Geography, Day 3 - Class Recap

The Twelve Apostles rock formation in Australia. The world is such an interesting place! Picture taken in January 2014.

Welcome back, everyone!

Weekends really need to be longer, don't they? In any case, I was excited by the work we did today in class. Here's what happened:

Learning Targets: 
Knowledge LT 6: I can demonstrate an understanding of the characteristics of locations and regions.
Knowledge LT 7: I can demonstrate the ability to use geographic tools.

Soundtrack: “Grapevine Fires” by Death Cab for Cutie. Selected for today because of the fire drill yesterday during third period, the fires out by Estacada that made the sky hazy, and how hot it is in our room without air conditioning. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 9/16/14:

News Brief
Map Work/Summer Overview
- US States
- World Map

Homework: Read the blog. Bring a photo for the wall if you have not already. Study for upcoming North America map quiz (need completed and colored map done in order to use). Next news brief: Elizabeth.

News Brief: Zahrian brought in the news brief today and selected this article to talk about: USAToday.com - Philippine volcano spews lava; thousands evacuated. We talked about where the Philippines are (a country made up of various islands in Asia). Yes, I had not heard of this story, but in fairness to me, volcanoes and earthquakes and such are not all that uncommon around the world. I hope everyone stays safe! Thanks, Zahrian. Next up is Elizabeth.

Map Work/Summer Overview: For this section, I went back to your list of topics about what happened around the world over the summer and asked about the locations for various stories. Then, I showed a few links that have to do with creatively thinking about geography. It's so much more than just blank maps and countries! These are real places with real people and amazing scenery! The first link was: TwistedSifter.com - 40 Maps That Will Help You Make Sense of the World. I didn't show all of the maps in class, but I did particularly enjoy a few, like the map of every country in the world that the United Kingdom has invaded at one point or another.

Next, I showed this video that is a time lapse of some shots from the International Space Station, orbiting around the Earth at night. Incredible! See if you can identify the countries and places by their lights at night.

Finally, I showed this video of many different time lapses on the ground, in various different countries. This one makes me smile, because I have been to a few of these places! :-)

I showed these in class to hopefully help inspire you to learn about where these places are and maybe one day to travel there! We are going to keep looking at geography throughout the year.

To finish class, I passed out a huge map packet (not regular sized paper) for students to fill out. Specifically, work on identifying the countries in North America on the first page and the Caribbean on the back side. You need to have the country name written in and the country colored (so not two touching countries are the same color) in order to be able to use them on the map quiz (it is virtually impossible to pass the map quiz without your completed map). Just in case you want to see the files again (printing them on smaller paper is not advised), here it is:

Google Drive: Fill in World Maps

I also passed out a blank copy of the United States. You will need to know all 50 states, as well. We live in this country - we need to know the states that are a part of it! If you want, here's a great way to practice naming the states:

Sporcle.com - United States Quiz

That was it for today! Keep working on the maps and bring them in next class! We will use them during the news brief, too. See you next class!