Download We The People American Voices “Here is not merely a

We The People
American Voices
“Here is not merely a nation but a teeming nation of nations."
Walt Whitman
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"Do justice, that you may live long upon earth."
King of Heracleopolis, c. 2135 B.C.
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"The basis of a democratic state is liberty.”
Aristotle
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" To none will we sell, to none deny or delay, right or justice. "
Magna Carta, 1215
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"Men are born and remain free and equal in rights...”
Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789
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“We could not have known of your Declaration of Independence and not elected to join
in the struggle to guarantee the people life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Nelson Mandela
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"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home…”
Eleanor Roosevelt
We are the
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Spirit of America!
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UNIT 1
Learning About Our World
“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”
Lao-tzu
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Theme
Patterns in Diversity
“
Learning about other cultures either across the country or on the other side of the world can help us
understand how other people live so we will all get along.”
Caity Brodeur, Sixth Grade Waitsfield, VT
The world is beautiful and complicated, and we are forever trying to make sense of it.
People who study the earth are called geographers. They understand the land by
finding patterns in landforms, climates, or even languages. To understand people,
we study their culture - the characteristics of a group of people that make them
alike. We find patterns in the ways people live, and we come to know them better
as a result. So begins a journey to understand our world.
Theme Project
Exploring Geography and Culture
Pick two places in the world and compare and contrast them with each other.

Make a compare/contrast poster that lists the similarities and differences between
the two places.

Create a travel poster for each place that highlights the features that would attract
tourists to that place.

Draw a map of each place and label the major geographic features.

