CGW4U World Issues: A Geographic Analysis – Grade 12 (University)

PREREQUISITE: Any university or university/college preparation course in Canadian and world studies, English, or social sciences and humanities

GRADE: 12 (University)

AVAILABILITY: Full-time – All Campuses, Part-time – All Campuses, Private – All campuses, Blyth Academy Online

THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM: Canadian and World Studies

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Course Overview

CGW4U online looks at the global challenge of creating a more sustainable and equitable world. Students will explore a range of issues involving environmental, economic, social, and geopolitical interrelationships, and will examine governmental policies related to these issues. In CGW4U online, students will apply the concepts of geographic thinking and the geographic inquiry process, including spatial technologies, to investigate these complex issues, including their impact on natural and human communities around the world.

UNIT ONE
Perspective and Issue Analysis

Essential Question: How are issues best confronted from a local, national, or global perspective?

In this unit, students will examine the nature of issues in the world and focus on perspective and the consumption of information about global ideas and events through news media. Key questions include; ‘What is an issue?’; ‘What makes an idea or event relevant to Canadians?’; ‘How are issues best confronted from a local, national, or global perspective?’ Rather than plunging headlong into a detailed study of any of the issue areas covered in the course, this unit concentrates on three preliminary but important matters: the basic facts of world geography today, a familiarization with the common approaches to perceiving issues on the planet, and the dissemination of information about world issues via news media.

UNIT TWO
Globalization, Sustainability, and Stewardship

Essential Question: What are the implications of spreading culture, economics, and politics throughout the globe?

In this unit, students will examine the concepts of Westernization, modernization, globalization and sustainability. For thousands of years, people—and, later, corporations—have been buying from, and selling to, each other in lands at great distances, such as through the famed Silk Road across Central Asia that connected China and Europe during the Middle Ages. Likewise, for centuries, people and corporations have invested in enterprises in other countries. But policy and technological developments of the past few decades have spurred increases in cross-border trade, investment, and migration so large that many observers believe the world has entered a qualitatively new phase in its economic development and, consequently, its ecological footprint.

UNIT THREE
Human Population Issues

Essential Question: What are the regional and global implications of demographic trends?

In this unit, students will begin with an examination of the terminology and basic tools of demography, including global population trends, evolutionary patterns of world population growth, population projections and policies. From there, students will account for the rising volume of international migration around the world in recent years, the types and incidence of migration flows, impacts of international migrant flows, and international migration issues occurring in the world.

UNIT FOUR
Food Issues

Essential Question: What are the considerations for food supply, availability, and distribution throughout the globe?

In this unit, students will assess the nutritional value of the food they consume, compare food consumption patterns across the world, and evaluate solutions to ongoing problems associated with food availability. Canadians are fortunate enough to live in a country with the geographic qualities and level of development required to produce and acquire food products that exceed their individual needs. Most Canadians take for granted that the food quality, quantity, and variety will always be available at their local retailers. For those who live in equatorial regions of the world, however, the path to obtaining food security is complicated by persistent droughts, civil strife, overpopulation, and disease.

UNIT FIVE
Wealth Disparity Issues

Essential Question: What are the implications of regional economics on a global scale of economic disparity?

In this unit, students will explore three facets of global disparity in the material standard of living: first, its dimensions and geography; second, its underlying causes and the issues it typically gives rise to in both rich and poor regions; and third, possible remedies. This unit will cover concepts such as the Rostow Model of Economic Development, Sachs’s “The Geography of Poverty and Wealth”, the legacy of colonialism, the growth of transnational corporations and free trade, and the problems with international development assistance.

Please consult our Frequently Asked Questions Page or the Exam section within your course for more details on final exams and the exam fee. More information can also be found in our Student Handbook.

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