The National
Geography Standards for Workshop 3
The National
Geography Standards highlighted in this workshop include Standards
1, 4, 10, 12, and 16. As you read, be
thinking about how the standards apply in lessons you may have
taught.
Standard
1: How to Use Maps and Other Geographic Representations, Tools,
and Technologies to Acquire, Process, and Report Information
from a Spatial Perspective.
Geographic
information is compiled, organized, manipulated, stored, and
made accessible in a great many ways. It is essential that students
develop an understanding of those ways so they can make use
of the information and learn the skills associated with developing
and communicating information from a spatial perspective.
The study
and practice of geography require the use of geographic representations,
tools, and technologies. Geographic representations consist
primarily of maps, and also include globes, graphs, diagrams,
aerial and other photographs, and satellite-produced images.
Tools and technologies consist primarily of reference works
such as almanacs, gazetteers, geographic dictionaries, statistical
abstracts, and other data compilations.
Maps are
graphic representations of selected aspects of Earth's surface.
They represent compilations of geographic information about
selected physical and human features. Using point, line, and
area symbols, as well as color, they show how those features
are located, arranged, distributed, and related to one another.
They range in appearance and purpose from a simple freehand
line drawing of how to get to a friend's house to a complex
multicolor depiction of atmospheric conditions used in weather
forecasting. No single map can show everything, and the features
depicted on each map are selected to fit a particular purpose.
Maps can depict not only visible surface features such as rivers,
seacoasts, roads, and towns but also underground features such
as subway systems, tunnels, and geologic formations. They can
depict abstract features such as political boundaries, population
densities, and lines of latitude and longitude.
In the classroom,
maps serve both as repositories of many kinds of geographic
information and as an essential means of imparting that information
to students. Maps constitute a critical element of geography
education. However, they do have limitations. One major limitation
is that it is not possible to accurately represent the round
Earth on a flat surface without distorting at least one Earth
property, such as distance, direction, or size and shape of
land and water bodies. Therefore, different map projections
are used to depict different Earth properties (e.g., equal area
projections show landmasses in correct areal proportion to one
another but with distortions of shape). No single map can accurately
depict all Earth's properties, so it is essential that students
know how to look at a given map and know which properties are
rendered correctly and which are distorted.
As scale
models, globes constitute the most accurate representation of
Earth in terms of the properties of Earth's surface features-
area, relative size and shape, scale and distance, and compass
direction are proportionately and therefore correctly represented
on globes. Globes present an essential overview of Earth, and
they can be very useful in the teaching of such concepts as
location, spatial patterns, Earth-Sun relationships, and time.
However, globes have limitations: They are cumbersome to handle
and store, small scale, and only half of Earth can be observed
at once.
In addition
to maps and globes, graphs, diagrams, aerial and other photographs,
and satellite-produced images also provide valuable information
about spatial patterns on Earth. They are very diversified in
the kinds of information they present and, under certain circumstances,
have classroom value as both supplements to and substitutes
for globes and maps. However, they also have limitations: For
instance, they may not be immediately understandable to students,
who may need special instruction in their use.
The tools
and technologies used in geography encompass a great variety
of reference works, ranging from encyclopedias and other multivolume
publications covering many topics to single reports on specialized
subjects. Some of these works are in narrative form; some are
primarily compilations of data represented in tabular form.
Some are easy to understand and use; some are not. Students
need to develop an understanding of the kinds of reference works
that are available to them, as well as learn how to obtain information
from the works, how to gauge the general reliability of that
information, and how to convert information from one form to
another (e.g., take data from a table and present it in a written
narrative).
Traditionally,
reference works have been available solely in printed form.
Currently, however, more and more of them are also being made
available in the form of computer-based databases and computer-based
information systems. This development is a result of computer
systems becoming an essential tool for storing, analyzing, and
presenting spatial information. Because of their speed and flexibility,
such systems enable the geographically informed person to explore,
manipulate, and assess spatial data far more effectively than
do conventional printed materials (see Appendix E of Geography
for Life). Furthermore, current developments in multimedia techniques,
such as animation, sound, and interactive learning procedures,
promise an even more flexible and creative approach to geographic
learning.
