Alberta Tar Sands

Much of the world's attention since last Spring has focused on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This accident has caused immense environmental damage to the area, and also created major economic impact to the fishing and tourist industries that support the people of the U.S. Gulf States.

While the United States continues to drill offshore for oil, Canada relies on the Athabasca tar sands industry as a major provider of its oil supply.

These deposits in northeastern Alberta consist of a mixture of crude bitumen (a semi-solid form of crude oil), silica sand, clay minerals, and water. The Athabasca deposit is the largest reservoir of crude bitumen in the world and the largest of three major oil sands deposits in Alberta, along with the nearby Peace River and Cold Lake deposits.

Together, these oil sand deposits lie under 141,000 square kilometres of sparsely populated boreal forest and contain about 1.7 trillion barrels that is comparable in magnitude to the world's total proven reserves of conventional petroleum.

With modern unconventional oil production technology, at least 10% of these deposits, or about 170 billion barrels were considered to be economically recoverable, making Canada's total oil reserves the second largest in the world, after Saudi Arabia's. The Athabasca deposit is the only large oil sands reservoir in the world which is suitable for large-scale surface mining, although most of it can only be produced using more recently developed in-situ technology.

Currently, tar sands represent about 40% of Canada's oil production, and output is expanding rapidly. Approximately 20% of U.S. crude oil and products come from Canada, and a substantial portion of this amount comes from tar sands.

Just as damage to the environment is a concern in U.S. oil exploration, so it is too in Canada. There are regional pollution concerns as well as the larger concern that the burning of this oil contributes to global warming.

ProQuest has created a BookCart learning activity to help teachers provide students with a one-stop research method to learn more about the Alberta (Athabasca) Tar Sands and their impact on the Canadian and world economy and ecology.

This BookCart includes student directions and essential questions that help students develop 21st Century critical thinking skills. You won't find this combination of inquiry-based learning activity support in one place in any other K-12 resource, along with a variety of editor-selected resources, plus ProQuest links to both presentation and written report models that student can use to successfully complete this inquiry-based learning activity.

BookCarts save teachers and students time from searching and reinvest it in more time for critical thinking, writing, and presentation.

Teachers or librarians can copy "Alberta Tar Sands" and any other BookCart from the Canadian (or U.S.) curriculum area BookCart collections by using the following procedure:

• Logon to the eLibrary Canada or eLibrary Canada CE TEACHER EDITION.
• Click the BOOKCART ADMIN link at the top of the Teacher Edition.
• Click the PROQUEST CARTS tab.
• Scroll down the folder list on the left and click CANADIAN BOOKCARTS.
• Type "Alberta Tar Sands" in the Search box.
• Click the COPY icon (middle one) in the ACTIONS column to the right of this title.
• Click RETURN TO MY LOCAL CARTS.

To edit this BookCart for your students to use:

• Click the first new BookCart Title with the prefix "COPY OF".
• Delete "Copy of" and then type your name in the AUTHOR boxes and your initials in EMAIL.
• Option: Type any additional ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS in the DESCRIPTION box.
• Option: Edit the existing STUDENT DIRECTIONS in the Description box.
• Scroll down and click SAVE.
• Click RETURN TO MY LOCAL CARTS.

Assign students to write a report of at least 150 words or a presentation of at least seven slides that cites at least three resources on the Alberta Tar Sands.

Students should address the following essential questions for critical inquiry (you may add or substitute others):

• How important are the Alberta tar sands to the economy of Canada?
• How is the environment of the region impacted by the mining of the tar sands?
• What other energy alternatives are generally available to Canada?
• What are the arguments against additional mining of the tar sands, who is making them, and why?
• What are the arguments for additional development, who is making them, and why?

Select Advanced Search in eLibrary Canada/Canada CE > Check Canadian Sources Only > Type "Alberta Tar Sands" in the Search box > Type "Alberta OR Tar" in the Document Title box > Search

Your students can use our custom ProQuest models for written and PowerPoint-style reports.

Teachers may be interested in a ProQuest flexible rubrics model (PDF) for evaluating inquiry-based learning activities.

Educators might also wish to take advantage of a free (registration required) tool for creating a variety of printed resources including quizzes.

Find out more about all of ProQuest's research tools...