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Overview:
Just as humans need oxygen, food, and water, they also need shelter. This need for shelter is satisfied in a variety of ways. This lesson will explore ways in which the environment influences the design and construction of homes around the world.
Connections to the Curriculum:
Geography, environmental science, language arts
Connections to the National Geography Standards:
Standard 15: "How physical systems affect human systems"
Time:
Two to three hours
Materials Required:
- Articles from National Geographic Magazine, Traveler, or other international magazines that depict a variety of homes around the world
- Atlases and world maps
- Sketch paper
Objectives:
Students will
- understand how humans adapt to variations in the physical environment; and
- be able to describe how the physical environment, including weather and climate, influences building styles and the availability of building materials.
Geographic Skills:
Asking Geographic Questions
Acquiring 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 shelter as one of the basic human needs, something that people must have in order to survive. Discuss why we need houses and other sorts of dwellings. Although different houses have similar functions, are all styles the same? Discuss examples of home designs in your community. Expand the discussion by asking if our homes would be different if we lived near the Equator? Above the Arctic Circle? In an extremely rainy location? Discuss ideas about how houses might be different and why they might need to be different. Record ways in which homes might need to be different.
Development:
Distribute copies of National Geographic Magazine, Traveler, or other international magazines to small groups of students. Have them look for pictures of different dwellings. Or, have students go online and look at the following Web sites which show pictures of houses around the world:
Homes Found in the United States
Houses Around the World
Once they have located several dwellings, ask the groups to
- note their locations on a world map;
- use an atlas to identify different aspects of the local environment, such as climate, vegetation, and terrain; and
- identify aspects of the physical environment (such as year-round warm weather or the presence of trees) which would influence home construction.
Ask each group to share its photographs, maps, and other findings with the class. In addition, encourage them to share their conclusions about why certain designs and construction materials were used in the dwellings they examined.
Discuss the role that technology plays in moderating environmental influences. For example, because developed countries have the technology to heat and cool homes, the effects of climate are not as pronounced as they are in less developed countries.
Closing:
Conduct a group discussion in which students state their conclusions about the ways physical systems affect the design and construction of dwellings. Do they have new insights about homes in their own communities?
Suggested Student Assessment:
Give students a picture of a house that they have not seen before and ask them to speculate on where in the world it might be found, what the environment would be like, and how the physical environment may have affected its construction.
Extending the Lesson:
Compare the construction of houses throughout history (the temporary shelters of hunters versus the more permanent homes of farmers, for example, or the materials used to construct houses before and after industrialization).
Melanie Campbell of West Indianola Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas, contributed classroom activities for Standard 15.
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