Throughout
their K-12 schooling, students should continue to have direct
experience with a wide variety of geographic representations,
especially maps. Maps can become increasingly abstract with
each succeeding grade level, reflecting the developmental changes
in students' abilities to represent and manipulate spatial and
symbolic information. In the early grades, students should come
to see maps, like the written word, as a source of information
about their world. They should be given opportunities to read
and interpret different kinds of maps and to create maps of
their classroom, school, and neighborhood using various media
(e.g., pencils, cutouts). Subsequent experiences in map reading
and mapmaking should become more sophisticated and abstract
as students develop a more comprehensive understanding of the
knowledge, skills, and perspectives involved in maps and mapping
activities.
In addition,
students should be given an opportunity to become familiar with
computer systems and computer-based geographic information systems.
As such systems become increasingly common in the home, school,
and workplace, for many different purposes, people will learn
to use them as comfortably and as effectively as they have traditionally
used printed materials. Therefore, it is essential that students
of geography be exposed to as many forms of geographic data
processing as possible and come to understand the role of computer
systems in both the study and practice of geography.
Knowing
how to identify, access, evaluate, and use all of these geographic
resources will ensure students a rich school experience in geography
and the prospect of having an effective array of problem-solving
and decision-making skills for use in both their other educational
pursuits and their adult years.
Standard 4:The Physical and Human Characteristics of Places.
People's
lives are grounded in particular places. We come from a place,
we live in a place, and we preserve and exhibit fierce pride
over places. Our sense of self is intimately entwined with that
of place. Who we are is often inseparable from where we are.
Places are human creations and the geographically informed person
must understand the genesis, evolution, and meaning of places.
Places are
parts of Earth's space, large or small, that have been endowed
with meaning by humans. They include continents, islands, countries,
regions, states, cities, neighborhoods, villages, rural areas,
and uninhabited areas. They usually have names and boundaries.
Each place possesses a distinctive set of tangible and intangible
characteristics that helps to distinguish it from other places.
Places are characterized by their physical and human properties.
Their physical characteristics include climate, landforms, soils,
hydrology, vegetation, and animal life. Their human characteristics
include language, religion, political systems, economic systems,
population distribution, and quality of life.
Places change
over time as both physical and human processes operate to modify
Earth's surface. Few places remain unchanged for long and these
changes have a wide range of consequences. As knowledge, ideologies,
values, resources, and technologies change, people make place-altering
decisions about how to use land, how to organize society, and
ways in which to relate (such as economically or politically)
to nearby and distant places. Out of these processes emerge
new places, with existing places being reorganized and expanded,
other places declining, and some places disappearing. Places
change in size and complexity and in economic, political, and
cultural importance as networks of relationships between places
are altered through population expansion, the rise and fall
of empires, changes in climate and other physical systems, and
changes in transportation and communication technologies. A
place can be dramatically altered by events both near and far.
Knowing
how and why places change enables people to understand the need
for knowledgeable and collaborative decision-making about where
to locate schools, factories, and other things and how to make
wise use of features of the physical environment such as soil,
air, water, and vegetation. Knowing the physical and human characteristics
of their own places influences how people think about who they
are, because their identity is inextricably bound up with their
place in life and the world. Personal identity, community identity,
and national identity are rooted in place and attachment to
place. Knowing about other places influences how people understand
other peoples, cultures, and regions of the world. Knowledge
of places at all scales, local to global, is incorporated into
people's mental maps of the world.
Students
need an understanding of why places are the way they are, because
it can enrich their own sense of identity with a particular
place and enable them to comprehend and appreciate both the
similarities and differences of places around their own community,
state, country, and planet.
Standard 10: The Characteristics, Distribution and Complexity
of Earth's Cultural Mosaics.
Culture
is a complex, multifaceted concept. It is a term used to cover
the social structure, languages, belief systems, institutions,
technology, art, foods, and traditions of particular groups
of humans. The term is used to define each group's way of life
and its own view of itself and of other groups, as well as to
define the material goods it creates and uses, the skills it
has developed, and the behaviors it transmits to each successive
generation.
The human
world is composed of culture groups, each of which has its distinctive
way of life as reflected in the group's land-use practices,
economic activities, organization and layout of settlements,
attitudes toward the role of women in society, education system,
and observance of traditional customs and holidays. These ways
of life result in landscapes and regions with a distinctive
appearance. Landscapes often overlap, thus forming elaborate
mosaics of peoples and places.
