1. Human Geography in the United States
Unit 3 Lesson 1

2. Content Expectations
4 – H3.0.2: Use primary and secondary sources to explain how migration and immigration affected and continue to affect the growth of Michigan.
4 - G1.0.1: Identify questions geographers ask in examining the United States (e.g., Where it is? What is it like there? How is it connected to other places?).
4- G1.0.3: Identify and describe the characteristics and purposes (e.g., measure distance, determine relative location, classify a region) of a variety of geographic tools and technologies (e.g., globe, map, satellite image).
4- G1.0.4: Use geographic tools and technologies, stories, songs, and pictures to answer geographic questions about the United States

3. How are people and places connected to each other?
Connections
How are people and places connected to each other?
How are people connected to the Earth?
Movement
Human/ Environment Interaction
   

4. Location, Place, and Regions
Name the three themes used in the previous unit.
Location, Place, and Regions

5. List in social studies learning log some of the questions geographer’s use in investigating these themes.

6. Questions Geographers Ask
Theme
Questions
Location
Where is it?
What is its absolute location?
What is its relative location?
Place
What is it like there?
What are its natural characteristics?
What are its human characteristics?

7. How can the place be divided into regions?
Theme
Questions
Regions
How might common geographic characteristics help understand this place?
How can the place be divided into regions?
To what regions does the place belong?
Movement
How is the place connected to other places?
How and why have people, goods, and ideas moved in and out of the place?

8. Human/
Environment
Interaction
How do people interact with the environment?
How have people used the environment?
How have people adapted to the environment?
How have people modified or changed the environment?

9. the five themes of geography
Word Cards 1
the five themes of geography
five big ideas that help people understand geography
Example: Location is one of the five themes of geography.
(SS040301) 2
movement
the geographic theme that explains how and why people, goods, and ideas move
Example: The theme of movement helps us understand how places are connected to other places.

10. human/environment interaction
Word Cards 3
human/environment interaction
ways in which people use, adapt, or modify with the Earth
Example: When people build new roads they are interacting with the Earth.
(SS040301)

11. In this unit we will explore themes and questions relating to what geographers often refer to as “human geography.”

12. Group Brainstorming Sheet
Geographers often think about human geography in terms of connections. They explore ways people and places are connected to each other, as well as ways people are connected to the Earth.
Ways People and Places are Connected to Each Other
Ways People are Connected to the Earth

13. Ways People and Places are Connected to Each Other
Group Brainstorming Sheet – Sample Answers
Ways People and Places are Connected to Each Other
Ways People are Connected to the Earth
Places are connected through transportation networks that include roads, air connections, and shipping.
People are connected to the Earth because they use the resources of the Earth like water, trees, and soil.

14. Ways People and Places are Connected to Each Other
Group Brainstorming Sheet – Sample Answers
Ways People and Places are Connected to Each Other
Ways People are Connected to the Earth
Places are connected by people moving from one place to another.
Places are connected through the Internet and computers.
People are connected to the Earth because they have built things like cities, dams, bridges, and roads all over the Earth.

15. Ways People and Places are Connected to Each Other
Group Brainstorming Sheet – Sample Answers
Ways People and Places are Connected to Each Other
Ways People are Connected to the Earth
Places are connected by trade networks and the exchange of goods and services.
Places are connected through international organizations like the United Nations.
People are connected to the Earth because they have built things like cities, dams, bridges, and roads all over the Earth.
People are connected to the Earth because the Earth provides many different environments for people to live in. .

16. Ways People and Places are Connected to Each Other
Group Brainstorming Sheet – Sample Answers
Ways People and Places are Connected to Each Other
Ways People are Connected to the Earth
Places are connected when people share a cultural trait like religion.
Places are connected by people traveling.
People are connected to the Earth through the ways in which they have changed the Earth.

17. Human/
Environment
Interaction
How do people interact with the environment?
How have people used the environment?
How have people adapted to the environment?
How have people modified or changed the environment?
Human geography centers around these two themes. Like the themes of location, place and regions, geographers often use maps to investigate these themes.

18. What does the map show?
The ways in which Michigan is connected by air and shipping to other places in the world.

19. How is the map related to the theme of movement?
It shows air routes and shipping lanes and connections.

20. What questions does the map help answer?
What are some major places in the world to which Michigan is connected? What are some important nonstop airline routes? How is Michigan connected to other places?

21. What are some questions the map raises?
Why is it that nonstop flights go to these particular cities? Why do people travel to these cities? Do passengers use the shipping lanes or are they only for goods?

22. What do you think the maps show?
Analyzing Maps
With the following two maps, use the chart to answer the questions.
What do you think the maps show?
How are the maps related to the theme of movement?
What questions do the maps help answer?
What are some questions the maps raise?

25. These maps show only the routes of a single airline
These maps show only the routes of a single airline. Considering the fact that there are many different airlines in the United States, what can we infer about how the U.S. is connected to other places by air?

26. Read the map title and key on the following slide
Read the map title and key on the following slide. Think what the map has to do with the theme of movement?

