Download Virginia Studies Standard 10.b - The student will demonstrate

2011 Regions of Virginia Barn Lesson Plan
Objective: By the end of the 20 minute session, each student will know there are 4
major rivers and 5 geographic regions of Virginia and will be able to name at least one
product or attribute of each region.
SOL’s
History & Social Science /Virginia Studies Standards 2.b & 2.c - The student will
demonstrate knowledge of the physical geography and native peoples, past, and present,
of Virginia by:
b) Locating and describing Virginia’s Coastal Plain (Tidewater), Piedmont, Blue Ridge
Mountains, Valley and Ridge, and Appalachian Plateau.
c) Locating and identifying water features important to the early history of Virginia
(Atlantic Ocean, Chesapeake Bay, James River, York River, Potomac River, and
Rappahannock River).
History & Social Science/ Virginia Studies Standard 10.b - The student will demonstrate
knowledge of government, geography, and economics by describing the major products
and industries of Virginia’s five geographic regions.
Science Standard 4.8 - The student will investigate and understand important Virginia
natural resources. Key concepts include:
a)
b)
c)
d)
watershed and water resources;
animals and plants;
minerals, rocks, ores, and energy sources;
forests, soil, and land.
Materials: Regions of VA capsule (in tub) – one per station (available for teachers to
check out after Farm Field Days)
Set Up:
There are 4 stations, one for each class that comes in on a rotation. At each station
the same lesson will be simultaneously presented for approximately 20 minutes. There
will be 7 group rotations (every 20 minutes) through the Regions of VA Barn (with one
20 minute break). At each station: hang the canvas map on the wall and have the
accessories close at hand. The students in the class will sit on tarps or mats on the
floor.
Lesson Plan:
Overview of Activity: Attention grabber (i.e.: farmer jokes). Then start with general
information (below) as an introduction. Point out the 5 regions on the map, giving a brief
overview of each region (see below) including the fall line (place card on map). Call on
students to place the following cards on the map: The 4 cards for the major rivers and
one card each for the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean (place on blank Velcro strips).
Briefly define Chesapeake Bay watershed (see definition below). Discuss the major
industries for each region while calling on students to place the industry cards on the
map (lettered A-J on Velcro strips on map). Next, have students take turns coming up
and choosing a clue card for the “major products”, reading the clue card out loud and
having the class guess, then placing the product on the map in the correct region
(numbered 1-10 on Velcro strips on map.) After placing the cards for the major
industries and objects for major products, the remainder of the time (until the end of
the 20 minute period) students will take turns coming up and picking one of the
remaining product clue cards (numbered 11 – 25 on Velcro strips on map) , reading it out
loud and placing the product in the correct region on the map.
A. Introduction: - Agriculture has been a rich part of Virginia’s history and has been
the main basis for VA’s economy for more than 300 years. It is the oldest and
largest industry in VA. In Virginia, agriculture spans a wide variety of activities, from
the traditional raising of field crops, vegetables, fruits, livestock, and nursery
products, to the breeding of commercial horses, the bottling of premium wines, and
the growing of fish, or aquaculture. Virginia’s diverse agriculture systems are
influenced by the physical geography, climate and soil systems of the 5 different
regions in Virginia.
B. Region information: Briefly discuss each region using the information below.
1) Tidewater/Coastal Plain –
 Includes the Eastern Shore and begins at the Atlantic Ocean/Chesapeake
Bay and continues inland to a distinct physiographic line known as the fall
line (a natural border between the Tidewater/Coastal Plain region and the
Piedmont region where waterfalls prevent further travel up the river.)

Major cities formed along the fall line of the large rivers because ships
could not navigate past this point. Cargo had to be transported farther
west by land, creating an economic base for cities: Potomac River (Great
Falls), Rappahannock (Fredericksburg), James River (Richmond)

Warmer Climate (due to the ocean’s influence) - is warmer than the
Piedmont, so it has a longer growing season. This means that more than one
crop can be grown in a season.

