CBC Archives

Have a brief class discussion about avalanches. What do students already know about avalanches? You may wish to explain to students that:

avalanche accidents kill an average of 11 people in Canada every year, making them the biggest threat to mountain winter recreation.

the word avalanche came from the French verb “avaler” (to swallow).

avalanche victims have a survival rate after 20 minutes of less than 50%.

avalanches can travel up to 300 km/h.

Direct students to the topic Avalanche! on the CBC Digital Archives website. In small groups, have students browse the clips Heli-skiing takes off , A survivor's story , How to survive an avalanche , Michel Trudeau is lost and New Year's nightmare and the additional clip Avalanche survivor, and read the text for these clips. Point out that there are also links to other sites that contain more information on avalanches. Remind groups to make notes on survivors’ avalanche descriptions, especially those that are similar.

Have each group use newspapers or magazines to make a collage to reflect the experiences they heard about. They should use words and pictures from the survivors’ interviews. What happened? How did they describe their experience? What feelings did they have? How did they feel afterward?

Assessment Tip
Look for integrity in the way students identify and represent the descriptions they heard.

Have students display and discuss their collages. As a class, revisit students’ original ideas about avalanches and have students discuss any new information they have learned.

Students can look at the clips Michel Trudeau is lost , School trip tragedy and New Year's nightmare and write a news story that describes the effects of an avalanche disaster on a community.