Teacher's Section

The Can Geo Challenge is a fun program you can do with the whole school, your geography class, an after-school club or all of the above. This section is dedicated to providing you with more information about the many ways you can participate, as well as offering tips from other teachers on what works best for them.

Not sure where to start?

Here are some suggestions to help you get going:

  1. You can choose how to administer the quiz:
    PDF format: Download PDFs of the questions and administer the Challenge on paper. If you decide to print off the questions, you can distribute each round of the competition in whatever way works best for your classroom. Teachers who choose to administer the quiz using the PDF format can generate more than one PDF of the same quiz to hand out to students. Each PDF will have the same questions, but the answers will be in a different order.

    Slide format: You can download the questions in slide format to display them using a projector in your classroom. You can administer each round of the competition however works best for your classroom.

    Quiz Launcher: Have your students complete the Challenge online. All students that are registered on the site will receive a unique URL to take their quiz. You would need to sign into your account to access the URLs and distribute them to your students. To access student URLs click on the "View/Edit Student | View Student’s Quizzes" link. Teachers do not need to share their login information with students. Once students have their unique URLs, they can copy and paste it into any web browser.
     

  2. Students do not need to write a round in one sitting:
    The Challenge is designed to work around your busy schedules. To practise, on a daily or weekly basis, ask a question from the Past Questions page of the Canadian Geographic Challenge website. Organize the students to find the questions and have them ask the class. Have a friendly competition in groups in the classroom to help inspire your students.

    If writing online using Quiz Launcher: Rounds (i.e., Classroom round, School round) are divided into sections. Each section has a unique URL. Once students have finished a section, they do not need to instantly move onto the next one. You can choose when students write each section based on the time that works best for you and your student.

    If writing on paper: Even though you can access and download the full round, it doesn’t mean students need to write the entire round all at once. You can give students one question per day, one section per week, or design your own trivia game, where students can all answer at once. How to distribute the questions is up to you and your students!
     

  3. Not an expert in geography? No problem!
    Teachers who administer the Challenge do not need to be geography experts. All that teachers need to do is provide students with a space in which to study for and to write the Challenge.
     
  4. Don’t teach geography? Start a Geo Club!
    It doesn’t matter if you are a math, English or music teacher. If you have a student or group of students who may excel in this program, create a Geography Club!
     
  5. Get the entire school involved!
    Leading up to the Canadian Geographic Challenge, use the PA announcements to inform the whole school about the Canadian Geographic Challenge and challenge them to answer questions. You could give one question a day to the whole school (a few days before the Challenge) and have the students drop their answer with their name and home room in a question box and give a prize (chocolate bars are great prizes).

Tips from participating teachers:

The Canadian Geographic Challenge gives students a great opportunity to work together to find out about the world. It helps them connect with each other as well as the world around them. It helps them better understand the world they live in by looking at a definition of Geography by Charles F. Gritzer as “What is Where, Why there and Why Care?”.

~Linda Gollick, Ontario
 

I have had my students participate in the Geo Challenge for several years. I present this challenge to them in my Social Studies courses and explain that it is a great opportunity to hone their general geography knowledge. I also explain that they have the chance to participate in the final in Ottawa with a live final. I inform students that I will organize a school challenge at the end of February, which will challenge the top ten, in order to determine the participant in the provincial final. I give them the questionnaires to do in the form of research. Then they study for the final of the school.

~ Yoan Barriault, Alberta
 

I introduce and describe the competition to all of the classes I teach. I ask them a few questions from the previous year's competition. I tell them about the opportunity to win a free trip to Ottawa for the nationals. When applicable I tell them that the winner from our school made it to the national finals the previous year.

~ Aaron Jackson, Nova Scotia
 

I have been doing the Canadian Geographic Challenge with my students for 15 straight years and love using past Challenge rounds with my classes.  I have connected most of the rounds from past Challenges to various themes and lessons in my courses and then use them as learning tools throughout the year.  These practice rounds over the months prepare the students for the Challenge and also builds excitement.

~ Mike Farley, Ontario

Have a fun idea or teacher tip to share with us? Email us at i[email protected]