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Overview:
In this lesson, students will use the interactive feature in Xpedition Hall called Uplink Outpost to discover ways to interpret geography in their community. Students will create a plan for the future of their community based on geographic factors, and will write a class "e-mail" to the next generation of students.
Connections to the Curriculum:
Geography, language arts
Connections to the National Geography Standards:
Standard 18: "How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future"
Time:
Three to four hours
Materials Required:
- Computer with Internet access
- A disk (or paper to print out "e-mail")
- Dictionaries or access to Merriam Webster.com
- Photos and brochures for time capsule (optional)
Objectives:
Students will
- read/listen to the e-mail from Dr. George Stuart, the National Geographic's Chairman of the Committee for Research and Exploration, about the future of geography;
- define key terms such as "biodiversity," "fragile," "fundamental," "oblivion," and "reserves";
- discuss geographic features in their community such as rivers, mountains, deserts, flora, or ice;
- describe actions they can take, now and in the future, to be stewards for the environment;
- predict changes that may happen to the community, over the next 20 years; and
- create an e-mail, as a class, for the next generation, about the community in which they live.
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:
Ask students how they would describe their community to someone from another planet. Encourage students to think about how hot it gets, how much rainfall you receive, bodies of water that are nearby, ice or snow that accumulates, and trees, mountains or canyons they may see on their journey to school.
Based on the particular features of your community, let students know what might change over time, such as a river that could run dry, or trees that have been cut down due to development in your area. Ask students for examples based on what they have heard older people say about the town, such as "this highway was once a dirt road" or "we used to play baseball where that new movie theatre is now."
For the examples cited, propose simple strategies to keep the town as it is. Any answer is acceptable: making new rules, charging people money for littering, or building a dome over the whole town. Let students know that you will come back to these ideas later in the lesson.
Development:
Using a dictionary or a link to an online dictionary, define the following words as a class, using an appropriate level of detail for their cognitive level: biodiversity, fragile, fundamental, oblivion, and reserves.
Prompt the students to listen for these words in the letter you are about to read from Uplink Outpost. Students can be encouraged to raise their hands and offer synonyms, as the teacher reads the letter, when those keywords are mentioned.
Ask students about the tone of the letter. Does Dr. George Stuart seem to think the world will be the same or different in 20 years? Does he seem to think that even children can have an impact on the way the Earth turns out in 20 years?
Return to the strategies that were discussed earlier. Ask students to evaluate them using the following statements:
- That could probably work.
- That could work, but it would be difficult.
- That will probably never work.
Discuss which strategies are the most practical, and the most likely to happen. Guide students towards plans that would likely be accepted by a broad range of people, such as a fine for failing to recycle, or a large tarp over a whole park, without discouraging students who have unique ideas. If students don't think an idea would work, ask them to make a few changes so that it could work or probably would work. Remind students that some changes may be beyond their control.
Closing:
Once the class has agreed to a few strategies that would protect the community and thought about some ways the world in which they live will be different in 20 years, ask the students to describe this new community. Will rivers run deeper? Will there be more trees or fewer trees? Will there be more parks? What will people do in those parks?
As a class, write an e-mail to the students in this school in 20 years, with references to the new environment, such as, "We hope that you like fishing in the river that now runs through the back of the school. It used to be a little creek where we caught crayfish during recess, but we had so much rain that it is a river now."
When the e-mail is complete, save it on a disk labeled "To Ms. X's class, 2024" (or a date 20 years from the lesson date). If a disk is not available, the e-mail can be printed out, or saved to a shared server.
Suggested Student Assessment:
Have each student draw a picture of the community in 20 years. Remind the students to place themselves, as they would look in 20 years, in the picture. Then have them share their pictures with each other.
Extending the Lesson:
Create a time capsule for the class of the future. Include the pictures the students created, brochures for local attractions, clippings from the local paper referring to geographic features, and pictures of the students participating in activities that have a sense of place (e.g., trips to a local zoo, a pumpkin patch, or an apple orchard).
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