Write a one-page description of life in each place.
Research: Look up facts about the history of each place you are studying.
---The city of Olvera in Andalusia, Spain.
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UNIT 1
When & Where
Atlas
Studying the history and geography of the world is not an easy task. Apart from
thousands of historical events, there are a multitude of peoples, religions, and
languages to sort through. As you can guess, just keeping all the countries straight
can be difficult.
Understanding geography and culture can make the task easier. Knowing the
geographic features of an area or the culture of the people who live there can help
you make sense of the history and geography of that area.
In this unit, you will learn more about geography and culture. You will read about the
techniques geographers use to study physical and human geography. You will learn
how studying culture can help shed light on history. By the end of the unit, you will
know why geography and culture are essential tools for understanding world
history.
Unit 1 Chapters
Chapter 1 The Shape of the Earth
Chapter 2 A World of People
Unit Timeline
Incan Roads
This rocky road is more than 500 years old, and people still use it. Chapter 1, Lesson 1
Marshall Islands
Find out how Marshall Islanders mapped the ocean. Chapter 1, Lesson 1
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Landforms
What four landforms do you see here? Chapter 1, Lesson 2
Family Life
Families spending time together in many ways — that's culture. Chapter 2, Lesson 1
An Archeological Dig
Hidden in the earth, past cultures are waiting to be found. Chapter 2, Lesson 2
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CHAPTER 1
The Shape of the Earth
Chapter Preview: People, Places, and Events
Captain James Cook
A bold explorer and geographer, he was one of the first to map the Pacific. Lesson 1, Page 16
Satellite Maps
Maps like these help geographers and other scientists learn about the world. Lesson 1, Page 16
Early Mapping
How did early people use maps like these to find their way? Lesson 1, Page 19
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Lesson 1
Exploring Our World
Main Idea Geographers study the world by asking questions about it, measuring it with scientific tools,
and making maps.
Key Vocabulary
atmosphere
biosphere
geography
thematic map
reference map
The earth's six billion people share a planet that is 24,902 miles around — so large a
supersonic jet would take more than 30 hours to circle it at top speed. Its surface
area is over 196 million square miles. About 70 percent is underwater, mostly in
vast oceans. These seas are so deep a two-pound steel ball would take over an hour
to sink to their deepest point. All this water provides food, quenches thirst, and
creates weather — making life on our amazing planet possible.
Without protection from the sun's harmful rays and from the airless chill of space, all
life on the earth would cease to exist. Fortunately, the earth is cloaked by a mixture
of gases called the atmosphere. The atmosphere reaches about 310 miles above the
earth's surface, then fades into space. Beneath this shield lies the biosphere, which
includes the earth's surface and all the things that live on it. It is within the
biosphere that geography — the study of the earth and its people — begins.
---The earth, photographed from space.
Physical Regions
What can a koala tell you about a region? Lesson 2, Page 23
Physical Regions
Mountains like the Olgas, in Australia, can also set off a physical region. Lesson 2, Page 22
Human Regions
This oil rig operates within a human region as well as a physical region. Lesson 2, Page 26
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How Geographers See Our World
Focus How do geographers study the world?
Geographers study the biosphere — its heights and depths, its plants and animals, its
people and environments, its regions and climates. They find ways to display what
they have learned.
To understand what it is that geographers do, it is important to know the kind of
questions they ask. Geographers look at a particular location on the earth's surface
and ask: Where is it in relation to other places? What is it like there? When was it
formed? How did it get to be that way? By asking these questions, geographers
learn about the earth and how humans interact with it.
Just like any other scientist, geographers use tools to get the job done. Maps are one of
the geographer's most important tools. Maps display information about the world.
Throughout history, people all over the world have made many kinds of maps.
Some civilizations built maps right into their cities. In South America, the ancient
Inca capital of Cuzco (KOOZ koh) was a kind of map. Its buildings were laid out in
lines that showed the movement of the sun. The map on the right shows how Inca
roads made a kind of map of their empire.
Biography
James Cook
Captain James Cook was one of the most adventurous — and successful — geographers in history.
Beginning in 1768, Cook commanded three voyages of discovery. Through his careful map-making,
Cook expanded human knowledge of the limits of the Pacific Ocean. He was also first to use a
chronometer, a very accurate clock, to find his exact position at sea. Cook died at the hands of
Hawaiian Islanders on a voyage in 1779.
HIGH TECH TOOLS
Today, geographers use the latest technology to create maps. Satellites miles above the
earth take photographs that become detailed maps. These maps can show a city, a
continent, the whole planet, or even other planets. Satellites also produce maps that
show such things as weather, surface temperature, elevation, and vegetation.
Computers play a role in mapmaking, too. By using Geographic Information Systems
(GIS), computers can coordinate many layers of information to produce very
complex maps. A GIS is at work, for instance, when a computer makes a map of
how a noisy airport affects a neighborhood. Data about noise levels, the shape of
the neighborhood, the size of the airport, and so on are all fed into a computer. It
then makes a single map that displays all this information at once. Using a GIS,
geographers can analyze more information and make maps more swiftly than ever
before.
As important as they are, maps are just one of many tools geographers use. Equally
important are the special devices that allow them to learn such things as water
temperature, elevation, latitude, and longitude. Whether it is by the maps they
create, the instruments they use, or the questions they ask, geographers want to
learn about the earth — both what it is like now and how it got that way.
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---Geographers are also interested in how animals are distributed across a given area. This condor —
whose wingspan can be as much as 12 feet — is found only in the Andes.
Ancient Inca Roads
Maps can be used to help us investigate the past. This modern map of centuries-old Inca
roads raises some questions. How were the roads built? Where do they lead? How
do we know where they went? That's where geographers come in.
By mapping these ancient highways, it is possible to discover the size and shape of the
Inca Empire. The roads stretch over 2,500 miles, linking the great cities of what
was once South America's largest empire.
---These Peruvian Indians are walking along one of the Inca highways shown on the map to the far right.
The road is still in use after more than 500 years. Citizenship: Why might good roads be important
to a nation?
---A satellite photo, taken miles above the earth, shows South America. Such photos can be used to make
maps like those at right.
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Using Maps as a Window on Our Past
Focus How did people in the past use maps to describe the world?
When people make maps, they take information they've learned and present it to others.
For example, if you make a map showing the location of everything in your room,
someone else can look at the map and get an idea of what your room is like. Maps
can show something as small as a room or as large as a star system. Whatever the
subject, maps describe a part of our world.
Maps also say something about the mapmakers, who decide what information to include
and how to present it. In this way, maps from long ago can tell us much about
people who lived then.
In the 1900s, a map made for European Christians showed Paradise somewhere to the
east of Asia. Even though no living person had ever been to Paradise, the
mapmakers believed it existed. They included it on the map. A map like this is
called a thematic map because it has a theme to it — in this case, life after death.
Another kind of map is called a reference map, which shows where things are located.
A reference map might show you how to get from one town to another, or it might
show the layout of your neighborhood. A reference map around 5,800 years old is
shown below. This map shows an area in ancient Mesopotamia.
---This clay map from Mesopotamia is almost 6,000 years old. The illustration at left shows a translation
of the ancient symbols.
---This map shows the estate of what must have been a rich Mesopotamian.
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MAPS WITH SPECIAL USES
People can use both reference and thematic maps to express their knowledge of the
world. The Aztecs, an ancient people of Mexico, made reference maps showing the
land and trees. They marked the roads by drawing footprints. The Aztecs also made
thematic maps that showed how they viewed their place in the universe. The Aztecs
based these maps on their religious beliefs.
Traveling long distances calls for a special kind of reference map, the navigational map.
The navigational map on this page was made by people of the Marshall Islands in
the South Pacific. It is made of strips of wood tied together with coconut fiber, and
uses shells to stand for islands. Although it may seem simple at first, it is actually a
very complex map that shows many levels of important information. In addition to
showing the relative position of the islands, the sticks indicate the direction and
location of ocean currents and prevailing winds. When islanders set out on their
voyages, they relied on maps like this one to guide them safely.
Our world is vast. It is made up of many areas, each with its own history and character.
Just as different students in a class have things in common, so it is with places on
the earth. Maps help make us aware of the patterns shared by different areas. As
you are about to learn, finding these common patterns can help clarify the world's
complexity.
---Marshall Islanders used swift canoes to sail between islands.
---A Micronesian sailing chart of the Marshall Islands. Geography: What does a map like this say about
the people who made it? What might it tell a geographer?
LESSON REVIEW: GEOGRAPHY
1.
KEY VOCABULARY: Use the following words in a sentence: atmosphere,
biosphere, geography.
2.
FOCUS: How do geographers study the world?
3.
FOCUS: How did people in the past use maps to describe the world?
4.
CRITICAL THINKING: COMPARING THEN AND NOW How might people
have mapped the world long ago?
5.
GEOGRAPHY: What would a map of your neighborhood have in common with a
Marshall Islands stick map?
6.
CITIZENSHIP/ART ACTIVITY: Draw a map of the route you take to school. In
a group with two or three other students, compare your maps. How are they
similar? How are they different?
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Skills Workshop
Comparing Map Projections
Flattening the Earth
What's similar about an orange and the planet Earth? They're both spheres. If you've
ever peeled an orange and flattened out the peel, you'll know the problem
mapmakers have when drawing the curved surface of the earth on flat paper. It's
impossible to do without changing the shape.
Mapmakers have found many ways to view the earth. These are called map
projections. Each type of projection changes the shape of, or distorts, some part of
the earth's surface. However, each projection serves a purpose.
1.
HERE’S HOW
Study the map projections on these pages.

Find the name of each type of projection. In an atlas, the name often appears near
the map legend.

If there is no projection label, ask yourself: Are the longitude lines straight as in a
Mercator projection? Do they curve as in equal-area projections? Are the latitude
lines in circles as in polar projections?

Compare the maps to a globe to find distortions in the size or shape of continents.

Compare continents on the map projections. For example, how do Greenland and
Africa compare in size in each projection?
2.
THINK IT THROUGH
How would Mercator, equal-area, and polar projections help you plan a trip? What kind
of information would each map give?
---Equal-area projections divide the earth into equal areas. This allows you to accurately measure land
area, but, as you can see, it creates distortions, especially near the edges of the map.
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3.
USE IT
Which kind of map projection would you use to find out:
1.
the correct size of Greenland
2.
the shortest route between South America and Australia
3.
the size of Antarctica
4.
the shape of Africa
5.
the compass setting to use if you wanted to sail from North America to Europe
6.
the route to fly from a place in northern North America to northern Europe
----Mercator projections give an accurate view of land near the equator. However, land near the poles is
distorted. Greenland, for example, looks as large as Africa. In fact, Africa is more than ten times
larger! Because the latitude and longitude lines are straight, this projection is useful for navigating
with a compass.
---The center of a polar projection is the North Pole or South Pole. Pilots use these maps to navigate.
Often, the shortest distance between places is over one of the poles. What do you notice about the
longitude and latitude lines?
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Lesson 2
Regions of Our World
Main Idea Geographers divide the world into regions in order to understand its complexity.
Key Vocabulary
region
landform
steppe
tundra
climate
savanna
In the spring of 1989, German students scrambled on top of a large concrete wall in
Berlin. For years, the wall had divided their city. Now it was coming down.
Tearing down the Berlin Wall meant the end of two regions — the countries of East
and West Germany. These regions were not separated by mountains or rivers or
even language. They were divided instead by politics. When the wall fell, so did the
artificial barrier between the two nations. By 1990, Germany had become one
again.
PHYSICAL REGIONS
Focus How do geographers define physical regions?
A region is any area on the planet's surface that has a single common feature. Regions
can be defined by physical characteristics, like mountains, or by the political
allegiance or cultural identity of the people who live there.
Dividing the earth into physical regions is one way to make sense of the natural world's
incredible diversity. Physical regions are defined by one or more physical features
such as landforms, animals and vegetation, or climate.
---German students wave the flag of a united Germany on the Berlin Wall. East German soldiers stand
in the background.
LANDFORMS
One of the main building blocks of physical regions is the landform. A landform is a
feature of the earth's surface. There are four types of landforms: mountains, valleys,
plateaus, and plains. You can see what each of these landforms looks like in the
illustrated diagram at the bottom of the opposite page.
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A plateau (pla TOE) is a large, flat area that rises like a tabletop above the land around
it. One large landform region is the Colorado Plateau; it stretches across parts of
Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. A plain is a low, flat area of land that
can cover thousands of miles. The Great Plains in the Midwest cover several states,
making them one of this country's largest landform regions.
ANIMALS AND VEGETATION
Sometimes animals define a region. The koala, the kangaroo, and the wallaby are all
members of the same family of animal, the marsupial. A pouch-bearing mammal,
the marsupial is found almost exclusively on the continent of Australia. In this way,
the presence of a type of animal helps set off Australia as a kind of physical region.
Other animals, such as deer or mice, are found in certain areas on several
continents.
Vegetation — the plants that grow in a certain area — can also define a region. One
vast plain covers part of Europe and Asia. This plain, called a steppe, was once
completely covered with wild grasses. These grasses are what determines whether a
given plain is a steppe. Similarly, Canada has huge regions covered with forests.
Along the Arctic Circle is the tundra, a region with few or no trees.
---This koala and its baby are members of a family of animals that appear almost solely on the continent
of Australia.
---The four types of landforms, shown below, are:
mountains
plains
valleys
plateaus
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---The Amazing Deep
Deep beneath the waves lie dramatic landforms that would dwarf those on dry land.
A few of these are indicated on the map at right.
