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The Pack contains associated resources for the learning experience, typically in the form of articles and videos. There is a teacher Pack (with only teacher information) and a student Pack (which contains only student information). As a teacher, you can toggle between both to see everything.
Here are the teacher pack items for What Is Geography?:
Overview
In this experience, students are introduced to the study of geography—what it is and what it isn’t. They explore and describe the six elements of geography. Next, they learn about the tools geographers use and some of the real-life jobs that geographers do. Finally, they write their own article about how geography affects their everyday lives.
Objectives:
Take a look at the first screen of this cartoon.
In your own words, write a definition of “geography.”
Invite students to share some of their definitions. It is likely that students will name various aspects of geography. Point out that most of their definitions are part of what the study of geography is all about.
What systems does geography explore?
Which are examples of parts of human systems?
There may be terminology that is challenging for students in this cartoon. Clarify terms as needed. For example, help them to understand that spatial is a word the means “related to space.” Guide students to focus on the big idea of the cartoon, which is that geography is a much broader area of study than facts about world locations.
See the teacher pack for additional resources on introducing geography.
The following Explore section presents the six elements of geography. Each element is presented in a separate scene. You can add hands-on examples for the elements: have students handle geography tools, such as a compass and maps; share postcards and travel brochures; compare today’s weather forecasts for different locations; distribute recipes from different regions; encourage students to share personal anecdotes; have bilingual students speak in a second language; and more.
