SEVENTH GRADE

Geography

 

Students in the seventh grade can be characterized as inquisitive, enthusiastic, and impressionable learners who have a growing curiosity about the world beyond the city and state in which they live.  In this one-semester geography course, students increase their knowledge about the physical nature of the world and about the relationships between people and their environments.  They also study geography in the context of economics, politics, and culture.  In this world geography course, content standards focus on the cultural geography of the Eastern Hemisphere.

 

The classroom environment provides students with numerous opportunities to participate in instruction that incorporates a variety of formats and learning tools, including role-playing, debate, and hands-on activities such as the use of maps, globes, and graphic organizers to interpret text, charts, and graphs.  Students are presented with multiple opportunities for listening, reading, and writing activities as well as group and individual projects.  Culminating projects ensure that students apply their knowledge of the mutual effects of people and places to a geographic issue.

 

Cherokee County Schools:

            The Cherokee County Course of Study: Social Studies is arranged as follows for seventh grade geography:

Resources include websites and other helpful resources.

 

 

Text Location

Ch.-Sec.

 

Alabama Course of Study

E

G

H

PS

 

Alabama High School Graduation Exam

(See bottom table)

 

NCLB

Reading/Writing

 

Resources

Geography Handbook (GH) 2-10

Chapter-Section

1-1, 1-2, 2-3, 2-4, 3-1,

 16-3, 17-2, 18-2, 20-2

 

(1)

 

1.) Describe the world in spatial terms using maps, major physical and human features, and urban and rural land-use patterns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

X

 

 

 

X

 

 

TIME Reports in each unit have resources.

 

www.nationalgeographic.com/maps

 

 

Reference Atlas (RA)0-30, GH4-10, All chapters

(1A)

• Explaining the use of map essentials, including type, size, shape, distance, direction, location, scale, and symbols
Examples: reference and thematic maps; topographic maps, globes, and map projections; aerial photographs; satellite images; lines of latitude and longitude; cardinal and intermediate directions; fractional, graphic, and verbal scales; conventional symbols used in atlases; Global Positioning System (GPS); Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

X

X

 

X

 

Write a paragraph explaining how to get from one place to another using direction words.

These websites can be used throughout the course.

www.eduplace.com

 

CIA World Fact Book:

www.odci.gov/cia/pulications/factbook/

index.html

 

www.animatedatlas.com

 

www.nationmaster.com

 

US Geological Service:

http://mac.usgs.gov

GH2, 5-2,   5-3, 6-1,  6-5

(1B)

• Using geographic technology to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective

X

X

 

X

 

 

Technology Skills Activities in the Assessment and Activities section at the end of each chapter.

2-3,3-2,3-3,3-4,5-3,6-1,7-4,15-2,16-3,17-2,18-2

(1C)

• Analyzing relationships among people, places, and the environment by mapping information about them, including trade patterns, governmental alliances, and immigration patterns

X

X

 

X

 

Use a graphic organizer to compare different aspects of different countries.

Alabama Virtual Library accesses through ALEX has several excellent sources for you and your students:

 

SIRS Discoverer

SIRS Knowledge Source

Info Trac Student Edition

 

1-1, 3-1, 5-3, 7-1, 8-2, 9-1, 9-3, 12-1,

 15-3, 16-3, 17-1

(2)

2.) Analyze regional characteristics for factors that contribute to change and for their relative importance.

Examples: economic development, accessibility, migration, media image, technological developments

 

 

 

 

 

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

GH2-3, 2-1, 2-4, 11-2,  21-2

(2A)

• Using field observations, maps, and other tools to identify and compare physical characteristics of places
Examples: soils, vegetation, climate

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

GH2-3, 1-1, Regional Atlas Europe, 9-2, 11-2,

17-3, 18-2,  20-2

(2B)

• Comparing physical and human characteristics of various places using observational data and geographic resources

 

 

X

 

 

 

Critical Thinking Skills, pp. 250, 389, 432, 516, 536

 

GH2, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 2-2, 2-4, 5-3, 13-2, 14-4, Unit 6 Regional Atlas, 16-1, 16-2, 16-3, 17-1, 18-1, 19-2

(3)

3.) Describe processes that shape the physical environment, including long-range effects of extreme weather phenomena and human activity.

