Environmental justice is the focus of this Grade 11 Social Studies worksheet, which asks students to consider who benefits from development, who bears environmental risks, and who gets a voice in the decisions. A proposed shipping terminal, a riverside mine, and the Flint water crisis give the questions concrete stakes: employment and public revenue matter, but so do safe drinking water, fishing livelihoods, and responsibility for harm.

Follow the Evidence, Not Just the Promises

The reading explains how unequal power can shape environmental decision-making. Students examine why Flint’s 2014 water-source change led to lead entering some drinking water without adequate corrosion control and consider responses such as pipe replacement, health support, and independent monitoring. They also explore why rising seas can threaten communities that have contributed relatively little to global emissions, and how Indigenous Protected Areas in Australia reflect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ care for land and cultural heritage.

Across the resource, learners work with environmental equity, contamination, baseline measurements, mitigation, remediation, consultation, and accountability. They distinguish a single water test from stronger evidence gathered across sites and time, compare developers’ priorities with local residents’ concerns, and consider whose rights should shape a fair public process.

What Students Complete

The printable worksheet combines a dialogue-summary task, vocabulary matching, a cloze passage, a river-system labeling diagram, a nonfiction reading passage, multiple-choice questions, true-or-false statements, short written responses, and an extended evaluative essay. The final scenario asks students to judge a proposed industrial port using environmental evidence, Indigenous rights and decision-making, climate resilience, and protective or reparative measures. These connected tasks move from identifying concepts to defending a conditional recommendation.

What Teachers Receive

• Student worksheet: The complete sequence of reading, diagram interpretation, practice, and written evaluation.
• Separate teacher guide PDF: Learning objectives, teaching tips, discussion questions, and common mistakes to anticipate.

How to Use It

Introduce the question of who gains and who may face costs before students read. Use partner talk to compare stakeholder views, then ask students to support their written judgments with specific evidence from the examples. The teacher guide can help frame discussion of public participation without presenting every development decision as having a simple answer. For BC Explorations in Social Studies 11 classrooms, the content offers a focused way to discuss environmental policy, equity, and responsible resource development.