Geography Unit

GOAL of Geography: Triple A for Cing U in the world.

I need: By:
- A sense of responsibility in the - Connecting to the local, national, and
world. global communities
- A sense of fairness and justice. - Understanding how political, economic,
- A sense of value. and social institutions affect your life

Our units BIG idea:

If we want to change the environment we
need to change the human behaviour and
establish new patterns.
Grade 7
A. Physical Patterns in a Changing
World
B. Natural Resources around the World:
Use and Sustainability
Grade 8
A. Global Settlement: Patterns and
Sustainability
B. Global Inequalities: Economic
Development and Quality of Life

Unit Checklist:
Check when done
Tasks

1 Map skills

2 What are the largest issues facing our world list

3 Urban Rural

4 Energy sector

5 Population Patterns

6 FINAL TASK Persuasive letter,

7 FINAL TASK satirical cartoon or advertisement

LESSON 1 - Map Skills

These are things you are to know about map skills. Lets keep this simple. Read them. If you know
them, skip them. If you dont, research them.

- uses colour to represent common characteristics of an area (e.g.,the same provincial,territorial,

and/or national area, the same physical landforms, similar temperatures, settlement by a particular
group)

- uses labels with different font sizes and styles to indicate hierarchy of cities, countries, continents

- uses colour and contour lines to show elevation

- uses intermediate cardinal compass points (i.e.,NE,NW, SE, SW) to provide direction

- uses number and letter grids to locate something on a map

- uses latitude and longitude to locate something on a map or globe

- understands time zones

- know that there are different types of maps for different purposes
- political (e.g., Canadas political regions, countries of the world)
physical (e.g., climate, landforms)
historical (e.g., settlement patterns)
land use (e.g., community features)
demographic (e.g., population distribution)
flow (e.g., movement of people)
issue-based (e.g., pollution or poverty in Canada)
annotated (e.g., illustrating an aspect of student inquiry)

Write notes here about new things you learned:

Lesson 2 - World Issues

Watch this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRLJscAlk1M

Find and watch another 3-5 videos on the topic of sustainability

Record their URLS:

Which video was most effective?

Why?

Make a list of at least 5 problems in making the world sustainable.

Lesson 3 - Urban vs Rural

Why do people live where they live? Make a list of 5

reasons.

Open up Google Earth on your Ipad and choose
three large cities to explore
For each city:
- find two advantages for living there that you
observe
- find two disadvantages for living there
- any other interesting facts about that particular city
Then choose two rural areas to explore
For each rural area:
- find two advantages for living there that you
observe
- find two disadvantages for living there
- any other interesting facts about that particular city

Urban city 1 Rural area 1

Urban city 2 Rural area 2

Would you rather live in the City or the Country? Explain why you think this

What impact do cities have on sustainability?

Lesson 4 - The Energy Sector

Brainstorm ideas of what comes to mind when you think of energy sources used in Ontario.

Research why the energy sector is a problem when it comes to sustainability?

What energy energy generating options are the worst?

Research a form of electricity generation FORM ________________

How does it work? How much do we use it currently (in Ontario)?

What are three advantages to your energy source? What are some disadvantages to you energy
source?

Is your energy source sustainable? What are your opinions on this energy source?

Watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uStFvcz9Or4
Do you think we can change the energy sector to be more sustainable?
 Lesson 5 - Population Patterns Research the topic of population patterns.

What are the trends? Why is this trend happening?

Watch this video: Are there any ways to deal with our over population
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b98JmQ0Cc3k problem?
What are your reflections?

Final Assignment
Purpose: To display your understanding of geography being about our physical environment and our human
environment and how if we are going to change the environment we have to change human behaviour and
establish new patterns.

Task:
1) Choose the top issue that you think should be dealt with to create a more sustainable community.
2) Write a persuasive letter to promote change in this area. THis letter could be addressed to an MP, the
Minister of the Environment, or you could make a change.org type petition.
3) Create a magazine ad or satirical cartoon on this topic.

It should include information on:

- Why creating a sustainable community is important
- Outlines your issue as to why it is the most important.
- Explain the ripple effect it has solving other issues
- Explains a researched solution to your issue that changes human patterns to create a more sustainable
community
Argument examples
Pollution is a problem we need to address very soon.
First of all, polluted air affects over 100 million
people. Also inhaling polluted air may cause you to
become sick. Lastly just being in Beijing for one day
is just as bad as smoking 21 cigarettes. Solving
pollution will make the world a better place. A
solution to decrease pollution is to use more solar
energy. Firstly solar energy can produce enough i
energy in one hour to provide everyone with power
for a whole year. Solar is very reliable, it has been
used for 1000 or more years. Lastly solar energy
does not pollute. As long as we start using more
solar we can slowly stop pollution. If we start using
more and more solar energy sources it will affect
other issues. First of all having a clean non polluted
environment will help reduce some sicknesses, We
would have more clean water which would help
consumption and stop some sicknesses. Lastly less
animals would become extinct and some animals
help us with farming and we also eat certain animals.
So overall getting rid of pollution would help get rid of
other issues.
Pollution is the number 1 issue to fix to allow for a
better world. The death rate for pollution is 7 million
people every year. This rate is going up every air as
the pollution is getting worse and worse. Water is
starting to become polluted, poisoning people and
animals leading to death in most cases. There is
over 1 million deaths just from sea mammals and
seabirds every year.lf this keeps going on then we
will slowly lose our necessities to life (food and
water) without these things people wilt continue to
die until there is no life. What is the point of fixing
another issue if soon after there will not be any life
maybe planet of pollution isn't fixed? If we don't fix
this issue there will be no more chance to fix any
issues because pollution will kill most of our
population if we don't fix it immediately.
My Solution is to start a gas tax and create fines for
companies that produce pollution or items stat cause
pollution. Most people use gas cars which creates
pollution in our air and uses gas which we will run
out of eventually. If we made a tax that monthly you
paid 13% of all the gas you used people would think
twice before taking their car. If less people are using
their cars there won't be as many toxins released
into our oxygen. Companies that produce pollution or
materials (such as water bottles) that will later lead to
some sort of pollution will be fined a great deal of
money. If we are causing people and companies to
pay more money they will come up with better
methods of similar things (such as edible water
bottles).Making these extra cost will mostly change
how humans behave to our environment.