Examples: plate tectonics and continental drift; ocean and atmospheric circulation; erosion; movements of the sun, moon, and Earth; renewable and nonrenewable resources; impact of hurricanes or typhoons on coastal ecosystems; heavy rainfall on hill slopes after deforestation

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

2-3, 2-4, unit 2 Regional Atlas, Unit 3 Regional Atlas, 8-1, Unit 4 Regional Atlas, Unit 5 Regional Atlas, 14-2, 14-3, 15-3, Unit 6 Regional Atlas, 16-3, 17-1, 18-1, Unit 7 Regional Atlas, 21-1

(3A)

• Comparing how ecosystems vary from place to place and over time
Examples:
- place to place-differences in soils, climates, and topography;
- over time-destruction of natural habitats due to effects of floods and forest fires, reduction of species diversity due to loss of natural habitats, reduction of wetlands due to replacement by farms, reduction of forests and farmland due to replacement by housing developments, reduction of previously cleared land due to reforestation efforts

 

 

X

 

 

 

Studying and Writing Skills, pp. 210, 282, 312, 586, 597

 

3-1, Unit 2 Regional Atlas, 4-1,

 4-2,  10-1, 11-1, 12-1

(4)

4.) Locate cultural hearths in Europe, Asia, and Africa on maps, globes, and satellite images.

 

X

 

X

 

 

 

All Chapters

(4A)

• Describing physical and human characteristics used to define regions in the Eastern Hemisphere
Examples:
- physical-landforms, climates, oceans, rivers;
- human-government, economy, language, religion, culture

 

X

 

X

 

 

 

Unit 2 Regional Atlas, 4-1,

 6-1,  6-5,

10-1, 13-2, 17-2, 19-1, 20-1

(4B)

• Relating place names to cultural and/or political perspectives

 

X

 

X

 

 

 

All Chapters

(5)

5.) Identify physical, economic, political, and cultural characteristics of selected regions in the Eastern Hemisphere, including Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Examples:
- physical-principal features, natural resources, weather phenomena;
- economic-agriculture, industry, imports and exports;
- political-distribution and movement of human populations;
- cultural-architecture, foods, clothes, languages, religions

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

X

 

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alabama Virtual Library:

SIR Discoverer

Kids Info Bits

 

3-4, Unit 2 Regional Atlas, 5-1,   5-2,  5-3, 6-1, 7-3, Unit 3 Regional Atlas, 8-2,

 9-2, 9-3,   12-1, 12-2, 12-4, 14-4, 16-1, 16-2, 18-2, 19-1

(6)

6.) Explain factors that contribute to conflict within and between countries of the Eastern Hemisphere.

Examples: economic competition for scarce resources, boundary disputes, cultural differences, control of strategic locations

X

X

 

X

 

 

 

3-3, 3-4, 5-3,

Unit 4 Regional Atlas, 10-1, 12-1, 13-1, 13-2, 14-2, 14-4, 17-1, 17-3, 20-1, 20-2

(7)

7.) Describe historical and contemporary economic trade networks of regions in the Eastern Hemisphere based upon their geographic location and available resources.

Examples: Silk Road, Sahara salt trade of the 1300s, spice trade of the 1400s-1600s, imperialistic relationships, petroleum production, satellite-based communication systems

X

X

X

 

 

Foldables Organizers

 

GH3, 1-1,   2-2, 2-4, 5-3, 6-3, 7-1, 7-3, 8-1, 9-3,    11-1, 13-2, 16-1, 16-2, 17-1, 18-1,

19-2, 21-2

(8)

8.) Describe positive and negative environmental effects of human actions on the four basic components of Earth's physical systems: atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere.

Examples:
- atmosphere-possible ozone depletion, Clean Air Act;
- biosphere-deforestation, reduction in biodiversity, expansion of the savanna, desertification, prevention of forest fires by proper forest management;
- lithosphere-land degradation, weathering by polluted air and water, reforestation, restocking of fish, water purification;
- hydrosphere-pesticides washing into river systems, decline of quality groundwater

 

 

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

1-1, 2-4, 3-4, 5-3, 6-3, 7-1,

8-1, 9-3,    11-1, 16-1, 17-1,

18-1

(9)

9.) Analyze environmental consequences of major technological changes in human history for both intended and unintended outcomes.

Examples: nuclear waste storage, depletion of fossil fuel by automobiles, protecting the soil through crop rotation, soil degradation after the invention of the steel-tipped plow, increased food supply

 

X

X

 

 

 

 

3-2, 3-4

(9A)

• Identifying the impact of urban growth on the environment

 

X

X

 

 

 

 

1-3, 6-2, 6-5, 17-1, 21-1

(10)

10.) Describe ways people in the Eastern Hemisphere prepare for natural hazards and disasters.

Examples: earthquake drills in Japan, construction of houses on stilts in typhoon-prone areas

 

X