1. Holes and Goals: Introduction to Physical and Cultural Geography Katie Siguenza

2. Why Geography? As a secondary social studies teacher, I will be certified to teach history, political science, economics, and geography. Despite completing a degree in history and political science and basic requirements of economics… I knew nothing about Geography. MSC Standard 3.0 in Geography led to an interest in both Physical and Cultural Geography. MSC Standard 3.0 in Geography – Cultural Geography focuses on human interactions and trends, a topic I think would be critical for any social studies instructor to understand.

3. What Did I Want to Find Out? Enduring Understandings – Human activity and physical geography are responsive forces to each other. Essential Questions – Addressed Physical and Cultural Geography, as well as my Self-Knowledge

4. Products Incorporating Historical and Modern Atlases into Sixth Grade Instruction: Two Sixth-Grade Lesson Plans on Mesopotamia Model United Nations: Reflections on My Experience as an Advisor Hurricanes!: A Sixth-Grade WebQuest on Cultural and Physical Geography

5. Incorporating Historical and Modern Atlases into Sixth Grade Instruction Why? Sixth-grade students enter the social studies classroom with minimal prior knowledge on the topics of history or geography Resources Used: the Nystrom World Atlas and the Nystrom Ancient World History Atlas Appealed to my visual learning style, made the information tangible

6. Model United Nations: Reflections on My Experience as an Advisor Assumed prior knowledge on the topic by fellow teacher (and myself!) Challenge: to find appropriate and relevant materials for students Challenge: teaching students how to research What have I learned? Geography… but stay tuned for more!

7. Hurricanes!: A Sixth-Grade WebQuest on Cultural and Physical Geography Why a WebQuest? Developing technology skills, improving student motivation, differentiation for students Formed on Google sites in conjunction with unitedstreaming.com Increased understanding of the impact of natural disasters on population density and land forms Cross-disciplinary! http://sites.google.com/site/mssiguenzashurricanewebquest/intr oduction http://sites.google.com/site/mssiguenzashurricanewebquest/intr oduction

8. And the Winner for Favorite Resource… I LOVE BRAINPOP.COM!BRAINPOP.COM Pros – Appeals to many learning styles with a focus on vocabulary development and graphic organizers – Cross-disciplinary topics – Updated frequently – Students find the presentation of information to be helpful and engaging Cons – Costs money…

9. Reflections and Questions What good fortune… my sixth grade class had a lot of physical AND cultural geography worked into the curriculum! What do I need to work on in the future? – US Geography Where is Iowa…? Hopefully, I can find a historical atlas of the US!