These cultural
mosaics can be approached from a variety of spatial scales.
At one scale, for example, Western Europe's inhabitants can
be seen as a single culture group; at another scale they consist
of distinctive national culture groups (e.g., the French and
the Spanish); and at yet another scale each national culture
group can be subdivided into smaller, regionally clustered culture
groups (e.g., the Flemings and Walloons in Belgium).
As Earth
evolves into an increasingly interdependent world in which different
culture groups come into contact more than ever before, it becomes
more important that people have an understanding of the nature,
complexity, and spatial distribution of cultural mosaics.
Given the
complexity of culture, it is often useful - especially when
studying the subject from a geographic point of view - to focus
on the languages, beliefs, institutions, and technologies that
are characteristic of a culture. The geographically informed
person, therefore, is an individual who has a thorough grasp
of the nature and distribution of culture groups.
Language
both represents and reflects many aspects of a culture. It stands
as an important symbol of culture. It is seen as a sign of the
unity of a particular culture group. It can be analyzed - in
terms of vocabulary and structure - for clues about the values
and beliefs of a culture group. Language is also a visible marker
that provides a way of tracing the history of a culture. The
complex and often tense relations between French-speaking and
English-speaking people in Quebec illustrate and reflect the
importance of language to culture groups and also the value
of studying the geography of language.
Beliefs
include religion, customs, values, attitudes, ideals, and world
views. A person's point of view on issues is influenced by cultural
beliefs, which in turn influence decisions about resources,
land use, settlement patterns, and a host of other geographically
important concerns. The complicated and often difficult relations
of Hindus and Muslims in India demonstrate how the spatial organization
of a country can be shaped by the geography of the region.
Institutions
shape the ways in which people organize the world around them;
for example, sets of laws, educational systems, political arrangements,
and the structure of the family shape a culture region. The
Mormon culture region of the western United States shows how
institutions are embodied in a distinctive place, demarcating
it and influencing practically every aspect of daily life.
Technology
includes the tools and skills a group of people use to satisfy
their needs and wants. Levels of technology range from the simple
tools used by hunters and gatherers to the most complex machines
and information systems used in modern industrial societies.
Technologies can be usefully understood as either hardware -
the tools themselves - or software - the skilled ways in which
a society uses tools. The Amish of south-central Pennsylvania
have created a distinctive landscape that is simultaneously
an expression of technology, institutions, beliefs, and language.
Whatever
characteristic of culture is considered, it is clear that the
mosaics of Earth's cultural landscapes are not static. Culture
changes as a result of a variety of human processes, migration
and the spread (diffusion) of new cultural traits - language,
music, and technology - to existing culture groups. The processes
of cultural change accelerate with improvements in transportation
and communication. Each culture in the world has borrowed attributes
from other cultures whether knowingly or not, willingly or not.
Students
should be exposed to a rich appreciation of the nature of culture
so they can understand the ways in which people choose to live
in different regions of the world. Such an understanding will
enable them to appreciate the role culture plays in the spatial
organization of modern society. Rivalry and tension between
cultures contribute much to world conflict. As members of a
multicultural society in a multicultural world, students must
understand the diverse spatial expressions of culture.
Standard 12: The Processes, Patterns, and Functions of Human
Settlement.
People seldom
live in isolation. Most reside in settlements, which vary greatly
in size, composition, location, arrangement, and function. These
organized groupings of human habitation are the focus of most
aspects of human life: economic activities, transportation systems,
communications media, political and administrative systems,
culture and entertainment. Therefore, to be geographically competent
- to appreciate the significance of geography's central theme
that Earth is the home of people- a person must understand settlement
processes and functions and the patterns of settlements across
Earth's surface.
Settlements exercise a powerful influence in shaping the world's
different cultural, political, and economic systems. They reflect
the values of cultural groups and the kinds of political structure
and economic activity engaged in by a society. Accordingly,
the patterns of settlement across Earth's surface differ markedly
from region to region and place to place. Of great importance
to human existence, therefore, are the spatial relationships
between settlements of different sizes: their spacing, their
arrangement, their functional differences, and their economic
specialties. These spatial relationships are shaped by trade
and the movements of raw materials, finished products, people,
and ideas.
