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Overview:
Students will examine the influence of rivers on the populations of Asia. Using the Ganges, Yangtze, and Mekong as primary examples of Asian rivers, students will consider the immediate influence of the rivers in the lives of the people who live along them, as well as the larger influence of the rivers on the regions in which they exist.
This lesson is one in a series developed in collaboration with The Asia Society, with support from the Freeman Foundation, highlighting the geography and culture of Asia and its people.
Connections to the Curriculum:
Geography, social studies, art
Connections to the National Geography Standards:
Standard 1: "How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools and technologies to acquire, process and report information"
Standard 3: "How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places and environments on Earth's surface"
Standard 4: "The physical and human characteristics of places"
Standard 14: "How human actions modify the physical environment"
Standard 15: "How physical systems affect human systems"
Time:
Two hours
Materials Required:
Objectives:
Students will
- identify characteristics of river life in Asia;
- define geographic feature terms associated with rivers; and
- create a diorama of river life.
Geographic Skills:
Acquiring Geographic Information
Organizing Geographic Information
Answering Geographic Questions
Analyzing Geographic Information
S u g g e s t e d P r o c e d u r e
Opening:
Introduce the idea of life on a river by asking students to list stories that take place on a river. Tell them that you are going to read one story which takes place on a river: The Story About Ping. Explain that Ping is a duck that lives on a riverboat and the story is about an adventure he has. Tell students that as they listen to the story, they should focus on what life on a river is like in Asia.
After you have finished reading the story, have students list the characteristics of river life. Then ask students to imagine living on a river. Ask them what the advantages and disadvantages are of living along a river. Record their responses for comparison at a later date.
Development:
Explain to students that they will be looking at some artwork from Asia. Show the students where Asia is found on a globe. Show the students several pieces of artwork (found in the Related Links section below) that depict river life in Asia. Ask the students:
- What do these pictures have in common?
- How are they different?
- Are there any people in these pictures?
- What is happening in these pictures?
- What do these pictures tell you about river life in Asia?
Tell students that artwork, or pictures, sometimes describe an important part of the artist's life. Ask what they think might have been important to the artists who created these pictures.
Explain to students that they are going to learn more about the places where the artists were from. Guide the students through an examination of a physical map of Asia and identify the Ganges, Yangtze, and Mekong Rivers. Ask students to find the source (or beginning) of each of the three rivers and then trace their paths to the mouths (where the river feeds into a body of water) on a map of Asia.
As the maps are examined, review the related vocabulary including source, tributary, mouth, port, and delta. Ask the students what the three rivers have in common.
If your students can read independently, divide them into groups of three. If your students are not yet readers, complete the following activity as a whole group and explore the photo galleries from each of the reference Web sites. Using the National Geographic MapMachine Student Edition, have students locate one of the rivers on the map. Each group of students should locate at least one key area along the course of each river. Have the students note the landscape and the region surrounding that part of the river. Have the students reflect on the geographical features and population of the area.
Then, have students explore the Web sites on the "Life on the Rivers of Asia" organizer that provide visual images of life along the river. As students work, they should look for ways in which the rivers affect people and the ways in which people affect the rivers. Students should record their observations on the organizer. Observations should include the daily lives of people—what their homes look like, how their occupations may depend on the river, what they eat, their transportation, and their trade. Students should also consider how the people use the river as a resource. Additionally, they should note ways in which people's use of the river is affecting it.
Closing:
Have students share their observations during a class discussion.
Suggested Student Assessment:
Explain to students that they will be creating a diorama of life along a river near where they live. Ask them to list words which describe the river (large, wide, deep, rapid, shallow, polluted, fresh, etc.). Ask the students to think about what it would be like to live on the river. Have the students consider what their home would be like (a boat, a house on the riverbank, etc.), what recreational activities they would participate in (fishing, swimming, boating, snorkeling, etc.) and how they could provide for their family (live off the land, find a job on the river, etc.).
Give each student one square sheet of paper. Have them fold the paper in half diagonally to form a triangle and then fold it in half again to form a smaller triangle. Unfold paper. Make a cut from the tip of one corner point to the center of the paper along a fold line. Demonstrate to students that by folding one cut segment over the other, a three-dimensional diorama is formed. Tell students not to glue the folded surfaces together until the illustration is complete.
Tell students that they will be creating their river scene by drawing the background of their river environment on the diorama, and they'll show how they live on the river by creating pop-up visuals which are glued to the base of the diorama. When the illustrations are complete, glue the cut and folded segments to form the freestanding diorama.
Extending the Lesson:
Have students create a watercolor painting of life on an Asian river. Have students look through online galleries to determine which colors and methods traditionally are used in Asian art, and then have them use those colors and techniques to create their own pieces.
Related Links:
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