Educators

Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s annual Mathieu Da Costa Challenge is a fun way for young people to learn more about Canada’s cultural diversity.

The contest invites young Canadians between the ages of 9 and 18 to submit an original piece of writing (e.g. short story, poem, song, play, illustrated story, essay, etc.) or artwork (including computer generated artwork) celebrating the contributions made by Canadians of Aboriginal, African or other backgrounds to the building of Canada.

Incorporate the Challenge into your curriculum

The Mathieu Da Costa Challenge can be easily integrated into English, history, social sciences or art classes. All the tools and resources you’ll need are available on this site.

Historica’s educator’s guide

The Historica Foundation of Canada has developed an educator’s guide in partnership with the Multiculturalism Program. The educator’s guide was designed to fit into any curriculum; such as Language Arts, History and Social Studies, Visual Arts, French or English as a Second language, Civics and Government, Religion, or Computer Science, across all grade levels.

The guide includes teaching materials and activity sheets that help students acquire knowledge directly related to Canada’s cultural diversity. It allows students to discover new heroes by uncovering the experiences and contributions of those little known individuals or groups that have gone before us.

The teaching materials will also help educators motivate students to research the contributions that Canadians of Aboriginal, African and other ethnocultural backgrounds have made in building our country resulting in a submission in the Mathieu Da Costa Challenge – The National Writing and Artwork Contest.

Links to useful websites

We have compiled a list of websites that will help students participate in the Challenge. The sites highlight the spiritual, cultural, artistic and economic contributions of different ethnocultural groups to the development of Canada.

For more information or copies of promotional material:

Contact us at 1–888–77MULTI (1–888–776–8584) or send us an e–mail at mathieudacosta@cic.gc.ca.