| Title | Descriptor | Duration | Last Name | First Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Walk around the School: Mapping Places Near and Far | It is important for young children to practice location terms such as near/far and behind/in front of, to aid them in organizing information about their physical environments. | 1-2 class periods | Willey | Rebecca |
| As the Kids Come and Go: Mapping a Classroom | Even at an early age children can learn to use maps and other geographic tools. Use of maps increases their spatial perspectives of the world around them. | 2 class periods | Knowler | Kathy |
| Catch Me If You Can: Over, Under | Kindergarten students study skills and objectives that will prepare them for learning geography foundation skills that will be taught in Grades 1-3. This lesson builds basic vocabulary for use in geography. Students need to learn the relationship of directional vocabulary to geography. | 2 class periods | Cloyd | Sandra |
| In Case of Fire: Mapping Your Classroom | Fire Prevention Week offers a good opportunity to learn about making classroom maps to use as fire escape plans. Through reading nonfiction literature about fire safety, students can practice identifying facts. | 2 class periods | Cloyd | Sandra |
| Kid Maps: Reading and Creating Maps with Human Characteristics | Places have human characteristics as well as physical ones. Children will learn to recognize human characteristics on child created maps. | 1 class period | Knowler | Kathy |
| Me on the Map: Homes, Neighborhoods, and Communities | Young children are learning to orient themselves in terms of location. By starting with the world directly around them, they will begin to think more abstractly as they move out into their neighborhood, community, state, and country. | 1 class period | Willey | Rebecca |
| Recycle, Reduce, Reuse and Save a Tree: Ideas for Conserving Trees | In this lesson, children will discuss why trees are important, and how they can save trees around the school and at home. | 1 class period | Knowler | Kathy |
| Sticks, Stones, Sinews and Stuff: How Early People Used the Environment to Meet Basic Needs | In order to survive, early people needed to know about the world around them. They needed to know where to find plants with edible fruits, nuts, and berries, when cacti blossomed and bore fruit, how to build shelter, make clothing, hunt and fish, make tools and weapons ? all by using the resources around them. | 2-4 class periods | Martinez | Sandy |
| The Silly States: Where is Your State and City? | Determining the location of one's own state and city is an exciting discovery for students. This skill brings geography to a personal level for students of kindergarten through second grade. | 1 class period | Cloyd | Sandra |
| Through the Forest and Home Again: Maps Help Us Find Our Ways | It is important for young children to build spatial vocabulary as they begin to orient themselves to the classroom and their surroundings. Using literature, young children will begin to think of settings in terms of maps. | 1-2 class periods | Willey | Rebecca |
| Where Am I? Determining Relative Location | Children at this age begin to understand relative location and the terms to describe it. This lesson addresses that readiness. | 2 class periods | Lightfoot | Betty |
| Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Map for Me: An Original Story | Elementary students need to build a foundation for understanding the 5 Themes of Geography. To help them build that foundation, teachers must find fiction and non-fiction literature in order to bring the themes to the students’ levels of understanding. Reading engaging books about pirates, treasures, and mapmaking is an easy way to hook kids into geography. | 2-4 class periods | Martinez | Sandy |
| Title | Descriptor | Duration | Last Name | First Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Walk around the School: Mapping Places Near and Far | It is important for young children to practice location terms such as near/far and behind/in front of, to aid them in organizing information about their physical environments. | 1-2 class periods | Willey | Rebecca |
| As the Kids Come and Go: Mapping a Classroom | Even at an early age children can learn to use maps and other geographic tools. Use of maps increases their spatial perspectives of the world around them. | 2 class periods | Knowler | Kathy |
| I Am a Rock, I Am an Island: Describing Landforms and Bodies of Water | Young children need to develop their knowledge of the Earth's physical features. With a full understanding of basic landforms and bodies of water, they will be well prepared for further geography study (places and regions and physical systems). This lesson integrates movement activity, drawing, and writing while building on the children's growing linguistic abilities. | 2 class periods | Letofsky | Julie |
| Kid Maps: Reading and Creating Maps with Human Characteristics | Places have human characteristics as well as physical ones. Children will learn to recognize human characteristics on child created maps. | 1 class period | Knowler | Kathy |
| Me on the Map: Homes, Neighborhoods, and Communities | Young children are learning to orient themselves in terms of location. By starting with the world directly around them, they will begin to think more abstractly as they move out into their neighborhood, community, state, and country. | 1 class period | Willey | Rebecca |
