Geography for Life

National Geography Standards 1994 (Gr. K-4)

Knowledge of geography enables people to develop an understanding of the relationships between people, places, and environments over time--that is, of Earth as it was, is, and might be.

1. How places and geographic contexts change over time

2. That people’s perceptions of places and geographic contexts change over time

3. That geographic contexts influence people and events over time

Arrange in chronological order pictures of types of houses built in the student’s region and explain why the size and style of such homes have changed over time (e.g., migration patterns, demographic changes, economic conditions)

Use graphs of major employment categories to trace changes that have occurred in how people have earned a living in the student’s state (e.g., industry, farming, fishing, retail trade, government)

Prepare a time line illustrating changes in the vegetation and animal population in a region (e.g., trace successive changes in vegetation caused by human occupancy and agriculture in a region)

Use maps, illustrations, and aerial photographs from different time periods to identify and describe factors that have contributed to changing land use in the community (e.g., street and road development, population shifts, regulations governing land use)

Use primary and secondary documents to identify groups of people who have affected the growth, development, culture, and patterns of land use of the community

Interview older community members as a basis for writing a "this is how it was" story of the community and illustrate the story with maps and pictures

Explain how the discovery or depletion of a resource or technology may influence human perceptions of environments and migration patterns (e.g., the history of oil in different US regions such as Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Texas or changes in attitude toward the Great American Desert)

Use primary and secondary documents to trace how people’s perception of an environment has changed with length of settlement and familiarity with the area

Read stories about children living in the past, describe their attitudes toward the physical environment, and compare those attitudes with the attitudes of children today

Use maps and narratives to trace historic events in a spatial context (e.g., read accounts of Paul Revere’s ride and follow the route at an appropriate scale, or locate the site of a major Civil War battle and describe the influence of the site on the course of the conflict)

Use maps to compare trade routes with wind patterns and ocean currents, and suggest how they were related in previous centuries (e.g., the trade routes followed by early European colonists were linked to the trade winds; Muslim trading vessels used monsoon winds to cross the Indian Ocean in the eighth century)

Prepare visual materials (map, charts, graphs) and written descriptions of the physical and human characteristics of places that answer the question, What was it like to live in place X in time Y? (e.g., prepare maps showing settlements and transportation routes of the student’s state at the turn of the twentieth century)

1. The dynamic character of geographic contexts

2. How people’s perceptions affect their interpretation of the world

3. The spatial dimensions of social and environmental problems

Describe the relationship between population growth and resource use by interpreting a graph containing information on both topics

Draw cartoon strips or make storybooks to illustrate ways in which resources can be managed and to explain why it is important to do so (e.g., soil conservation practices can preserve agricultural productivity for future generations, and recycling nonrenewable resources helps provide resources for future generations)

Prepare a time line and visual display to show the projected increases in world population

Use a data-retrieval chart to organize information on how different groups of people perceive the same place, environment, or event (e.g., examine a variety of maps, with different perspectives to understand different images of the world)

Compare the lives of children in different societies of the world in terms of their attitudes and feelings about personal life, education, aspirations, and the differences between girls and boys

Develop a defensible answer to the following questions: Is there a global environmental crisis? If so, what caused it?

Describe some human-induced changes that are taking place in different parts of the US and speculate on their future impacts (e.g., development and conservation issues in terms of the wetland of coastal New Jersey

Propose and discuss alternative solutions to an environmental problem and the likely consequences of each solution, and then decide on the best solution (e.g., the best way to recycle plastic milk cartons in the local community)

Analyze the spatial aspects of a social problem by mapping it (e.g., look at the distribution of family income in an urban area and draw conclusions about unemployment rates in the area)