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Contact: Mary Murphy
phone: 1-800-567-1867
email: info@histori.ca
Website: Web resource for teachers
e-Zine: Burnt Toast
The Historica Foundation began operating in 2000 with a mandate to engage young Canadians in the history of their country and in so doing to raise their levels of knowledge, awareness and historical literacy. It has become the leading national organisation in its field. Historica produces the English and French Minutes series of 60-second TV dramas initiated by ACBP; it has also produced some 100 radio Minutes, as well as 100 Footprints – 60-second TV clips of Canadian sports heroes using documentary footage. The foundation also writes a weekly column, Dateline Historica, of stories about people who have made a difference to Canada’s development, published in English by a national chain of newspapers.
Historica’s website www.histori.ca features a large volume of resources teaching plans, including digitised versions of the Minutes and accompanying lesson plans, and receives approximately 50,000 visits a month. It also owns and makes available free of charge both The Canadian Encyclopedia, the basic reference work on Canadian history, and The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada which can receive up to half a million visits in a given month.
To proactively reach students, Historica runs a nation-wide program of Fairs for students in grades 4-9 which provide opportunities for participants to research, create and display projects – maquettes, videos, dances, monologues, masks, models, panoramas, etc. – about the stories of Canada’s history that intrigue them. It is the largest student outreach program for this age group in the country.