| Put Me in My Place: Using Alphanumeric Grids to Locate Places | Using maps to acquire and report information is an essential geography skill. Working with alphanumeric grids helps young children develop spatial perspective with maps and gives them confidence in answering the geography question, "What is this location?" They will be well prepared for later work with more complex latitude/longitude grids. | 2 class periods | Letofsky | Julie |
| Recycle, Reduce, Reuse and Save a Tree: Ideas for Conserving Trees | In this lesson, children will discuss why trees are important, and how they can save trees around the school and at home. | 1 class period | Knowler | Kathy |
| Sticks, Stones, Sinews and Stuff: How Early People Used the Environment to Meet Basic Needs | In order to survive, early people needed to know about the world around them. They needed to know where to find plants with edible fruits, nuts, and berries, when cacti blossomed and bore fruit, how to build shelter, make clothing, hunt and fish, make tools and weapons ? all by using the resources around them. | 2-4 class periods | Martinez | Sandy |
| The Silly States: Where is Your State and City? | Determining the location of one's own state and city is an exciting discovery for students. This skill brings geography to a personal level for students of kindergarten through second grade. | 1 class period | Cloyd | Sandra |
| Through the Forest and Home Again: Maps Help Us Find Our Ways | It is important for young children to build spatial vocabulary as they begin to orient themselves to the classroom and their surroundings. Using literature, young children will begin to think of settings in terms of maps. | 1-2 class periods | Willey | Rebecca |
| Water, Water Everywhere: Water Conservation for Young Children | The interdependence of people and the earth's resources is an important geography concept. By focusing on the ways people use water, young children can understand the role of this resource in daily life and their own responsibilities for practicing water conservation. | 1-2 class periods | Letofsky | Julie |
| Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Map for Me: An Original Story | Elementary students need to build a foundation for understanding the 5 Themes of Geography. To help them build that foundation, teachers must find fiction and non-fiction literature in order to bring the themes to the students’ levels of understanding. Reading engaging books about pirates, treasures, and mapmaking is an easy way to hook kids into geography. | 2-4 class periods | Martinez | Sandy |
| Title | Descriptor | Duration | Last Name | First Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| As the Kids Come and Go: Mapping a Classroom | Even at an early age children can learn to use maps and other geographic tools. Use of maps increases their spatial perspectives of the world around them. | 2 class periods | Knowler | Kathy |
| How Do I Get There: Planning a Safe Route to School | Children need to practice their spatial skills as they begin to move from concrete to abstract representations. This lesson will guide them in that developmental stage. In addition, they will begin to develop their geographic observation skills using a familiar location--their neighborhood! | 2 class periods | Sepp | Patty |
| If These Walls Could Talk: Seeing a Culture Through Human Features | There are many ways to introduce young students to culture. Some are obvious; some are not. Teaching students the importance of human features regarding a culture gives them an opportunity to see the factors that shaped it. Walls that stand for years can be a reflection of these cultures, their histories, values, and meaning to a group of people. | 2-3 class periods | Norton | Mimi |
| Kid Maps: Reading and Creating Maps with Human Characteristics | Places have human characteristics as well as physical ones. Children will learn to recognize human characteristics on child created maps. | 1 class period | Knowler | Kathy |
| Mountain Magic: Identifying the Basic Physical Characteristics of Mountains | Due to improvements in technology and mass globalization, our students live in a smaller world today. It is imperative that students know about the natural characteristics of the earth to bring about a greater understanding of the planet as a whole. | 2 class periods | Phillips | Judy |
| Nina Bonita: Culture and Beauty | The primary grades are a fertile environment for planting the seeds of acceptance and tolerance. Fostering curiosity and understanding about other cultures opens the door to questions and expressions of viewpoints which will promote respect for the diversity of cultures that comprise American classrooms today. Nina Bonita gives a natural opening to discussion of the beautiful shades on the color wheel in classrooms. | 1-2 class periods | Norton | Mimi |
| Put Me in My Place: Using Alphanumeric Grids to Locate Places | Using maps to acquire and report information is an essential geography skill. Working with alphanumeric grids helps young children develop spatial perspective with maps and gives them confidence in answering the geography question, "What is this location?" They will be well prepared for later work with more complex latitude/longitude grids. | 2 class periods | Letofsky | Julie |
| Recycle, Reduce, Reuse and Save a Tree: Ideas for Conserving Trees | In this lesson, children will discuss why trees are important, and how they can save trees around the school and at home. | 1 class period | Knowler | Kathy |
