Name:______________

Grade 5 Heritage Fair Research Project: Developing a Question About Historical Significance
This project will involve creating a Heritage Fair presentation that explores and answers a question of your own related to the broad question, "Which aspect of one of the following things was the most significant* in terms of the development of Canada? the fur trade; the railroad; the Fraser/caribou gold rush; and immigration to Canada."

*Some synonyms for "significant" include important, noteworthy, momentous, remarkable, key, substantial, impactful, and worth mentioning. What was the most ______ aspect of your topic (fill in the blank with each synonym to think about the question differently)?

Criteria for Historical Significance

What are the attributes of things that are historically-significant? It has resulted in great change. The change has taken place over a long time or lasted for a long time. The change has affected large numbers of people. The change or event is important, infamous, interesting, or "something to remember."

Developing a Question (Related to These Criteria) to Explore

Your question should be: 1. 2. 3. 4. interesting, realistically "answerable" (you will be able to find information to help you answer it in depth), related to the above criteria for historical significance, and related to one of the four topics or the intersection of two or more topics.

My question is: