Geography Standard Three - Grades 9-12

Sample Activities

Using observation of the built and naturally-occurring environment, poetry, painting, literature, economic, historical, and social information to understand a people's sense of place, students could convey the result in a narrative or artistic form. Consider the different ways people value places [Places].

This activity has a strong relationship to literary interpretation associated with the English/Language Arts Standards.

Students might apply the concept of "sense of place" to solutions of a practical problem, such as evaluating proposals to attract tourists to a recreational community [Places].

Students could be asked to consider the ideal location for selected businesses (e.g., a department store) in a town or city, and produce a map showing how the business has changed its location over time, and explain why the changes have occurred [Places].

This activity connects to Economics Standard One (Microeconomics).

Using aerial photos or old and contemporary maps, students could produce a summary map of the area encompassed by a city or town over time and explain the reasons for the direction expansion has taken [Places].

Students might compare two places with similar environments and dissimilar cultures. Students might begin by carefully cataloging the similarities of the physical environments. Then they would look at ways in which the two cultures interacted with and modified those environments, compiling a list of dissimilar responses to similar challenges, such as food supply or transportation [Places].

A cultural contest perspective would be encouraged by this activity, especially if students examined the ways in which each population's response to environment was shaped by their distinct culture, based on language, cultural origins, response to European colonialism, etc.

to Geography Standard Three.