| Sticks, Stones, Sinews and Stuff: How Early People Used the Environment to Meet Basic Needs | In order to survive, early people needed to know about the world around them. They needed to know where to find plants with edible fruits, nuts, and berries, when cacti blossomed and bore fruit, how to build shelter, make clothing, hunt and fish, make tools and weapons ? all by using the resources around them. | 2-4 class periods | Martinez | Sandy |
| The Silly States: Where is Your State and City? | Determining the location of one's own state and city is an exciting discovery for students. This skill brings geography to a personal level for students of kindergarten through second grade. | 1 class period | Cloyd | Sandra |
| Through Time: Change In Sedona | Places change over time; that change is often the result of interactions between the environment and the humans inhabiting a place. The colorful pictures and rich stories of children's literature can help young children understand these changes in places near and far. | 2 class periods | Letofsky | Julie |
| TOADS: An Introduction to Map Reading | Map skills are basic to geographic understanding. Students need a system to analyze and evaluate maps. TOADS provides a standard for such assessment and can be applied to commercial maps used in the classroom, as well as to maps generated by students. | 1 class period | Ekiss | Gale |
| Water, Water Everywhere: Water Conservation for Young Children | The interdependence of people and the earth's resources is an important geography concept. By focusing on the ways people use water, young children can understand the role of this resource in daily life and their own responsibilities for practicing water conservation. | 1-2 class periods | Letofsky | Julie |
| Which Way is Up? The Tree of Life in Africa | This is the Tree by Miriam Moss is a story about how the wildlife of Africa depend on the ancient baobab tree. Virtually every part of the baobab tree is important to animals, birds, insects, or humans. This unique tree provides shelter, food, and medicine, and many other things. | 2 class periods | Norton | Mimi |
| Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Map for Me: An Original Story | Elementary students need to build a foundation for understanding the 5 Themes of Geography. To help them build that foundation, teachers must find fiction and non-fiction literature in order to bring the themes to the students’ levels of understanding. Reading engaging books about pirates, treasures, and mapmaking is an easy way to hook kids into geography. | 2-4 class periods | Martinez | Sandy |
| Title | Descriptor | Duration | Last Name | First Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How Do I Get There: Planning a Safe Route to School | Children need to practice their spatial skills as they begin to move from concrete to abstract representations. This lesson will guide them in that developmental stage. In addition, they will begin to develop their geographic observation skills using a familiar location--their neighborhood! | 2 class periods | Sepp | Patty |
| If These Walls Could Talk: Seeing a Culture Through Human Features | There are many ways to introduce young students to culture. Some are obvious; some are not. Teaching students the importance of human features regarding a culture gives them an opportunity to see the factors that shaped it. Walls that stand for years can be a reflection of these cultures, their histories, values, and meaning to a group of people. | 2-3 class periods | Norton | Mimi |
| Leapin' Landmarks: Locating 10 Man-made Landmarks Around the World | This lesson addresses children's curiosity about some of the outstanding man-made landmarks of the world. The activity that follows is a hook to entice students to explore the geographical themes of location and place through literature. | 2-3 class periods | Phillips | Judy |
| Lights On! Lights Off! Exploring Human Settlement | Our country has an uneven population distribution. Using a nighttime map, students will examine where most of the people in the United States live. They will recognize the geographic features that affect this settlement. | 2 class periods | Phillips | Judy |
| Mountain Magic: Identifying the Basic Physical Characteristics of Mountains | Due to improvements in technology and mass globalization, our students live in a smaller world today. It is imperative that students know about the natural characteristics of the earth to bring about a greater understanding of the planet as a whole. | 2 class periods | Phillips | Judy |
| Nina Bonita: Culture and Beauty | The primary grades are a fertile environment for planting the seeds of acceptance and tolerance. Fostering curiosity and understanding about other cultures opens the door to questions and expressions of viewpoints which will promote respect for the diversity of cultures that comprise American classrooms today. Nina Bonita gives a natural opening to discussion of the beautiful shades on the color wheel in classrooms. | 1-2 class periods | Norton | Mimi |
| Sticks, Stones, Sinews and Stuff: How Early People Used the Environment to Meet Basic Needs | In order to survive, early people needed to know about the world around them. They needed to know where to find plants with edible fruits, nuts, and berries, when cacti blossomed and bore fruit, how to build shelter, make clothing, hunt and fish, make tools and weapons ? all by using the resources around them. | 2-4 class periods | Martinez | Sandy |
| Through Time: Change In Sedona | Places change over time; that change is often the result of interactions between the environment and the humans inhabiting a place. The colorful pictures and rich stories of children's literature can help young children understand these changes in places near and far. | 2 class periods | Letofsky | Julie |
| TOADS: An Introduction to Map Reading | Map skills are basic to geographic understanding. Students need a system to analyze and evaluate maps. TOADS provides a standard for such assessment and can be applied to commercial maps used in the classroom, as well as to maps generated by students. | 1 class period | Ekiss | Gale |
| Where in the Neighborhood is Ramona Quimby?: Measuring Distance on a Map | Modified from “The World of Beverly Cleary” (http://www.beverlycleary.com), this lesson addresses the need for children to become familiar with maps. It will give them practice in using map elements to organize information about people, places, and environments. | 1 class period | Phillips | Judy |
| Which Way is Up? The Tree of Life in Africa | This is the Tree by Miriam Moss is a story about how the wildlife of Africa depend on the ancient baobab tree. Virtually every part of the baobab tree is important to animals, birds, insects, or humans. This unique tree provides shelter, food, and medicine, and many other things. | 2 class periods | Norton | Mimi |
| Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Map for Me: An Original Story | Elementary students need to build a foundation for understanding the 5 Themes of Geography. To help them build that foundation, teachers must find fiction and non-fiction literature in order to bring the themes to the students’ levels of understanding. Reading engaging books about pirates, treasures, and mapmaking is an easy way to hook kids into geography. | 2-4 class periods | Martinez | Sandy |
| Title | Descriptor | Duration | Last Name | First Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A River Through Time | The Akimel O'odham (Pima Indians) have for centuries resided along the Gila River in central Arizona. They were historically farmers, using the waters of the Gila to irrigate their crops. Through the use of primary source material, students will investigate the effects that dam construction on the Gila River has had on the lifestyle of the Pima Indians. | 2 class periods | Warren | Carol |
| A River, Dead or Alive: Native Americans and European Colonists' Treatment of a River | The North American continent is a place of rich and abundant natural resources. The Native Americans, who were the first humans on the continent, had a very different philosophy than the European Colonists of how to live with and use these resources. | 2 class periods | Chambers | Jane |
| But We Need More, Where Will It Come From? | Natural resources are part of everyone's daily life. Can we use as much as we want whenever we want? What will happen when there are no resources left? | 1-2 class periods | Post | Barbara |
| Desert Views—First Impressions: Travelers on the Gila Trail | Students will read about and draw desert plants and animals as described by 19th century travelers crossing the American Southwest. | 1-2 class periods | Warren | Carol |
| How the West was One: A Layered-Look Book | The West has been the inspiration for American migrations since the 1800s. This large region of the United States is important for its land, resources, culture, economy, transportation networks, and history. Therefore, reading about Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, California, Alaska, and Hawaii informs the student about one of our five regions of the United States. | 1 class periods | Jenkins | Sara |
| It's Happening Where?: Find the Absolute and Relative Locations of News Articles | News articles in local papers come from all parts of the country and the world. It is important to find out the absolute and relative location of the articles, as well as the questions the article answers. | 2 class periods | Chambers | Jane |
| Let’s Travel: Travel Brochures for Arizona | Travel brochures provide interesting and valuable information about geographic landmarks. With a little research and a lot of creativity, students can produce their own travel brochures of any Arizona landmark of interest. | 3 class periods | Wood | Grace |
| Maize to Maquiladoras: Movement from Mexico to Arizona | Through the various periods of Arizona history, there has been movement of people, goods, and ideas north from Mexico. Students will trace this movement through history and map its flow on a map of Mexico and the American Southwest | 2 class periods | Warren | Carol |
| Map Your State: Regions of Arizona | Arizona's three regions (desert, plateau, and mountain) are home to a variety of plants and animals. In order to learn about Arizona, it is important that students become acquainted with the three regions. | 2 class periods | Wood | Grace |
| Mapping Roxaboxen | Roxaboxen is an imaginary town built by children in early 20th century Yuma, Arizona. After reading about Roxaboxen, students can recall information by drawing a map of the imaginary town and writing about make-believe play of their own. | 2 class periods | Warren | Carol |
