| HGA | Standards | Grade 9-12 |
ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY
Geography Standard 14: How human actions modify the physical environment
By the end of the twelfth grade, the student knows and understands:
Therefore, the student is able to:
A. Evaluate the ways in which technology has expanded the human capability to modify the physical environment, as exemplified by being able to
Evaluate the limitations of the physical environments capacity to absorb the impacts of human activity (e.g., use the concepts of synergy, feedback loops, carrying capacity, thresholds to examine the effects of such activities as levee construction on a floodplain, logging in an old-growth forest, construction of golf courses in arid areas)
Analyze the role of people in decreasing the diversity of flora and fauna in a region (e.g., the impact of acid rain on rivers and forests in southern Ontario, the effects of toxic dumping on ocean ecosystems, the effects of overfishing along the coast of northeastern North America or the Philippine archipelago)
Compare the ways in which the students local community modified the local physical environment (e.g., rivers, soils, vegetation, animals, climate) a hundred years ago with the communitys current impact on the same environment, and project future trends based on these local experiences
B. Explain the global impacts of human changes in the physical environment, as exemplified by being able to
Describe the spatial consequences, deliberate and inadvertent, of human activities that have global implications (e.g., the dispersal of animal and plant species worldwide increases in runoff and sediment, tropical soil degradation, habitat destruction, air pollution, alterations in the hydrologic cycle)
Identify and debate the positive and negative aspects of landscape changes in the students local community and region that relate to peoples changing attitudes toward the environment (e.g., pressure to replace farmlands with wetlands in floodplain areas, interest in preserving wilderness areas, support of the concept of historic preservation)
Examine the characteristics of major global environmental changes and assess whether the changes are a result of human action, natural causes, or a conmbination of both factors (e.g., increases in world temperatures attributable to major global action, the link between changes in solar emissions and amounts of volcanic dust in the atmosphere attributable to natural causes)
C. Develop possible solutions to scenarios of environmental change induced by human modification of the physical environment, as exemplified by being able to
Identify possible responses to the changes that take place in a river system as adjacent farmland is fertilized more intensively and as settlement expands into the floodplain
Choose examples of human modification of the landscape in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and compare the ways in which the physical environments ability to accommodate such modification has changed (e.g., urban development in the United States, especially in the High Plains, the Southwest, and Northeast; suburban and residential expansion into farmland areas)
Develop a list of the potential global effects to the environment of human changes currently in progress and devise strategies that could lessen the impacts in each case (e.g., the effects of groundwater reduction caused by overpumping of centerpivot irrigation systems could be lessened by implementing changes in crops and farming techniques; desiccation of the Aral Sea and associated dust storms caused by the diversion of water to irrigation projects in Central Asia could be lessened by ending the diversion and finding alternative water sources)
Geography Standard 15: How physical systems affect human systems
By the end of the twelfth grade, the student knows and understands:
Therefore, the student is able to:
A. Analyze examples of changes in the physical environment that have reduced the capacity of the environment to support human activity, as exemplified by being able to
Describe and evaluate the carrying capacity of selected regions to predict the likely consequence of exceeding their environmental limits (e.g., the impact of the economic exploitation of Siberias resources on a fragile sub-Arctic environment)
Develop contemporary and historical case studies to serve as examples of the limited ability of physical systems to withstand human pressure or of situations in which the environments quality and ability to support human populations has diminished because of excessive use (e.g., the drought-plagued Sahel, the depleted rain forests of central Africa, the Great Plains Dust Bowl)
Develop a model using concepts of synergy, feedback loops, carrying capacity, and thresholds to describe the limits of physical systems in different environments to absorb the impacts of human activities
B. Apply the concept of limits to growth to suggest ways to adapt to or overcome the limits imposed on human systems by physical systems, as exemplified by being able to
Describe the limits to growth found in physical environments and describe ways in which techonology and human adaptation enable people to expand the capacity of such environments
Describe the conditions and locations of soil types (e.g., soils with limited nutrients, high salt contect, shallow depth) that place limits on plant growth and therefore on the expansion of human settlement and suggest alternative uses for areas of those soil types
Identify physical environments in which limits to growth are significant (e.g., extremely cold, arid, or humid tropical climates and mountainous and coastal environments), describe the conditions that may threaten humans in these environments (e.g., rises in population that place pressure on marginal areas), and then develop plans to alleviate such stresses
