With the new school year now underway, we’re proud to officially announce the launch of Jurisdictions: Canada. Our newest project is a free online educational game that teaches about the division of power and levels of government in Canada. We hope that Canadian educators will make use of this all free, no login, no tracking educational game to enhance Canadian civics education. With its engaging interactive look at the world around us and it’s multiple ways to play and use it, we’re sure it’ll be a valuable tool for social studies teachers.
Civics in Crisis
We developed this fully free accessible online game because its what our nation needs. Earlier in 2024 Civix, a non-profit focused on civics education in Canada, released a report “Civics on the Sidelines”. The report was built upon the findings of survey and focus-group research conducted by Abacus Data that showed only 39% of Canadians aged 18-29 recalled learning about how our civic institutions work in Canada. This lack of knowledge was also shown to correlate with a substantive 10% drop in voting.
Canadian democracy is facing a crisis of engagement alongside the misinformation and disinformation crises. We believe they are directly related. When Canadians don’t understand how government and society works, they are both more likely to be misdirected, less likely to engage, and less able or likely to defend it. Establishing a better understanding and appreciation of the interconnected and thoughtful professional, scientific and legal basis of our free society is vital to ensuring its defence and endurance.
Our Approach
We designed Jurisdictions: Canada to not only teach the basic facts required by the curriculum – the levels of government and their basic duties, but expanded that to explain the world students see around them. By providing the settings students are familiar with we can show a multitude of ways our society works together to create and maintain the necessities of our lives. We show them how the levels of government build, maintain, regulate, support or limit aspects of life as they are experienced. We give students the opportunity to look at the modern world and get the answers about how government functions to guide and provide for society. This works not only to give them a more in-depth understanding of the modern world, but provides them critical knowledge to help recognize political misinformation – like misdirection about responsibilities or the devaluing of government and law. We don’t just teach the facts, we work toward building an understanding of the value and purpose of government and the Canadian system of constitutional law.
In the Classroom
Jurisdictions: Canada provides a fun and insightful way to teach about the divisions of power and levels of government in Canada. Rather than just teaching memorization of lists that the curriculum is based around, here students get to explore their world to understand it through government’s roles. It not only enhances engagement, but improves understanding by contextualizing the broad duties of government with real world examples for students.
We didn’t just build a standalone game. We know for it to succeed we need to help teachers use it. We’ve built multiple lesson plans for teachers to use with the game across a range of grades from 4 through 9 (ages 9 to 15). We have options for physical aids in the form of flash cards, standalone activities, and even real-world connections with researching, mail-in campaigns and media fact checking. Jurisdictions: Canada is built to not just teach the curriculum, but to work to change student’s perspectives of the world. To help them see the value of cooperation and the complexity of the world and how we’ve tried to build a stable and thriving society in Canada through government, law and service.
Please try it out, you might be surprised what you learn! And, of course, share the game with any Canadian teachers you know!