| Paint My Counties: Mapcoloring the Counties of Arizona. | In 1983, Arizona went from 14 counties to 15 with the addition of La Paz County. Mapcoloring is connected to graph theory in mathematics. Combining these geography facts with math skills gives students a chance to use logic to learn the counties. | 2 class periods | Jenkins | Sara |
| Read the USA: Passport to Regions | Children's literature provides a wealth of information on United States life and regions, both past and present. By using the Five Themes of Geography, students will increase their geographic knowledge, understanding, and enjoyment of any book. | 1-2 class periods | Jenkins | Sara |
| Rivers that Flow from the Continental Divide: The Journey of Two Rivers | Students often do not understand that rivers flow in a logical path from a higher elevation to a lower one. In fact many students do not believe that a river can flow north because they believe that north equals UP. Therefore, students need instruction in this basic concept: water originates at a source and flows to a lower level of elevation, and that usually it joins another body of water. | 3 class periods | Charlson | Andree |
| So That Desert Can Blossom Like A Rose | By reading the story, The Year of the Ranch, students will understand that some families moved to the desert around Yuma, Arizona to farm the land. They will learn that these farmers modified their environment by using the waters of the Colorado and Gila Rivers to irrigate their crops. | 1-2 class periods | Warren | Carol |
| Take Me to the River: The Mojave Indians and the Colorado | The descendants of the Ahamacave or Mojave Indians have lived along the Colorado River for thousands of years. The natural environment of the Colorado River changed with the completion of Hoover Dam in 1931. Students will read an article form the Heard Museum, then compare and contrast living conditions before and after the dam. | 1 class period | Jenkins | Sara |
| The Birth of a Rocky Mountain City and Railroad: Georgetown and the Loop Railroad | This lesson demonstrates how and why a city evolves. It is the story of the historic city of Georgetown, located on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains. | 1 class period | Charlson | Andree |
| The Cherokee: Trail Where They Cried | The forced travel of the Cherokee Nation of over a thousand miles was one of the saddest episodes in U.S. history. Approximately 4000 Cherokee died as a result of their removal from their land. The route they traversed and the journey itself became known as "The Trail of Tears" or, as a direct translation from Cherokee, "The Trail Where They Cried" ("Nunna daul Tsuny"). | 2 class period | Jenkins | Sara |
| The Desert is Theirs: Adapting to Our Environment | Using the book The Desert is Theirs by Byrd Baylor, students will come to understand how humans and animals adapt to their environments. After reading the book and writing their own stories, students will understand how humans and animals, both present and ancient, have adapted to their environments. | 3 class periods | Wood | Grace |
| The Gift of Water: Modifying Our Environment | Water is a natural resource important to people, plants, and animals. How have we used this natural resource? How have we adapted to our environment? How have we modified the environment to meet our needs? | 1 class period | Post | Barbara |
| The Human Face of Flagstaff | This lesson describes the human features of Flagstaff, and how humans have interacted with the natural environment to make Flagstaff the unique place that it is. | 3 class periods | Hutchinson | Patricia |
| The Mountain Community: Why Flagstaff? | Flagstaff has sheltered Native Americans, mountain men, and early settlers. It has become home to ranchers, herders and loggers, as well as scientists and educators. A steady tourist industry has developed in the past twenty years. What is it about the physical environment that has provided such continual interest and migration? | 2 class periods | Hutchinson | Patricia |
| This Place is Just like the Other | The Southwest region of the U.S. is made up of the states of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona. There are many landforms, climates, and cultures in this region that are unique to this area. The geographic features of the Southwest include desert, plains, plateaus, and mountains. The Grand Canyon, the Great Plains, and the Painted Desert are found in this region. The economy depends on its natural resources to draw visitors, but the region also has to draw on the natural resources for other purposes. For example, the region relies heavily on water, often a scarce resource, to survive. The Southwest also has a strong identity with its heritage of Spanish, Mexican, and Native American cultures. | 2 class periods | Hutchinson | Patricia |
| Tooling Around Arizona: Reading Arizona Maps | Maps provide us with information about the land around us?including our neighborhood, city, state, country, and world. Maps have a special language all their own. Map language includes numbers, names, and symbols. These names, numbers, and symbols all represent real things that are usually too big to put on a piece of paper. | 1-3 class periods | Post | Barbara |
| Weaving a Story of Cooperation: The Goat in the Rug | Navajo weaving is a treasured art. The book, The Goat in the Rug, explains the process of rug making from fleece to rug from the point of view of a goat. Children experience the process of weaving and learn of its importance in the environment and culture of the Navajo. | 1-2 class periods | Jenkins | Sara |
