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Overview:
In this lesson, students will visit the Locator Booth exhibit in Xpedition Hall and consider conditions to find places' positions. Students will see how human and physical factors define eight South American hot spots. Students will learn new geographic terms and use context clues in their reading to decide which map has the information they need to complete an interactive activity.
Connections to the Curriculum:
Geography, reading
Connections to the National Geography Standards:
Standard 4: "The physical and human characteristics of places"
Time:
One hour
Materials Required:
Objectives:
Students will
- view images of different parts of South America;
- define terrain, population, and rainfall;
- select an appropriate map based on context clues;
- examine the human geography of South America;
- examine the physical geography of South America; and
- understand the relationships between factors such as terrain, population, animal life, and culture.
Geographic Skills:
Acquiring Geographic Information
Organizing Geographic Information
Analyzing Geographic Information
S u g g e s t e d P r o c e d u r e
Opening:
Explain to students that geography is more than learning about the capitals of states and countries or where borders are on a map. Different kinds of maps give us different types of information. The maps they will look at online will tell them about three different parts of the geography of South America. Have students examine an Xpeditions outline map of South America, which is a political map. Ask students to tell you what they see on that map. They may point out such items as the boundary lines, country names, a neighboring continent, the scale, and/or lines of latitude.
Ask students if they can tell by looking that map where the mountains are, how many people live in South America, or how much it rains there. They may have ideas or guesses, but the information is not displayed on these maps. Let students know that the maps they will see on the Internet will have information about the terrain, population, and rainfall. Write these words in three columns on the blackboard for the class.
Ask students if they have ever heard those words before, and what they think they mean. Listen to all suggestions, but let students know the actual definitions, which can be found online at Dictionary.com.
For each term, ask students to name some words that come to mind when they think about terrain, or the surface of the earth, such as rocky, flat, grassy, or mountainous. When they think of population or how many people live in an area, do they think of words like crowded, sparse, city, or ghost town? What about when they think of rainfall? Do words like rainy, dry, or flooded come to mind? Post the associated terms in the proper column on the board as students suggest them.
Ask students to listen for/look for words that fit into these categories when you do the online activity as a class.
Development:
Have students visit the Locator Booth. Begin by clicking on each of the buttons on the top of the map. Notice that each map represents the concepts that you have just discussed.
Ask students to use their print maps, or political maps, to mark the places you are about see photos of online. Follow the directions on the beginning of the exhibit (see below) to match the pictures to the places, before marking them on their own maps. Tell students to listen for clues in the words as they read, such as the word rainy or mountain, for the best map to use to help find their answers.
INSTRUCTIONS
- Pick a number to reveal a photograph of a mystery spot and the clues to its location.
- Activate the buttons at the top right to map continental characteristics.
- Compare map data with the clues at left.
- Click the red dot on the map that fits the description at left.
- Match each picture with its place. Then send a South American salutation!
Closing:
When students have found all of the places in the Locator Booth and marked them on their maps, ask them which words or images gave them hints. Answers may vary, but some responses might be the term craggy peaks in the first caption (terrain), rainy pampas in the fourth (rainfall), or fewer people in the seventh (population).
Suggested Student Assessment:
Write a postcard, using the function in step five of the instructions above, to send greetings from the place that seems like the most fun to visit. In the body of the greeting, have students mention at least one detail that they would not have known if they had not used the proper map. For example, "I am very glad that I came to the Amazon Rain Forest, but I think there are more plants here than people! It is not very populated. See you soon!"
Extending the Lesson:
Have students create cartograms based on the population of the areas in South America studied in this lesson. Cartograms can be created based on many types of demographic information.
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