Welcome to 8^th Grade World Geography

Ms. Asplund and Ms. Croone

E-mail:  gina.asplund@spps.org;    kirsten.croone@spps.org 

Phone Number:  651-293-8830

Expectations for students

·       Participate in class discussions

·       Participate and contribute to group work

·       Complete homework and class assignments

Daily required materials

·       a pen or pencil (sharpened before class)

·       Social Studies materials

·       your 3 ring binder including your planner

Course Description:

Students will actively engage in the work of a geographer by asking geographic questions and then acquiring, organizing, analyzing, and interpreting geographic information in order to answer geographic questions.

This course will use a regional approach to explore the 6 essential elements of Geography: Places and Regions, Physical Systems, Human Systems, Environments and Society, The Spatial World and Uses of Geography in Today’s Society. The content will incorporate a variety of scales – from local to global.  Classroom materials will include adopted instructional materials and supplementary printed and electronic resources.

Guiding Questions of Geography:

How do geographers organize information about the Earth?

Where are things located?

Why are they located there?

How does the environment influence human activities?

How do humans interact with and impact their environment?

What are the physical and human characteristics of places?

How does the movement of people affect place and culture?

How are places interconnected and how are those connections changing?

Standards and Benchmarks:

Essential Skills

·       The student will use maps, globes, geographic information systems and other

      sources of information to analyze the natures of places at a variety of scales.

Concepts of Location

·       The student will identify and locate major physical and cultural features that played an important role in the history of the United States.

·       The student will identify and locate major physical and cultural features that played an important role in the history of Minnesota.

Maps and Globes

• The student will use maps and globes to demonstrate specific and

increasingly complex geographic knowledge.

• The student will make and use maps to acquire, process, and report on the

spatial organization of people and places on Earth.

Physical Features and Processes

·       The student will identify physical characteristics of places and use this

knowledge to define regions, their relationships among regions, and their

patterns of change.

Interconnections

·       The student will give examples that demonstrate how people are connected

to each other and the environment.

·       The student will identify how technology made some parts of Minnesota more

valuable at particular times in history.

·       The student will describe how humans influence the environment and in turn

      are influenced by it.

·       The student will demonstrate how various regional frameworks are used to

      analyze the variation in culture and human occupation of the Earth’s surface.

Scope and Sequence

This course will use a regional approach and study the following thematic topics within each regional unit: physical and human systems, land use and resources, population and migration, industry and economic development.

Geographic Skills

Canada and US

Latin America

Africa South of the Sahara

Southwest Asia and North Africa

East Asia and Southeast Asia

Model United Nations

South Asia and Central Asia

Australia/Oceana

Content-based Instructional Practices (Habits of Thinking)

To think like a geographer students need these habits of thinking:

·       Recognize spatial patterns.

·       Use maps and other geographical tools (globes, atlases, tables, charts, graphs, documents) to acquire, analyze, organize and report information.

·       Use mental maps to organize and analyze information about people, places, and environments.

·       Apply geography to interpret the past, the present, and plan for the future.

·       Analyze and interpret information obtained from maps, aerial photographs, satellite produced images, and geographic information systems

·       Prepare various forms of maps, graphs, diagrams, table, or charts to organize and display geographic information