| Westward Ho: the Difficulties of Emigrants Moving West | After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and Lewis and Clark's Expedition to explore this unknown land in 1804 through 1806, large numbers of people moved west to take advantage of new opportunities and rich, cheap farmland. These emigrants experienced tremendous difficulties along the route to Oregon. | 2-3 class periods | Chambers | Jane |
| What’s Holding Up the Water | Dams are structures that control the flow of water. The Department of Reclamation often oversees construction of dams. One of the first major projects completed by the Department was Roosevelt Dam in Arizona. This lesson provides students background information | 1-3 class periods | Post | Barbara |
| Title | Descriptor | Duration | Last Name | First Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Country’s Shape Is More Than Its Borders: Population Pyramids | Demographics is the study of population characteristics. Population pyramids examine the age and gender characteristics of a country’s population. Understanding how to read and interpret a population pyramid will give students the opportunity to examine a country’s past, present, and implications for the future through its population. | 1-2 class periods | Rees | Dennis |
| A Glimpse of Growth: Stories of Phoenix | Phoenix, Arizona, is the 6th largest city in the United States today. Phoenix has grown from a small agricultural community to a huge metropolitan area of over 1.3 million people in less than 100 years. This phenomenon of rural to urban migration and resulting settlement expansion, known as urbanization, is an increasing global trend. | 2-3 class period | Sepp | Patty |
| A Region In My Own Backyard | Geographers use a vegetation plot to examine an area, log
the
features found there, and analyze their roles in the ecosystem. The
problem
encountered in an urban environment is that the dominant features of an
inner
city school are cement and asphalt. However, students can still examine
how
a physical landscape can change in a very small ecosystem by examining
a
campus vegetation plot over several seasons.
This lesson can be repeated three times over the course of a school year to allow the students to see changes in the region. |
3-4 class periods | Halverson | John |
| Aegean Adaptability: Geography and the Ancient Greeks | The early Greeks had limited resources and adapted to their natural environment. Living on an infertile, rugged, mountainous land, which offered few natural resources, the Greeks took to the sea. They became fishers, sailors, and merchants of the sea, trading with civilizations as far away as Egypt. | 2 class periods | Wiens | Cheryl |
| African Regions and their Folk Tales | The geographical concept of regions and how and why they change is one that middle school students often find difficult to understand. The second largest continent, Africa, has several regions, each with distinct natural and human characteristics. | 3-4 class periods | Wiens | Cheryl |
| Balkan Basics | The Balkan Republics are a hot spot in the world affecting the United States and other countries. Within the last decade the Balkan Republics have had much violence. United States peacekeeping troops are still in this area today. Students should be aware of this hot spot and how it may affect their lives. | 3 class period | Stout | Barbara |
| Blast It: Learning about Copper | Of all the 50 states, Arizona is the leading state in copper production and is known as the “Copper State". The copper industry is important to Arizona's economy, employing thousands of people and bringing in billions of dollars. What has created such vast amounts of this mineral deposit in Arizona and how is it discovered are the topics of this lesson. | 2 class periods | Sepp | Patty |
| Create A City: An Urban Planning Exercise | Arizona will continue to grow. According to the last census, the population increased from 3,665.228 people in April of 1990 to 5,130,632 people in April of 2000. This is a 40 percent change in our population. Even though it is inevitable that growth will occur, growth does not always occur in a planned manner. Therefore, it is the concern of informed citizens that our future growth be planned in a manner that helps humans, preserves the environment, and maintains a quality of life for all. | 3 class periods | Ekiss | Gale |
| Deforestation | Everything humans do, both intentional and unintentional, affects the natural systems in which we live. We frequently try to modify our environment in an attempt to improve our lives in various ways. While the modifications may benefit some, rarely do they benefit all. This most often results in a debate as to how beneficial or detrimental the modifications are. | 1-3 class periods | Stelten | Kathy |
| Desertification: Cause and Effect | The desert environments around the world are expanding every day due to both natural causes such as drought, wind, erosion, and evaporation, as well as human causes such as overgrazing, poor conservation practices, and lack of crop rotation. This process of the desert becoming larger is called desertification and is threatening the Sahel in Northwest Africa. | 4-5 class periods | Stout | Barbara |
