Suggested Activity: Have students discuss methods for preparing and cooking their own food. Show the video, then reflect as a class.
BC – Social Studies 9 Alignment Guide
Summary
The Switch Classroom BC Social Studies 9 curriculum alignment guide provides teachers with clear connections between lessons and provincial standards. Each activity is mapped to competencies such as questioning and predicting, processing and analyzing data, planning and conducting, applying and innovating, evaluating, and communicating. This alignment helps educators streamline planning while giving students opportunities to practice key skills.
The guide shows how Switch Classroom lessons reinforce both science and social studies areas. Science standards include energy transfer and conservation, electricity, and environmental impact. Social studies standards include human–environment interactions, resource development and use, and decision-making and public policy.
Featured lessons come from the Switch On video series, which introduces students to global case studies. These include modern cooking fuels and their role in daily life, the challenges of grid expansion, coal’s influence on economic growth, and hydropower development in Africa. Additional lessons explore the building of solar microgrids and their effects on local communities. Each activity is paired with guided reflection or discussion, helping students connect energy access and resource decisions to broader social and environmental outcomes.
With the BC Social Studies 9 curriculum alignment guide, teachers can integrate Switch Classroom resources into standards-based instruction with confidence.
- Social Studies Big Ideas:
- Emerging ideas and technologies profoundly influence societies and events.
- The physical environment influences the nature of political, social, and economic change.
- Social Studies Content:
- Political, social, economic, and technological revolutions
- Physiographic features of Canada and geological processes
- Connections between Canada’s natural resources and major economic activities
Resources
Switch On Episode 2: Urban Grid Expansion – Video
Suggested Activity: Watch the video and have students identify the hazards associated with grid expansion in Kenya.
Switch On Episode 3: Developing on Coal – Video
Suggested Activity: Watch the video to learn how coal is the fuel that lifts countries out of poverty.
Switch On Episode 4: Hydropower in Africa – Video
Suggested Activity: Show the video to the class and discuss why alternative energy sources might be used.
Switch On Episode 5: Building Solar Microgrids, Part 1 – Video
Suggested Activity: Show parts 1 and 2 of Building Solar Microgrids. Have students identify the cause-and-effect relationship of the solar microgrids on the community.
Switch On Episode 6: Building Solar Microgrids, Part 2 – Video
Suggested Activity: Show parts 1 and 2 of Building Solar Microgrids. Have students identify the cause-and-effect relationship of the solar microgrids on the community.
Developing Media Literacy - Mini-Unit
Suggested Activity: Introduce students to the fundamentals of media literacy through the lens of researching energy topics.