The Marianas Trench — 36,198 feet deep
Mauna Kea — 33,480 feet tall
Mid-ocean ridge — more than 30,000 miles long
Curious Facts
The wettest place on the planet is Mount Waialeale, Hawaii, where an average of 460 inches of rain falls
every year. That's almost twice the annual rainfall of a tropical rain forest!
CLIMATE
Climate, or the typical weather condition of a given area, produces another pattern of
regions. Two examples of regions defined by climate are deserts and savannas.
Desert regions are extremely dry areas that receive less than 10 inches of rain per
year. The Sahara, a desert in Africa, can get as little as one inch per year in some
places. Temperatures there can easily jump past 100° F in the summer. At the same
time, a savanna can get up to 60 inches of rain in a year, while being as hot as a
desert. Because of the difference in rainfall, one area is practically barren while the
other can be lush and green.
The chart on the next page can give you an idea of how regions can be determined by
climate, composed of temperature and precipitation. Looking carefully at the
photographs next to the chart, you can also see how dramatically rainfall, or its
absence, can affect a region. Note the differences in the plant and animal life in the
two images.
In addition, any location can belong to more than one type of physical region. A town in
northern Maine might be considered part of a mountainous region in terms of
landforms and part of a temperate region in terms of climate. At the same time,
there are different types of desert or savanna depending on how much rain they get
or how high their temperatures are. The type of savanna shown at right, for
example, is a tropical savanna.
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THE OCEAN FLOOR
The map at left shows regions we can't see because they are below the ocean. Just like
dry land, the ocean floor can be divided into physical regions. For example, the
deep crevices in the ocean floor are regions known as trenches. One such trench,
the Marianas, plunges more than seven miles below the surface of the Pacific
Ocean. In the same ocean, the Hawaiian mountain Mauna Kea, if measured from
base to peak, is taller than Mount Everest, the highest peak on land. The mid-ocean
ridge, an underwater mountain chain, snakes more than 30,000 miles from the
Arctic Ocean through the Atlantic, across the Pacific to the west coast of North
America. This, too, is a physical region.
Physical regions — whether based on landforms, vegetation, animals, or climate — are
just one one way of dividing up the earth's area. Another equally important type of
region is the human region.
---Below, the top photograph shows the Sahara. It has so little rainfall that almost nothing grows over
most of the desert.
The bottom photograph shows the savanna. As hot as the desert, the savanna receives large amounts of
rain on a regular basis. Chart Skill: What climate factor changes between these two regions? What
factor stays the same?
--- see pictures and chart “Differences in Climate” on page 25
25
---National borders are often difficult to monitor. This Canadian Mountie must protect his country's
borders, which run for thousands of miles through difficult terrain and climate.
Human Regions
Focus How do people organize the world into human regions?
A human region is an area defined by human activity. Whether it is an area in which
people share a government, a language, a belief, or a culture, human regions are a
vital part of geography.
You're probably familiar with one common human region: a nation. The world has
almost 190 nations. But nations can be broken down into even smaller human
regions, such as a state, county, and town.
A human region can also be larger than a nation. About 12 European countries have
formed an alliance called the European Union (EU). More than 300 million people
share a set of laws and close economic ties. Because Europeans also lead similar
lifestyles, the EU can be said to share other connections, too.
---Human regions can easily change. Map Skill: How many years does this map cover?
--- see map “Changing Borders: The Decline of the Ottoman Empire” on page 26
CHANGING REGIONS
Human regions can change over time. The map below traces the Ottoman Empire as it
shrank into what is now the modern nation of Turkey. Note that, as the borders of
this empire dwindled, new nations sprang into being, while others increased in size.
See, too, how the borders seemed to shift without regard to the physical features of
the land. This is because borders were set according to political situa26
tions, national identities, or language differences of populations. Overlooking these
important differences when setting national boundaries is a frequent source of
conflict among peoples.
No area of the globe is without political division of some kind. Even the high seas —
symbol of freedom and adventure — are the subject of constant international
squabbles. As countries look to the ocean for food, oil, and other natural resources,
the question of who owns the sea and its riches becomes ever more fiercely
debated.
Ultimately, how regions are defined depends on who defines them and what they wish
