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The American Nation
Textbook
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1. Thinking Geography
To understand the issues around the world
and how the change your life we first need
to understand geography.
• What do you think geography is?
• Why study geography?
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Geography is the study of people, their environments, and their resources. A
geographer looks at how the natural environment affects the way we live. A
geographer also looks at the way we live and how we change the environment
in which we live in. A geographer looks at the natural resources people use.
What do you think is a natural resource?
A natural resource is a material that humans can take from the
environment to survive and satisfy their needs. For example a
mountain range may contain reserves of coal or iron, while a nearby
river or ocean may supply fish. The iron, coal, and fish are examples
of natural resources.
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Maps and Globes
To locate places, geographers used maps and globes. A
map is a drawing of the Earth’s surface.
A globe is a round object shaped like a ball (sphere) that
has a map of the world on it.
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A drawing of a map on a flat surface is
called a map projection.
A person that makes a map is called a
cartographer.
Today they use sophisticated technology
to make maps.
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Kinds of Maps
Here are three types of maps that we use in
our everyday lives. They are political,
physical, and thematic. Each type of map
serves a specific purpose.
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The political map shows the
boundaries (or lines) that people use
to divide their world into countries and
states.
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A physical map shows natural features,
such as, mountains, deserts, rivers and
oceans.
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A Thematic map is a map that focuses on one
theme or subject. Examples include… religion and
language as well as population maps, climate and
land use maps. See below for Population map.
A population map lets you know how many
people live in different areas of the Earth.
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Latitude and Longitude
Most maps have lines on it that look like lines
on a sheet of graph paper. These graph lines
make it easier for us to locate the exact location
of a place. These lines on the graph are
measured in degrees °.
Latitude
Longitude
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We use a compass rose to determine directions on a map.
A compass rose shows the directions of North, South, East
and West on a map.
The lines that that run north to south (or up and down) are
call longitude.
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The lines that that run east to west (or left
to right) are call latitude.
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We divide the Earth in half with an
imaginary line at 0° latitude is
called the Equator.
The Equator divides the Earth into two
halves called hemispheres.
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An imaginary line divides the
earth into two equal east and west
(left and right) halves. This
imaginary line is called the Prime
Meridian.
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Time Zones
Lines of longitude and latitude also help us tell what
time it is all over the world. Why does time differ on the
earth from place to place?
The answer is that the Earth rotates on its axis. As the
Earth moves, the sun appears to rise in some places and
set in other places. Throughout the world people use the
rising and setting of the sun to set their clocks.
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To make this easier the world was divided into 24 time zones. Each time zone
represents 1 hour in time on a clock. As you move from time zone to time
zone you increase or decrease you clock by 1 hour for each time zone you
cross when traveling. If you head West, you lose an hour for each time zone
you cross. If you head East, you add an hour for each time zone you cross.
Each zone you cross is called a Standard Time Zone.
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The Five Themes of Geography
Location
Historians and geographers try to discover where something important
happened. They also try to figure out why that event happened? A
geographers task is to try to pinpoint the exact location of an event.
Place
A geographer looks at the physical features of a place. They looked at the
climate (weather), plant life, animal life and bodies of water. People often
help to shape the way a place looks by their ideas and actions.
Region
Geographers study regions. A region is an area of the world with similar
characteristics. For example, The Great Plains is a region because it has
fairly level land, very hot summers, very cold winters and little rainfall.
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Themes of Geography Cont.
Interaction Between People and Their Environment
Throughout history, people have adapted and changed their natural
environment. For example, ancient hunters learned to grow food crops in
the Americas.
Later Americans in the Southwest developed methods of irrigation, or bringing
water to dry lands. Today, advances in technology allow people to alter their
environment dramatically.
People have invented ways to take oil from the ocean floor. They have cut
down thick forests to build highways.
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Themes of Geography Cont.
Movement
People move around to different places throughout the world because their
resources (raw materials) are spread unevenly around the world. They also
move to search for work and places to live.
Resources are things that we get from the Earth to help us survive, such as
trees, water and fish. People need these resources to build their houses and
survive.