| Don't Just Escape A Problem, Shape A Solution: An NBA Star's Efforts to Fight Ethnic Hatred | Students will read and react to an article about Vlade Divac, an NBA star with the Sacramento King's. Mr. Divac's homeland is Yugoslavia, which has a long history of ethnic hatred and war. This article profiles his efforts to aid children who have been victimized by war. | 1-2 class periods | Martin | Barbara |
| Four Corners Hantavirus: Mapping Geography and Health | Geography helps doctors learn about many diseases. A number of factors influence how researchers connect geography to a disease, such as areas of historical occurrence, time of year, vector habitat availability, and incidence of human exposure. For example, mapping cases of cholera in London helped Dr. Snow connect cholera with water contamination. Malaria affects people where mosquito vectors are able to have a blood meal and where there is standing water for breeding. Another example is Hantavirus. Incidences of the Hantavirus are infrequent, but an outbreak took place in 1993. Mapping was a first step in understanding the Hantavirus disease. | 1-2 class periods | Vaagen Dorn |
Crystal Ronald |
| From Around the Corner to Around the World: How Technology Helps in the Spread of a Product | All great things must start small. How does a company get started with one small store and become an icon recognized worldwide? The location of economic activities is affected by changes in technology, transportation, communications and resources. | 1-2 class periods | Stelten | Kathy |
| Get On the Track: Migration - An African-American Adventure During WW l | Using literature, students will explore the push/pull factors that influenced the South to North migration of African-Americans during WWI. | 2-3 class periods | Nice | Sheila |
| Grand Canyon: So What’s the Attraction? | Many people hold the Grand Canyon as their primary image of Arizona. As one of the seven natural wonders of the world, the Grand Canyon attracts many people to the region. This image impacts the tourist industry, as well as other industries in Arizona. | 1 class period | Stelten | Kathy |
| Great Rivers of Great Civilizations | River Systems had a great impact on early civilizations. The Ancient Egyptians were able to predict the annual flooding of the Nile River, and they developed a farming economy based on it to become one of the world's first nations. The Fertile Crescent contained the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The inhabitants of India and China withstood the unpredictable flooding of the Indus River and the Huang He River, and their cultures have remained to this day. | 2 class periods | Valenzuela | Diane |
| Is There a Map in That Story | Literature provides our imaginations with a variety of settings from isolated Pacific islands to urban cityscapes. As we read, we are building mental pictures of the setting that are called mental maps. This activity uses a child’s listening skills to create a mental map of a story’s setting. | 1-2 class periods | Halverson | John |
| It's Not a Ford...It's a Fjord! Learning Landforms and Bodies of Water through Word Association | Very often elementary students lack knowledge of basic geography vocabulary terms associated with landforms and bodies of water. This lesson, which can be done throughout the school year, provides a method for students to become familiar with geographical terms as they appear in their geography studies. | 2 class periods | Martin | Barbara |
| Jerusalem: A Holy City | The ancient city of Jerusalem is still a very important city in today's world. Why has Jerusalem remained one of the most visited and revered cities? It is because three major religions consider Jerusalem to be a holy city. | 1 class period | Ekiss | Gale |
| Letter from a Leader | The study of ancient civilizations is a fascinating learning experience for students. They are naturally curious about the history, culture, and accomplishments of past cultures. In this lesson students share their knowledge of an ancient civilization by writing a letter from a leader of one of the cultures. | 1-5 class periods | Rees | Dennis |
| Name That Place: Cultural Place Names in the United States | Place names can lead to an understanding about the people who settled in different areas of the United States. This lesson will help students understand word origin and place names in the United States, thus gaining an understanding of the people who lived there. | 2 class periods | Nice | Sheila |
| Over and Through: Physical Geography Terms | Understanding what physical geographic features are and how they look on the landscape can assist students in understanding the characteristics and purposes of physical maps. | 1-2 class periods | Valenzuela | Diana |
| S.T.A.R. I.T. Simplify The Article's Really Important Topic: Teaching the 5 W's Using The 5 Themes of Geography | This lesson is intended for those students who have prior knowledge of the Five Themes of Geography. Students will learn a technique that helps them focus on the important details of an article, which will help them better understand the main idea. | 1 class period | Martin | Barbara |
| The Amazing Journey of Edgar the Eagle | Most students know a few facts about a state, nation, or region. These facts are generally limited to the location of something. Students need to know more, such as the significance of a landmark, the economic activities that take place there, or what that place looks like. If this can be done, students will gain a better appreciation of the complexity of our world. | 3-5 class periods | Rees | Dennis |