Level Topography – the flat land means it is better suited for cropland.
This low land region also contains a lot of salt marshes and swamps.
2) Piedmont – located between the Blue Ridge foothills to the west and the
Tidewater/Coastal Plain (fall line) to the east. The Piedmont is characterized by
gently rolling, well rounded hills and long low ridges with little elevation
difference between the hills and valleys
3) Blue Ridge Mountains - north from about Roanoke and extends through several
states and contains the highest elevations and the most rugged topography in the
Appalachian Mountain system of eastern North America.
4) Valley & Ridge – area of valleys (including the Shenandoah Valley) and small
ridges west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The valleys are riddled with caverns (ie:
Luray & Skyline caverns) carved into the abundant limestone rock.
5) Appalachian Plateau – located in the southwest corner of VA. This plateau
continues north to New York and south all the way down to Alabama. The plateau
is elevated, rugged land that is relatively flat on top and contains many coalfields.
C. Chesapeake Bay Watershed definition: the land, shaped like a basin (includes most
of VA), that acts like a funnel where all the smaller rivers and streams within it are
channeled into bigger rivers and streams and eventually drained into the Chesapeake
Bay.
D. Major Products & Industries
1) Tidewater/Coastal Plain Products and Industry - Major products are seafood
and peanuts. Major industries include tourism, ship building, and military bases
(sea ports and bases). (Due to the level topography, farms are generally large in
size and consist mostly of cash crops like soybeans and corn.)
2) Piedmont Products and Industry – The major products are tobacco and
information technology. Major industries are federal and state government,
farming, and horse industry - (see Pamunkey* soil info below)
i) Northern Piedmont is rolling foothills (very suitable for pastures/grazing
animals)
ii) Southern Piedmont is more rural than the Northern Piedmont and the climate
is milder and supports a longer growing season. The light soils are excellent for
growing tobacco, peanuts, and in recent years, cotton.
3) Blue Ridge Mountains Products and Industry - The major product is apples and
the major industries are recreation and farming.
4) Valley and Ridge Products and Industry – Mountains separate this region from
the other regions of VA. The major products are poultry, apples, dairy cows,
and beef cattle. The major industry is farming. There are also many of the same
products grown here as in the Piedmont and Tidewater regions.
5) Appalachian Plateau Products and Industry - The major product is coal and
the major industry is coal mining.
Additional Information about Products
Coal - How were the layers of coal made? A great many trees and plants, blown
down by the waves and wind, became thick layers in flood waters. They became
soaked with water and sank. Then they were buried deep in the mud. Pressure
crushed them together and turned them into black substance (material) called
carbon. It takes 12 feet of wood to make one foot of coal. Today, there is no
place on earth where coal layers are still being formed from plant life. Trees and
other plant life that fall on the ground decay (rot) and become part of the
topsoil. A big flood is the only thing that could have caused coal layers to be
made.
Apples – VA grows 24 different varieties. (Red Delicious, Ginger Gold, York,
Granny Smith, etc.)
Christmas trees – Can be grown on steep slopes. How many years does it take to
grow a Christmas tree? 7-8 years
Chickens - are the agricultural product that makes the most money for the State.
Chickens don’t take a lot of room because they are grown in chicken houses in a
small area
Horses - are in the north of the Blue Ridge Region and here in PW County. There
are about 225,000 horses in VA.
Forest Products - Forest Product industry produces over $11.5 billion worth of
goods and services each year, including: lumber, plywood, flooring, pallets,
furniture, pulp and paper products, and pressure treated lumber.
Tobacco
 Tobacco is Virginia’s largest cash crop
 Virginia is the 4th largest tobacco producing state in the United States.
 The Native Americans were already growing tobacco when the Jamestown
settlers arrived in 1607.
 The settlers learned to grow the “Golden leaf” from the Native Americans.
The first shipment reached England in 1613.
 The plant thrived in the Virginia soil and climate.
 Some worried about the dependence on one crop.
 Tobacco was very hard on the soil and depleted the nutrients.
 Tobacco has the highest value of all the plant crops grown in VA (but
chickens are higher in value as the overall agricultural product, and beef is
second in value as overall agricultural product in VA).
Dairy cattle
 Most of Virginia’s dairy farms are small, family farms with fewer than 200
cows.
 In 2002, dairy cows in Virginia produced an average of 6 gallons of milk a
day. To produce this much milk, a cow consumes 35 gallons of water, 20
pounds of grain, and feed, and 35 pounds of hay and silage.
 There are 120,000 dairy cows in Virginia
1.9 billion pounds of milk produced in 2002
Beef cattle
 Virginia is 20th in the United States in number of cattle.
 There are 1.63 million cattle and calves in Virginia
Pamunkey* Soil - The state soil of Virginia.



These soils formed in the basin of the James River. This soil was named
for the Pamunkey Indian Tribe because they farmed it and then later the
first settlers at Jamestown planted their crops there.
Most areas of VA with Pamunkey soil are cultivated. That means they are
used for farming. The rest of these soils are used for pasture and forest
land.
Some people say that the reason why Jamestown survived when the other
settlements did not in the original colonies was the rich Pamunkey soils.
Corn -There are two kinds of corn grown in VA. Do you know what they are
used for? A small percentage is for us to eat. Most of it is for animals to eat.
Farmers take the corn, husks, leaves and all, and grind it up and put it in a silo.
The corn ferments because bacteria in the environment digest the moist parts
of the corn. As the corn ferments, liquid drips out the bottom of the silo
during this process. This process stabilizes the corn so it is easier to store
and it won’t rot. It can easily be bagged up as animal feed and transported or
stored to feed animals in the winter. The bacteria in the “silage” are also good
for cows to eat.
Peanuts
 First commercial crop grown in Virginia (started in the 1840’s.)
 Civil war soldiers liked them and the word spread
 Not a significant agricultural crop until the early 1900’s when the boll
weevil destroyed the South’s cotton crop.
 It is now a multimillion dollar crop in Virginia.
 250-350 million pounds produced annually
 Virginia produces 8% of the nation’s peanuts annually
Potatoes
 Virginia is a major producer of early summer potatoes and is the #10
potato producer in the country.
Soybeans
 Virginia farmers grow more than a half-million acres of soybeans each year.
 Soybeans have been grown in China for several thousand years. However,
the U.S. now produces the most soybeans.
 Many products are made from soybeans
(a) Candles, Crayons Cleaners, Flooring, Pens, Ink, Waxes,
Shampoos, Hair Conditioner, Cosmetics, hair styling products
Paint Remover Hand cleaner
Infant Formula Salad Dressing Bio
Diesel Fuel
Cotton
 Cotton was planted in 1607 at Jamestown by the Virginia colony
 Cotton has become a popular alternative to soybeans because it is more
profitable and as an alternative to corn because it is more drought tolerant
 Cotton is actually 2 crops, SEED and FIBER.
(a) SEED -Cottonseed is crushed for oil and meal used in food products and
animal feed.
(b) FIBER - Cotton fiber is used for cloth, cotton balls, etc.