to accomplish. Defining regions helps geographers study the world. But defined
regions are also necessary for nations and the people who live in them. The ability
to keep track of how the earth's natural treasures are divided up depends on borders
that can be made clear and distinct. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, defining
human regions can also help us look at small groups of people and see the forces
that shape their lives. This helps us to understand others.
Now you should have a little better understanding of world geography. You're going to
be a geographer, too, by studying the world's lands and people. You'll read how
people lived in the past, how that history affects us today, and how you just might
live tomorrow.
---The contest for control of the ocean's bounty has gone on since the first fishers set out to sea in rafts.
Today, platform rigs like this one in the savage North Sea vie for the oil deep beneath the ocean
floor.
LESSON REVIEW: GEOGRAPHY
1.
KEY VOCABULARY: Write a sentence about geography for each of these words:
region, landform, steppe, tundra, climate, and savanna.
2.
FOCUS: How do geographers define physical regions?
3.
FOCUS: How do people organize the world into human regions?
4.
CRITICAL THINKING: CLASSIFY Name or describe two regions — one
physical and one human — that include your town.
5.
THEME: PATTERNS IN DIVERSITY Regions can have many different things
in common. What are some things regions might have in common that aren't
mentioned in the text?
6.
CITIZENSHIP/ART ACTIVITY: Make a collage about what makes the human
region of the United States different from other human regions, and what it has in
common with them.
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Think Like a Geographer
Places and Regions
How Was the Soviet Union a Nation of Many Regions?
For most of the twentieth century, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) —
also known as the Soviet Union — was the largest country in the world. Stretching
some 6,000 miles (9,656 kilometers) from east to west, the U.S.S.R covered 11
time zones and made up more than one seventh of the world's total land area.
Studying the regions of the Soviet Union clearly illustrates what a complex place it was.
When viewed as a country, the U.S.S.R. could be considered a single region. But it
actually contained dozens of overlapping human and physical regions. For
example, each of the country's 15 republics was a separate political region. Each
republic had different ethnic regions inside it. Because the U.S.S.R. spanned two
continents, it also contained a European region and an Asian region. In addition,
the U.S.S.R. contained many natural regions, including tundra, steppe (grasslands),
mountains, and forests.
1.
Latvia
A Latvian Woman
The U.S.S.R. contained more than 100 different ethnic groups. When it broke up in 1991, many groups
that had been minorities in the U.S.S.R. — like Latvians — were the majority in the new countries.
---The natural geography of the U.S.S.R. contained great contrasts — from the mountains of Kazakhstan
to the frozen plains of Siberia.
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LANGUAGE ARTS CONNECTION
In the U.S.S.R., as in many other countries, regional divisions contributed to differences
in language. There were four major language groups in the country, and many
smaller ones. While most of the population used Russian at least part of the time,
many also spoke other languages, like Ukrainian, Armenian, or Kazakh. What are
some different languages spoken by people in the United States?
---When the U.S.S.R. broke up in 1991, it created some unusual problems. Many people who considered
themselves Russian found that they were living in a different country. Map Skill: After Russia, which
of the 15 new nations was the largest?
RESEARCH ACTIVITY
The U.S.S.R was so big that each part of it could be divided into many smaller regions.
1.
Choose a new country in the U.S.S.R. that interests you.
2.
Make a list of that area's regions. Label the regions on your list as either physical
regions or human regions.
3.
Give an oral report about that area and its regions to the class. Explain how
knowing about that area's regions can help you understand it better.
2.
Moscow
A Densely Populated City The population of the U.S.S.R. was not evenly distributed. More than twothirds of the people lived in the European region. What regions of the United States are the most
densely populated?
29
From the Pages of countries of the World
Languages
Language is an important part of every culture. Language can unify people, but it can
also divide them. Often a "stranger" is identified by the way he or she speaks. It's
not likely that there will ever be just one language used everywhere on earth, but
think how many problems could be solved if people everywhere were able to speak
and understand the same language. Many people think that eventually, everyone on
earth will be able to use and understand basic English.
---This map shows the chief language groups and where they are most widely spoken. Almost half the
world's peoples speak Indo-European languages. This group originated among peoples living in the
