SOCIAL STUDIES
GRADE 6 GEOGRAPHY

THE WORLD IN SPATIAL TERMS

Understand the characteristics and uses of maps, globes, and compasses

Students Will:

Identify distinguishing characteristics of different map projections.

Use thematic maps.

Understand Earth-Sun relationship.

Demonstrate use of compass on a map and in the field.

Know the location of places, geographic features, and patterns of the environment

Students Will:

Identify physical and human features (e.g. culture hearths such as Mesopotamia, Huang Ho, Nile Valley; major ocean currents; landforms; climate regions).

Know relative location of, size of, and distances between places (e.g. major urban centers in the United States).

Understand the characteristics and uses of spatial organization of Earth's surface

Students Will:

Explain population density, land use, how places are connected.

Understand migration of people and diffusion of culture.

PLACES AND REGIONS

Understand the physical and human characteristics of place

Students Will:

Show the human characteristics of places (e.g., cultural characteristics such as religion, language, politics, technology, family structure; population characteristics; land uses; levels of development).

Show the physical characteristics of places (e.g., land forms, vegetation, wildlife, climate, natural hazards).

Know how technology shapes the human and physical characteristics of places.

Know the causes and effects of changes in a place over time (e.g., physical changes such as forest cover, water distribution, temperature fluctuations; human changes such as urban growth, the clearing of forests, development of transportation systems).

Understand the concept of regions

Students Will:

Know regions at various spatial scales (e.g., hemispheres, regions within continents, countries, cities).

Explain criteria that give a region identity (physical or human features such as climate, landforms, land use, or culture).

Understand how regional systems are interconnected (e.g. watersheds, trade, cultural ties).

Understand that culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions

Students Will:

Know how places serve as cultural symbols (e.g. the Great Pyramid; Statue of Liberty; Eiffel Tower).

Know how technology affects land use (e.g., irrigating land, building of cities) and how the land shapes and influences culture.

PHYSICAL SYSTEMS

Know the physical processes that shape patterns on Earth's surface

Understand the characteristics of ecosystems on Earth's surface

HUMAN SYSTEMS

Understand the distribution and migration of human populations on Earth's surface

Understand the patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth's surface

Students Will:

Understand historic and contemporary systems of transportation and communication in the development of economic activities (e.g., the movement of goods, ideas, and people in, around, and out of places).

Know primary economic activities such as coal mining and salmon fishing; secondary economic activities such as the manufacture of shoes and the associated worldwide trade in raw materials; tertiary economic activity such as restaurants, theaters, and hotels.

Define economic systems of capitalism, socialism, and communism.

Understand the patterns and causes of human settlement (why people live where they live)

ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY

Understand how human actions modify the physical environment

Students Will:

Understand the environmental consequences of people changing the physical environment (e.g., the effects of ozone depletion, acid rain, climate change, deforestation, land degradation, ocean pollution, water-quality).

Understand the ways in which technology influences the human capacity to modify the physical environment (e.g., effects of controlling fire, steam power, electricity, work animals).

Understand how Earth’s physical systems affect human systems

Categorize natural resources (e.g. renewable, nonrenewable, fossil fuels)

Understand the changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution and importance of resources

USES OF GEOGRAPHY

Understand how geography is used to interpret the past

Students Will:

Knows historic and current conflicts and competition regarding the use and allocation of resources.

Knows the ways in which the spatial organization of society changes over time (e.g., process of urban growth in the United States).

Understand global development and environmental issues

Students Will:

Understand how the interaction between physical and human systems affects current conditions on Earth (e.g., economic relationships, types of energy sources such as petroleum, coal, nuclear power, and solar power and their impact on the environment).

Understand the possible impact that present conditions and patterns of consumption, production and population growth might have on the future spatial organization of Earth.