choose a change in your own community and judge whether it was positive, negative, or both, from two perspectives.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which is a primary source about your community's past?

2.

What is continuity?

3.

In made-up Maplewood, how much did the population grow from 1951 to 2001?

4.

Which change would most likely be significant?

5.

Why ask several people about a change?

6.

Who collects census data in Canada?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Every community changes over time; your child investigates significant changes in their own community (A3.9), gathers information from primary and secondary sources (A2.2) and interprets data (A2.4).

How to help at home:

  • Share family photos or stories of your community from years ago, or connect your child with an older relative or neighbour for an interview.
  • Visit the library's local history section, a local museum, or your municipality's archives website.
  • Statistics Canada's "Census Profile" lets you look up your community's population over recent censuses.

Common difficulties:

  • Total change vs rate of change: the Maplewood graph shows why time periods matter.
  • Only seeing change as good or bad: encourage "good for whom?"
  • Forgetting the Indigenous history of the place: connect back to Lesson 1 (whose land are we on?).