area from northern India to Europe.
The world's people speak between 4,000 and 5,000 languages and dialects (local
variations of a language). About 845 of these languages are spoken in India. The
language spoken by the greatest number of people in the world is Mandarin
Chinese. English is spoken in more countries than any other language. All
languages change so long as people speak them. New words are added, others fall
out of use. In a few hundred years, a language can change greatly. A language that
is no longer spoken is called a dead language.
30
ALPHABETS
---An alphabet is a collection of letters or signs that stand for sounds in speech. Alphabets were developed from ancient picture-writing systems. The oldest letter is "0," unchanged in shape since it was
used by the Phoenicians over 3,000 years ago.
---Egyptian hieroglyphs or picture-signs are about 5,000 years old. The earliest signs represented
objects.
--- see picture on page 31
THE WORLD'S MAJOR LANGUAGES
Mandarin, or standardized northern Chinese, is spoken by more people than any other
language. English is the language spoken in the most countries (Australia, Canada,
the Caribbean, Ireland, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S.A.). English is also
widely used in parts of Africa and Asia. Hindi is the most widely spoken language
of India. Spanish and Portuguese are spoken in Latin America, as well as in Spain
and Portugal.
RESPONSE ACTIVITIES
1.
Compare Words and Places How might looking at a globe showing the word's
landforms help you understand why different languages formed?
2.
Informative: Write a History Choose a present-day language. Research its history, then tell the story of where that language began and how it became a modern
tongue.
3.
Geography: Draw a Map Make your own fantasy map showing language regions.
Include symbols showing how mountains, seas, or other obstacles divided off your
regions. If you like, label your map with made-up names.
31
CHAPTER 1
Chapter Review
SUMMARIZING THE MAIN IDEA
1.
Copy the chart below and fill in the missing information to compare how different
types of regions are defined.
--- see chart on page 32
VOCABULARY
2.
Using at least five of the following terms, write a letter to a geographer, explaining
why you are qualified to be his or her assistant.
atmosphere (p. 15)
biosphere (p. 15)
geography (p. 15)
region (p. 22)
Iandform (p. 22)
steppe (p . 23)
tundra (p. 23)
climate (p. 24)
savanna (p. 24)
REVIEWING THE FACTS
3.
What is the difference between the atmosphere 0 Name three ways physical regions
can be
and the biosphere?
4.
What is the geographer's job, and how is it accomplished?
5.
What is the difference between a thematic map and a reference map? Give some
examples of each.
6.
What is a region? Why do geographers divide the world into regions?
7.
Name three ways physical regions can be defined, and give examples of each.
8.
Define climate.
9.
Describe some of the unique features of the ocean floor.
10. Name three ways human regions can be defined, and give examples of each.
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SKILL REVIEW: Map Projections
11. What are the three map projections you learned about, and why are none of them
completely accurate?
12. If you were a sea captain, which map projection would you use?
GEOGRAPHY SKILLS
13. Look at the map of the ancient Inca roads on p. 17. The Inca Empire was a human
region. Why do you think it had the shape it did?
14. Name three physical and two human regions that the area you live in belongs to.
CRITICAL THINKING
15. Predict Describe what you think the world would be like if there were no oceans.
16. Cause and Effect Human regions are constantly changing. What do you think
would cause physical regions to change?
17. Problem Solving You are a geographer and must divide your school into regions,
both physical and human. How will you go about it?
WRITING: Citizenship and Economics
18. Many nations are arguing over who owns the sea. Should the oceans belong to
everyone? Or should they belong just to the nations whose coastlines border them?
Write a letter to the United Nations and express your opinion.
Activities
GEOGRAPHY/RESEARCH ACTIVITY
Many kinds of maps are mentioned in the chapter: temperature, navigational maps, and
so on. Do research to find out what other kinds of maps there are. Bring in copies
of different maps to share with the class.
CULTURE/ARTS ACTIVITY
Create a thematic map that reflects your personal or cultural heritage. This map can be a
reflection of your own life, or a representation of your ancestry.
Theme Project Check-In
As you begin your theme project, use information you learned in this chapter about the
things geographers study to understand places.

What kind of maps will best represent your two locations?

In what physical regions are these places located? What unique landforms, animals,
and vegetation do they have?

What is the climate in each place?

In what human regions are these places located?
Internet Option
Check the Internet Social Studies Center for ideas on how to extend your theme project beyond your
classroom.
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