Cities,
the largest and densest human settlements, are the nodes of
human society. Almost half of the world's people now live in
cities, and the proportion is even higher in the developed regions
of the world. In the United States, more than three-quarters
of the people live in urban areas. More than two-thirds of the
people of Europe, Russia, Japan, and Australia live in such
areas.
Cities throughout
the world are growing rapidly, but none so rapidly as those
in developing regions. For example, the ten largest cities in
the world in the year 2000 will include such Latin American
cities as Sao Paulo and Mexico City. In some regions of the
world there are concentrations of interconnected cities and
urban areas, which are known as megalopoli. In Japan, the three
adjacent and continuous cities of Tokyo-Kawasaki-Yokohama make
up such a megalopolis. In Germany there is another, consisting
of the Rhine River Valley and the cities of Essen, Düsseldorf,
Dortmund, and Wuppertal. The corridor from Boston to Washington,
D.C., is also a megalopolis (sometimes called Megalopolis because
it was the first one to be designated).
Cities are
not the same all over the world. North American cities, for
example, differ from European cities in shape and size, density
of population, transportation networks, and the patterns in
which people live and work within the city. The same contrast
is true of cities in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. For example,
in North American cities wealthy people tend to live in the
outskirts or suburban areas, whereas lower income residents
tend to live in inner-city areas. In Latin America the spatial
pattern is reversed: wealthy people live close to the city centers
and poor people live in slums or barrios found at the edges
of urban areas.
In North
America, Europe, and Japan urban areas are linked to one another
by well-integrated, efficient, and reliable transportation and
communications systems. In these regions, even the smallest
villages are linked in a web of trade, transportation, and communication
networks. In contrast, in developing regions such as Latin America
and Southeast Asia, a single primate city often dominates the
life of the country. A primate city such as Buenos Aires or
Manila is preeminent in its influence on the culture, politics,
and economic activities of its country. Nevertheless, in terms
of transportation and communications links it may be better
connected to the outside world than it is to other regions of
the country it serves.
Settlements
and the patterns they etch on Earth's surface provide not only
data on current economic and social aspects of human existence
but also a historical record. Today's settlement patterns, evident
on a map, provide information about past settlement patterns
and processes, and the boundaries of counties and other political
entities indicate how people organized the land as they settled
it. In all such cases, the surviving evidence of past settlements
can and should be amplified by the students' use of research
materials to develop a fuller understanding of how settlements
relate to their physical setting over time. It is valuable,
for example, to know about life in a German medieval town and
the town's relationship to the surrounding countryside; life
in a typical North Dakota settlement along a railroad line in
the 1890s; and life in the walled city of Xian and the city's
importance in north China in the second century B.C.
Students
must develop an understanding of the fundamental processes,
patterns, and functions of human settlement across Earth's surface,
and thereby come to appreciate the spatially ordered ways in
which Earth has become the home of people. They need to acquire
a working knowledge of such topics as: the nature and functions
of cities, the processes that cause cities to grow and decline,
how cities are related to their market areas or hinterlands;
the patterns of land use and value, population density, housing
type, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and age distribution
in urban areas; the patterns of change, growth, and decline
within urban areas; the process of suburbanization; and how
new types of urban nodes develop. Geographers ask these questions
to make sense of the distribution and concentration of human
populations.
Standard 16: The Changes that Occur in the Meaning, Use, Distribution,
and Importance of Resources.
A resource
is any physical material that constitutes part of Earth and
which people need and value. There are three basic resources
- land, water, and air - that are essential to human survival.
However, any other natural material also becomes a resource
if and when it becomes available to humans. The geographically
informed person must develop an understanding of this concept
and of the changes in the spatial distribution, quantity, and
quality of resources on Earth's surface.
Those changes
occur because a resource is a cultural concept, with the value
attached to any given resource varying from culture to culture
and period to period. Value can be expressed in economic or
monetary terms, in legal terms (as in the Clean Air Act), in
terms of risk assessment, or in terms of ethics (the responsibility
to preserve our National Parks for future generations). The
value of a resource depends on human needs and the technology
available for its extraction and use. Rock oil seeping from
rocks in northwestern Pennsylvania was of only minor value as
a medicine until a technology was developed in the mid-nineteenth
century that enabled it to be refined into a lamp illuminant.