27. Percent of People that are Foreign Born
Map #4
Percent of People that are Foreign Born

28. This map shows the movement of people in that it relates to people who have moved to the U.S. from other countries.

29. Percent of People that are Foreign Born
Map #4
Percent of People that are Foreign Born
What questions does the map help answer?
What states have a high percentage of people who were born in another country? What states have a low percentage?

30. Percent of People that are Foreign Born
Map #4
Percent of People that are Foreign Born
What are some questions the map raises?
What are some of the countries that people came from? Why did they migrate to the United States? Why do some states have a high percentage of foreign born people and some states a low percentage?
How do people decide where to live when they migrate to the U.S.

31. Ways People and Places are Connected to Each Other
Group Brainstorming Sheet – Sample Answers
Ways People and Places are Connected to Each Other
Ways People are Connected to the Earth
Places are connected by trade networks and the exchange of goods and services.
People are connected to the Earth because they have built things like cities, dams, bridges, and roads all over the Earth. .

32. Ways People and Places are Connected to Each Other
Group Brainstorming Sheet – Sample Answers
Ways People and Places are Connected to Each Other
Ways People are Connected to the Earth
Places are connected through international organizations like the United Nations.
People are connected to the Earth because the Earth provides many different environments for people to live in. .

33. Ways People and Places are Connected to Each Other
Group Brainstorming Sheet – Sample Answers
Ways People and Places are Connected to Each Other
Ways People are Connected to the Earth
Places are connected when people share a cultural trait like religion.
Places are connected by people traveling.
People are connected to the Earth through the ways in which they have changed the Earth.

34. Human/
Environment
Interaction
How do people interact with the environment?
How have people used the environment?
How have people adapted to the environment?
How have people modified or changed the environment?
One of the most important things that geographers investigate are the ways in which people change the Earth and the consequences of those changes.

35. Ways People had Changed the Earth Consequences of the Changes
Book Analysis
Read Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg.
Ways People had Changed the Earth
Consequences of the Changes
Identify examples of ways in which people have changed the Earth.

36. Ways People had Changed the Earth Consequences of the Changes
Book Analysis – Sample Answers
Ways People had Changed the Earth
Consequences of the Changes
There were mountains of trash everywhere.
Many trees had been cut down.
Factories with huge smokestacks had been built.
A hotel had been built on Mount Everest.
The trash had nearly buried the houses in neighborhoods so that people couldn’t live there anymore.
There were few trees left.
The air was very polluted and it caused health problems for people.
An important natural landmark had been turned into a tourist attraction.

37. Ways People had Changed the Earth Consequences of the Changes
Book Analysis – Sample Answers
Ways People had Changed the Earth
Consequences of the Changes
People had overfished the Earth’s waters.
Cars and trucks and roads were everywhere.
Smog had filled Grand Canyon.
There were almost no fish left.
There was a huge amount of traffic and little green space left.
There was so much smog people could not even see the Grand Canyon.

38. Turn to your partner to answer he following questions about the book.
How had Walter changed by the end of the story?
He became much more sensitive to environmental issues and problems.

39. How did the author make use of the technique of flash forward?
In his dream, Walter visited the future.

40. What happened to Walter at the end of the story?
Walter had another dream.

41. Why did Walter think he was dreaming of the past in his second dream?
He saw someone mowing the lawn with a motorless lawn mower and there were clothes drying on the line.

42. What was the evidence that his second dream was actually showing the future?
The two trees that he and Rose had planted were very large.

43. Which dream do you think best describes what the future will be like?
Are there alternative futures that may be possible?

44. Besides the questions we have been exploring in this lesson, what are some other questions geographers might investigate that relate to the theme of human/environment interaction?

45. Possible answers include:
Do people in some countries tend to change the Earth more than people in other countries? What might be some positive consequences of changing the Earth? Are changes to the Earth always permanent?

46. Possible answers include:
Did people in the past change the Earth more or less than people now? Do people always change the Earth when they use the Earth’s resources?

47. Possible answers include:
Who has the responsibility for taking care of the Earth and its resources? Are there ways in which countries work together to conserve the Earth’s resources or solve environmental problems?

48. Big Ideas of Lesson 1, Unit 3
Big Ideas Card
Big Ideas of Lesson 1, Unit 3
In studying human geography, geographers examine how people and places are connected to each other, as well as how people are connected to the Earth.
Human geography has two main themes: movement and human/environment interaction.

49. Big Ideas of Lesson 1, Unit 3
Big Ideas Card
Big Ideas of Lesson 1, Unit 3
In studying movement, geographers ask questions such as: Why do people move?, How does the movement of people connect places?, and How do geographic features impact movement?
In studying human/environment interaction, geographers ask questions such as: How do people use the Earth?, How do people change the Earth?, and What are the consequences of changing the Earth?

50. Teacher Resource
Egbo, Carol. Supplemental Materials (Unit 3, Lesson 1).Teacher-made material. Michigan Citizenship Collaborative, 2008.
Michigan Global Connections. MEDC Website. 12 November 2008 <
Percent of People Who Are Foreign Born Map. U.S. Census website. 12 November 2008 <
United Airlines International Route Map. 12 November 2008 <
United Airlines North America Route Map. 12 November 2008 <