C. Explain the ways in which individuals and societies hold varying perceptions of natural hazards in different environments and have different ways of reacting to them, as exemplified by being able to
Collect personal and group responses to different natural hazards before, during, and after the event, and summarize the varying perceptions of natural hazards in different regions of the world
Conduct interviews to assess peoples attitudes, perceptions, and responses toward natural hazards in the local community and explain patterns that may emerge (e.g., the effects of religious beliefs, socioeconomic status, previous experience, and other factors on perception and responses toward hazards)
Evaluate the effectiveness of human attempts to limit damage from natural hazards and explain how people who live in naturally hazardous religions adapt to their environments (e.g., the use of sea walls to protect coastal areas subject to severe storms, the use of earthquake-resistant construction techniques in different regions within the Ring of Fire
Geography Standard 16: The changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources
By the end of the twelfth grade, the student knows and understands:
Therefore, the student is able to:
A. Analyze the relationshiips between the spatial distribution of settlement and resources, as exemplified by being able to
Describe how patterns of settlement are associated with the location of resources (e.g., the organization of farming activities around agglomerated settlements in Southeast Asia; the spatial arrangement of villages, towns, and cities in the North American corn belt)
Explain how the discovery and development of resources in a region attract settlement (e.g., the development of cities in Siberia resulting from the discovery of coal, nickel, and iron ore; the increasing occupance of the Laurentian Shield in northern Ontario and Quebec as a consequence of the areas mining and hydroelectric-power potential)
Describe how settlement patterns are altered as a result of the depletion of a resource (e.g., the creation of ghost towns in the mining areas of Colorado; the depopulation of fishing communities in Canadas Maritime Provinces)
B. Explain the relationship between resources and the exploration, colonization, and settlement of different regions of the world, as exemplified by being able to
Explain the geographic consequences of the development of mercantilism and imperialism (e.g., the settlement of Latin America by the Spanish and Portuguese in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the development of spheres of influence by the Dutch and the British in Asia in the nineteenth century)
Identify and discuss historic examples of exploration and colonization of the world in a quest for resources (e.g., the voyages of Columbus undertaken to find a passage to India and China for easy access to spices and precious metals; Russian settlement of Siberia, Alaska, and California as sources of fur, fish, timber, and gold)
Identify and discuss examples of resources that have been highly valued in one period but less valued in another (e.g., the use of salt and spices for the preservation of food before the advent of refrigeration, the dismissal of petroleum as a nuisance product known as ground oil before the invention of the internal combustion engine)
C. Evaluate policy decisions regarding the use of resources in different regions of the world, as exemplified by being able to
Discuss how and why some countries use greater than average amounts of resources (e.g., German iron-ore imports, and petroleum consumption in the United States and Japan)
Explain the geographic consequences of the development and use of various forms of energy (e.g., renewable, nonrenewable, and flow resources)
Evaluate the short- and long-term economic prospects of countries that rely on exporting nonrenewable resources (e.g., the long-term impact on the economy of Nauru when its phosphate reserves are exhausted; the economic and social problems attendant to the overcutting of pine forests in Nova Scotia)
D. Identify the ways in which resources can be reused and recycled, as exemplified by being able to
Explain the changing relocation strategies of industries seeking access to recyclable material (e.g., paper factories, container and can companies, glass, plastic, and bottle manufacturers)
Discuss the geographic issues involved in dealing with toxic and hazardous waste at local and global levels (e.g., the movement, handling, processing, and storing of materials)
Compare recycling laws in states of the United States and other countries to explain peoples attitudes toward resource management (e.g., attitudes on comprehensive versus haphazard, stringent versus permissive, fully enforced versus consistently neglected approaches to resource management)
E. Evaluate policies and programs related to the use of resources on different spatial scales, as exemplified by being able to
Evaluate the geographic impacts of policy decisions related to the use of resources (e.g., community regulations for water usage during drought periods; local recycling programs for glass, metal, plastic, and paper products)
Develop objective evaluations regarding the performance of the last four presidential administrations in the United States in terms of resource management policies
Evaluate resource degradation and depletion in less developed countries from multiple points of view (e.g., different points of view regarding uses of the Malaysian rain forests expressed by a Japanese industrialist and a conservationist with the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization)