Teacher Toolkit

The resources on this page are available to all educators interested in bringing the science of the Anthropocene into their classrooms.

ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch

The full-length documentary is available for free on TVO.org and has been described as a stunning cinematic meditation on humanity’s massive reengineering of the planet. Click here to watch the documentary.

Google Earth Companion Story

Canadian Geographic Education has created a Google Earth companion story which students can use to “visit” key locations shown in the full-length documentary. Within the pages, students can also access worksheets and photography to deepen their learning. Click here to access the Google Earth story.

Online Interactive Gigapixels

A gigapixel image is a mosaic of extremely high-resolution digital photographs, which when combined, contain one billion pixels of information. Below are four interactive gigapixels created by world-renowned photographer Edward Burtynsky that showcase the application of detailed digital photography to the understanding of the changes imposed by humankind on the geology and ecology of the planet. Students can interact with the images by finding the embedded triggers that, when selected, play short film extensions.

Associated apps

• AVARA Discover app on Google Play and App Store for augmented reality experience with Big Lonely Doug card (below)
• Anthropocene VR app on Google Play and App Store for 360 degree videos that can be viewed on a smartphone
• Anthropocene VR app for Oculus Rift
• Anthropocene VR app on Viveport

Useful links

• The Anthropocene Project Website
• Edward Burtynsky’s Complete Online Gallery
  • The Anthropocene Gallery
  • The Salt Pans Gallery
  • The Water Gallery
  • The Oil Gallery
  • The Mines Gallery
  • The Quarries Gallery
  • The China Gallery
  • The Urban Mines Gallery
  • The Tailings Gallery

Teacher resources

Teacher’s guide

• Download the teacher’s guide
• Download the teacher’s guide and all associated resources

Supporting videos

• View the supporting videos

Not all plastic waste is recyclable cards

• Plastic items card
• Plastic sorting card
• Decomposition rates card
• Types of plastic card

The life cycle of plastics cards

• Storyboard template card

The history of plastic cards

• Thoughts on plastic student cards
• Thoughts on plastic teacher cards

Plastics in the solid waste stream cards

• Survey cards
• Audit questions card

Plastics and society cards

• Exploration card

Importing and exporting plastic

• Trash tracking card

Golden spikes

• Choosing a golden spike card
• Proposed Anthropocene markers cards
• Anthropocene markers on the gigapixel card

Technofossils

• Technofossil fact cards

Terraforming

• Big Lonely Doug card
• Ecological footprint card

Extinction

• Logic model card

Urbanization

• The 4 Rs in recycling card

360 Degree Videos

Ivory Burn

• Click here to see the 360 degree Ivory Burn video

Dandora

• Click here to see the 360 degree Dandora video

Carrara

• Click here to see the 360 degree Carrara video