To get resources they had to move place to place. As they met other people, they
exchanged their ideas and technology. Technology is any new idea or invention
used to improve the life style of people. Examples of technology are
automobiles, televisions and radios. These advances in technology led to the
world we live in today
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2. Lands and Climates of the United States
Geographers divide the United States into several different physical
regions with contrasting landforms..
Types of Landforms
(Look and examine the map on page 18-19 of your
textbook.)
Mountains- are high steep rugged land. They rise to an
elevation (or height) of at least 1,000 feet above the
surrounding land.
Hill- Hills are areas of raised land, but they are lower,
less steep and more rounded than mountains.
Plains- Plains are areas of flat or level land.
Plateaus- Plateaus are large raised areas of flat land.
A narrow strip of land that joins two large areas is
called an isthmus.
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Rivers and Lakes
There are many great river systems in North America. They collect
water from melting snows and rain and carry it to the oceans.
The Mississippi River and the Missouri River and their tributaries
make up the largest and most important river system in the United
States.
A tributary is a stream or smaller river that flows into a larger one.
These rivers provide transportation by boats. They also provide
moisture (or water) for most part of the plains of the United States.
The rivers of the United States crisscross the country linking
different physicals regions.
The Great Lakes
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Factors that Affect Climate
Weather is the condition of the Earth’s atmosphere
(or air.) It could be hot or cold, rainy or dry or
something in between.
The United States has 10 different types of climates.
Climate is the average weather of a place over a period of
20-30 years. Two features define the climate. They are
temperature and precipitation. What do you think is
temperature?
Precipitation is the water that falls from the sky in the
form of rain or snow. The location and altitude, or height
of the land above sea level, of a region also influences
climate.
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Section 3 The Tools of History
What is History?
History is an account of what happened in the life of
people. Historians use the past to ask the question, what
happened in this place? Historians look at the location,
place movement and religion to try to explain the life of a
population. Many different cultures have their own
individual history.
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Primary and Secondary
Resources
What can you tell me about
this document?
Historians collect evidence and use
it to interpret events in history.
Historians first use primary
sources. A primary source is
firsthand information about people
or events. Primary sources include
official documents such as laws or
court decisions, public speeches,
and eyewitness accounts such as
diaries or letters, and
autobiographies. Primary sources
could include visual evidence such
as an original news photograph or
videotape.
The Declaration of Independence.
A primary source.
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What do these items have in common?
Historians also make use of
secondary sources. A
secondary resource is an
account provided after the fact
by people who did not directly
witness or participate in the
event. An example of a
secondary source is a
textbook, encyclopedia, books
and articles written by
historians.
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Archaeology
What is the meaning of
the cartoons?
When dealing with a primary
source, the historian must
determine whether it is
authentic. Authenticity refers to
whether or not the source is
actually what it seems to be. For
example, in 1928, a magazine
published a series of newly
discovered letters that was said
to be written by Abraham
Lincoln. Soon afterwards they
were discovered to be forgeries
or fakes. A historian must
decide if the source is authentic.
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Scientists have dug up things from the ground. They have found tools,
weapons, baskets, and carvings buried in the ground. The evidence that is dug
up is called artifacts.
The study of artifacts left by early people is called archaeology.
artifacts
archaeology
archaeologist.
By studying artifacts, archaeologists can learn much about early people. If they
found an arrowhead that would suggest that people knew how to make weapons
and hunt. Each object they found can provide valuable information about early
cultures.
Culture is the entire way of life that people has developed. It includes the
behavior, customs, ideas, beliefs, and skills that people teach every new
generation.
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Section 4 Economics and Other Social Sciences
The study of how people manage their limited resources to satisfy
their wants and needs is called economics.
Every society must fulfill people’s basic needs of food, shelter, and
clothing. A society must make decisions how they will fill these needs.
Technology plays a large role in these decisions. For example,
Technology uses machines and manufacturing to produce things.
Lastly, a society must decide for whom we should produce goods and
services for. We are all consumers, or users of goods and services.
However, just as resources are limited, supplies and services can also
be limited.
Today we live in a cash economy, that is, an economy where we
exchange money for goods and services.
The economy of the United States is based on a principle known as
free enterprise. In a free enterprise system, the government plays a
limited role in the economy. Businesses are owned by private citizens.
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Owners decide what products to make and sell.
Credit To
Mr. Zindman & Vinci
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