Full Resource - City of Edmonton

Make A Better City
process to research and explore an issue. Discuss why steps can
be recorded in differing sequences depending on the nature of
the issue and how individual students may approach the inquiry
process – this process is not always linear.
Focus on Health & Life Skills
Focus on the connection between laws and community
standards and the health and safety of the community as a
whole. Ask students to find two examples of issues that relate
to community safety and two examples that relate to community
health.
Balancing the individual & common good
Ensure that students have had an opportunity to share what they have
learned about rights and responsibilities. Revisit these concepts with
discussion questions such as the following:
• Which responsibilities do you think are most important Why do you
think this
• Whose responsibility do you think it is to ensure that people’s rights
are protected (Students may be prompted to consider how local
government protects people’s rights to build and maintain a good quality
of life by establishing “minimum” standards and responsibilities. Students
may also be asked to think about how individuals are also responsible for
ensuring that their behaviours and actions do not interfere with other’s
quality of life.)
• Why do you think values like cooperation and respect are important
in a city What do these values have to do with bylaws and
community standards
Create a “class-size” balance scale on a bulletin board, chart paper
or interactive whiteboard. Label one side of the balance scale with
“individual” and the other with “common good.” Work with students
to brainstorm and record rights and responsibilities that they think
protect an individual’s quality of life and those that protect the common
good, or the rights of the community as whole. Encourage students to
pull examples from their Themes in the City research. Challenge them to
compare and discuss the balance of these rights and responsibilities with
questions such as:
• How would you describe the “balance” between individual rights and
responsibilities and the common good
• Do individuals have more responsibilities than rights, or more rights
than responsibilities Why
• Why do you think it is important to ensure and protect the “common
good”
• What does this balance scale tell you about “good” citizenship
Field-Based Research
Invite a Peace Officer into your
classroom to work with your students.
Request a visit from a City Park Ranger,
Animal Care & Control Officer or
Community Standards Officer by
emailing bylawcommunityrelations@
edmonton.ca. Have students brainstorm
questions they can ask the officer.
Officers are available to share:
• Their role in the community
• The importance of bylaws and
community standards
• How they help people to “get along”
• A dynamic citizenship conversation
with students.
[My students] loved the bylaw officers
and...they were so impressed by all
the questions my students asked them
about bylaws and [the] responsibilities
of being a citizen. They actually did
not just focus on the items that the
officers carry but what their [day]
looks like and asked questions [about]
different scenarios.
~Melissa G., Edmonton Catholic Schools
Make A Better City 63