| The Impact of the European Union | From its post World War II beginnings, the European Union has evolved from the European Economic Community to a vital 15 member trade organization and solid vehicle for socio-political cooperation. The E.U. has become a dynamic force to be reckoned with in the arena of international trade and global politics, and as such, merits closer examination. It is essential that Americans understand the significant role this organization plays in unifiying and strengthening the nations of Europe, as well as the ramifications, the EU poses for the rest of the world. | 2-3 class periods | Stout | Barbara |
| The Silk Road: An Ancient Internet | For nearly 1500 years, a network of trade routes connected Asia with Europe. Over these routes traveled a myriad of goods, ideas, technologies, and cultures, much like on today's Internet. So valuable was the Silk Road that it was fought over by the Chinese, Turks, Mongols, and various nomadic tribes. | 1-2 class periods | Rees | Dennis |
| Three Gorges Dam | There is a delicate balance between humans and the natural systems in which they interact. Humans often change their natural environment in an attempt to "improve" it. Sometimes it does increase the environment's ability to support the humans. However, sometimes it decreases the environment's ability to do so. | 2-3 class periods | Stelten | Kathy |
| Use Dr. Seuss’s Lorax to Explore Environmental Issues | Literature is a rich source of geographic information and concepts. Integrating the two is a painless way to reinforce many skills and concepts. Using The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, students will explore the concept of resource consumption and how people can make wiser use of resources. | 1-2 class periods | Rees | Dennis |
| Welcome to My World: Letter from Syria | In many countries of the world today, a person's role and status is determined by culture and gender. Because American students live in an open society that stresses civil rights and equal opportunities for all its citizens, they may not realize that for people in some countries the situation is very different. | 1-2 class periods | Martin | Barbara |
| Wetlands: Why Are They Endangered? | The wetlands are the "lifeblood of our planet" and must be preserved for the future of animals, plants, and humans. It is important for students to read current factual information about the plight of this endangered ecosystem. By examining the critical role that wetlands serve in the delicate balance of Earth's interdependent physical systems, we appreciate the crucial need to conserve and protect them. | 3 class periods | Stout | Barbara |
| What a Map | Maps are geographical representations. They can provide information about a place, but no map can show everything. Therefore, there is a need for many different types of maps. | 2 class periods 3SS-E4 |
Valenzuela | Diane |
| What Are All the Lights? U.S. Population | Our country has an uneven population distribution. Using a nighttime map, students will examine where most of the people in the United States live based on the amount of lights visible at night around the country. They will recognize the geographic features that affect this settlement. | 2 class periods | Nice | Sheila |
| When Nature Strikes: Natural Hazards Safety Booklet | Physical systems often affect human systems. This is especially evident when the impact of natural disasters on humans is observed. It is important for students to be aware of the dangers of environmental hazards such as flash floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Since these disasters often strike with little warning, students who know what to do in the face of such dangers, will be more likely to avoid property damage and, most importantly, personal injury. | 3 class periods | Williams | Karen |
| Where Did My Lunch Come From?: Many of the foods that we eat come from different regions of the United States | The United States is comprised of five regions: the West, Southwest, Midwest, Southeast, and Northeast. The foods that we eat everyday come from many of these regional locations including: orange juice from Florida citrus groves, beef from Texas ranches, milk from Wisconsin dairies, bread from Nebraska grain fields, and avocados from sunny California. These regional specialties are transported cross-country to grace American dinner tables with a variety of menu choices. In many cases, agricultural products and food processing industries help to define the economic "flavor" of U.S. regions and help to establish the trade relationships between them. It is important for students to understand that the interdependent nature of U.S. regions helps to create a stronger overall economy. | 3 class periods | Chambers | Jane |
| Where is the Trail? The Journey of Lewis and Clark | In May of 1804, Lewis and Clark set out on an adventure of exploring unknown territory called the Louisiana Purchase. Students will comprehend the vast undertakings of this Lewis and Clark expedition. | 2-3 class periods | Nice | Sheila |
| Who’s a Noodlehead? | The human characteristics of places around the world form a cultural mosaic. Looking at differences in cultures is illuminating because we are reminded of our human commonalities. One way to look at differences and similarities in our world's cultural mosaic is through folk tales. | 3 class periods | Wiens | Cheryl |