The activity can be modified to fit any classroom situation. The word processing portion of the document can have additional criteria. Depending on their previous skills, students can be asked to do additional work on their article. If the students know a presentations application, the class could prepare a PowerPoint type presentation on the findings of their research. These are skills that will be necessary for their post-secondary education.
Students can search the Internet for newspapers in affected regions.
If a certain press release identifies a region as being affected more than the rest of the country, students can find a regional newspaper and evaluate the coverage for bias or lean. Students can use their research as a topic for a letter to the editor. After reviewing the release and the article, students can summarize their research in the letter to the editor. Students can approach a smaller regional paper and offer to submit a series of articles on other Statistics Canada releases, like the Consumer Price Index, Labour Force Survey or the Census. These articles could be written on a monthly basis as an independent study or a co-op program.