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REASONS FOR REGIONS |
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Master Teacher: Christine Barr |
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OverviewWhy do we use regions in geography? Through activities presented in this lesson, students will gain an understanding of the geographical regions of the United States of America and what makes each state a member of its region. Learning ObjectivesStudents will be able to:
Oregon Standards Available at:http://www.ode.state.or.us/cifs
Media ComponentsVideo Check the link at http://www.opb.org/edmedia/trs/ to find access to the video(s) from unitedstreaming™ referenced in this lesson plan.
Web
MaterialsFor Each Student:
For the Teacher:
Prep for TeachersPrior to teaching this lesson, bookmark all of the Web sites used in the lesson on each computer in your classroom. Make enough copies of the United States printout and Focus for Media Interaction questions for each student in your class. Download the video clips onto the computer you will use to project the clips. Display a map of the United States of America in the classroom. Be certain each computer in the classroom has a copy of the free Windows Media Player installed (some clips aren't available for use with QuickTime Player). When using media, provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction, a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing of video segments, Web sites or other multimedia elements. Introductory Activity:Step 1: Ask students to name the state in which they currently live. Have students tell some characteristics about their state's climate (weather), industry/economy (how people make money) and landforms. Make a list of these characteristics on the board or overhead projector. Step 2: Ask students what might be different about the list you made if they lived in another state. Choose a state and complete a list that tells about that state's climate, industry and landforms. (Be sure to choose a state that will have several differences from your own state.) Step 3: Ask students to compare and contrast the lists you made of the characteristics of the two states. Ask students why they think those states have differences. (Students should point out that the states are in different locations.) Step 4: Ask students if they can define "region." (Student answers will vary. If your students cannot define the term, explain to the students that a region is a large area of the earth's surface that has similar features.) Explain that some of the similar features of a region are the climate (weather), industry/economy (how people make a living) and landforms. Step 5: Explain to your students that in this lesson you will be examining the regions of the United States. There is a reason that each state belongs to a specific region. Learning ActivitiesStep 1: Explain to your students that they will be examining
the concept of regions using a video clip from the story, "The
Scrambled States of America." Explain to the students that
in this video one of the states is bored of always being in the
same place. The states have a party and decide to trade places on
the map. Tell the students that they are going to watch a video
clip demonstrating what might happen if a state moved into a new
region of the United States. Provide your students with a Focus
for Media Interaction, asking them to watch for problems and
new experiences the states have when they move to a new area of
the country. Play the video clip, "The States Switch
Places on the Map" (04:35), from the video, "The Scrambled
States of America" (16:35). Step 3: Have students provide information about what happened when the states switched places. (Answers will vary, but may include information about the states dealing with a different climate and interactions with neighboring states that they are not accustomed to. States brought back food from another area, and experienced salt water and earthquakes.) Explain that each state had a new experience because it moved to a different region. "The Scrambled States of America" provided a fictional view of what might happen if the states moved to new regions. Tell the students that they will now watch another video clip and learn facts about the regions of the United States. The class will be divided into six groups, one group for each region. The groups will be responsible for finding out specific facts about their regions. Step 4: Provide your students with a Focus for Media Interaction, asking students to provide as many answers as they can on the worksheet for their group's region. Read the questions aloud to reinforce what the students are looking for. (The entire video clip is 10:02 minutes long, but allow for more time when viewing so students can record information. If you feel they have missed several answers or the video clip is going too fast for them to keep up, use the scroll bar to rewind the video and play the segment again.) The students will be looking for facts about each region, including states in the region, weather, landforms, people/population, major cities and industry. Play the video clip, "Regions of the USA" (10:02), from the video, "Geography of the USA" (19:00). Pause the video when it lists the states in each region, allowing students time to record the names of the states. Have students signal a "thumbs up" sign when they are ready to move on to the next section. Play the video until the narrator says, "… [New Jersey is the] most populated state in the nation." Pause and go over Northeast Region focus questions. Have students move on to the Southeast Region Worksheet. Resume the video clip and have students answer the focus questions, rewinding when necessary. Pause the video when you hear, "… business connection to South America," and go over Southeast Region focus questions. Have students move on to the Midwestern Region Worksheet. Resume the video clip and have students answer the focus questions, rewinding when necessary. Pause the video when you hear, "… the great plains is a region rich in resources," and go over the Midwestern Region focus questions. Have students move on to the Southwestern Region Worksheet. Resume the video clip and have students answer the focus questions, rewinding when necessary. Pause the video when you hear, "… in Arizona you will find the Grand Canyon, a national treasure," and go over the Southwestern Region focus questions. Have students move on to the Mountain Region Worksheet. Resume the video clip and have students answer the focus questions, rewinding when necessary. Pause the video when you hear, "… Idaho produces potatoes for the world," and go over the Mountain Region focus questions. Have students move on to the Pacific Coast States Region Worksheet. Resume the video clip and have students answer the focus questions, rewinding when necessary. When the video ends, go over the Pacific Coast States Region focus questions. Step 5: Review with the students the facts they found about each region of the United States. Make a list on butcher paper or the overhead of the six regions and have students tell which states belong to each region. Ask the students what were some of the reasons that states were located in each region. (Answers will vary, but focus on similarities in climate, landforms, people/population and industry.) Culminating ActivityStep 1: Give each student the map printout of the United States. Instruct students to locate each state, write the name of the state and color code the regions of the United States so that each state in a particular region is the same color. Tell students they should have a key on their map showing which color represents each region. (For example, red may be used for all of the northeast states.) Step 2: Have students log on to the Fun School Web site at http://www.funschool.com/games_popup.php?g=ge2_usquiz&t=j&w=620&h=360. Ask your students to complete the activity of locating the 50 states and note how quickly they can place all 50 states. Tell students to think about which region the state belongs to and how that affects its location on the map. Step 3: Review with your students the regions of the United States. What characteristics help determine to which region each state belongs? As an assessment, have students create a travel brochure for a region of their choice. The brochure should include information about which states are located in that region, major cities, important landforms, weather and industry. Students should explain with this information the reason for the region. Cross-Curricular ExtensionsScience
Language Arts
Math
Community Connections
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