Some resources that were once valuable are no longer important.
For example, it was the availability of pine tar and tall timber
- strategic materials valued by the English navy - that in the
seventeenth century helped spur settlement in northern New England,
but that region now uses its vegetative cover (and natural beauty)
as a different type of resource - for recreation and tourism.
Resources, therefore, are the result of people seeing a need
and perceiving an opportunity to meet that need.
The quantity
and quality of a resource is determined by whether it is a renewable,
nonrenewable, or a flow resource. Renewable resources, such
as plants and animals, can replenish themselves after they have
been used if their physical environment has not been destroyed.
If trees are harvested carefully, a new forest will grow to
replace the one that was cut. If animals eat grass in a pasture
to a certain level, grass will grow again and provide food for
animals in the future, as long as the carrying capacity of the
land if not exceeded by the pressure of too many animals. Nonrenewable
resources, such as minerals and fossil fuels (coal, oil, and
natural gas), can be extracted and used only once. Flow resources,
such as water, wind, and sunlight, are neither renewable nor
nonrenewable because they must be used as, when, and where they
occur. The energy in a river can be used to generate electricity,
which can be transmitted over great distances. However, that
energy must be captured by turbines as the water flows past
or it will be lost.
The location
of resources influences the distribution of people and their
activities on the Earth. People live where they can earn a living.
Human migration and settlement are linked to the availability
of resources, ranging from fertile soils and supplies of freshwater
to deposits of metals or pools of natural gas. The patterns
of population distribution that result from the relationship
between resources and employment change as needs and technologies
change. In Colorado, for example, abandoned mining towns reflect
the exhaustion of nonrenewable resources (silver and lead deposits),
whereas ski resorts reflect the exploitation of renewable resources
(snow and scenery).
Technology
changes the ways in which humans appraise resources, and it
may modify economic systems and population distributions. Changes
in technology bring into play new ranges of resources from Earth's
stock. Since the industrial revolution, for example, technology
has shifted from waterpower to coal-generated steam to petroleum-powered
engines, and different resources and their source locations
have become important. The population of the Ruhr Valley in
Germany, for example, grew rapidly in response to the new importance
of coal and minerals in industrial ventures. Similarly, each
innovation in the manufacture of steel brought a new resource
to prominence in the United States, and resulted in locational
shifts in steel production and population growth.
Demands
for resources vary spatially. More resources are used by economically
developed countries than by developing countries. For example,
the United States uses petroleum at a rate that is five times
the world average. As countries develop economically, their
demand for resources increases faster than their population
grows. The wealth that accompanies economic development enables
people to consume more. The consumption of a resource does not
necessarily occur where the resource is produced or where the
largest reserves of the resource are located. Most of the petroleum
produced in Southwest Asia, for example, is consumed in the
United States, Europe, and Japan.
Sometimes, users of resources feel insecure when they have to
depend on other places to supply them with materials that are
so important to their economy and standard of living. This feeling
of insecurity can become especially strong if two interdependent
countries do not have good political relations, share the same
values, or understand each other. In some situations, conflict
over resources breaks out into warfare. One factor in Japan's
involvement in World War II, for example, was that Japan lacked
petroleum resources of its own and coveted oil fields elsewhere
in Asia, especially after the United States threatened to cut
off its petroleum exports to Japan.
Conflicts
over resources are likely to increase as demand increases. Globally,
the increase in demand tends to keep pace with the increase
in population. More people on Earth means more need for fertilizers,
building materials, food, energy, and everything else produced
from resources. Accordingly, if the people of the world are
to coexist, Earth's resources must be managed to guarantee adequate
supplies for everyone. That means reserves of renewable resources
need to be sustained at a productive level, new reserves of
nonrenewable resources need to be found and exploited, new applications
for flow resources need to be developed, and, wherever possible,
cost-effective substitutes - especially for nonrenewable resources
- need to be developed.
It is essential
that students have a solid grasp of the different kinds of resources
of the ways in which humans value and use (and compete over)
resources, and of the distribution of resources across Earth's
surface.
The above
material is from Geograpy for Life: The National Geography Standards,
1994. The Geography Education Standards Project.
© 1994 National Geographic Societly, Wahington, D.C.
Reprinted with the permission of the National Goeographic Society.
