Geography: World Dynamics
Adapted from a lesson by Joseph Thomas OSGI 1995

Overvalue:

The Earth is constantly changing. It is very much like our own bodies that also change over time. We are able to see the changes we got through by pictures, him and in the mirror. Likewise we are able to see changes that the Earth has gone through by excavations, geographical formations, earthquakes, floods, the growth of cities, nations and through extinction of species. This lesson, in using "Earthweek" from The Oregonian will enable students to become aware of some of the immediate changes that take place on the Earth and how those changes have an effect on many living things. As they will see, many are natural and many are the result of human interaction with the environment.

Connection to the Curriculum: Social Studies, English, and Science

Teaching Level: K-12

Connection to State Content Standards:

1 Read, interpret and make maps, charts and graphs to explain spatial relationships.
2 Identify the physical and human characteristics of places and regions and how they change through time

Connection to National Standards:

1 How to use spatial maps.
2 How to use mental maps to organize information about people.
4 The physical and human characteristics of places.
5 That people create regions to interpret Earth's complexity.
15 How physical systems affect human systems.

Materials:

Copy of "Earthweek: Diary of a Planet" from The Oregonian
World atlas
World map
Fact sheet
Paper & pencil

Procedure:
  1. Ask students to name some ways that the earth changes and list on the board. What category might those changes be put in? Have them give some ways that humans cause change to the Earth. What might those changes be called? Are there ways that animals change the earth? List. How might we categorize the changes made by animals? Which changes are more long lasting. Which are good and which are bad? Ask students to keep the different ways that change is caused on the earth in mind as they read "Earthweek, Diary of a Planet". Discuss a diary/journal.
  2. Relate a personal experience of an encounter with a wild animal, natural event, or human-caused incident. Ask students to work in pairs and distribute world atlas. Distribute "Earthweek" sheet and ask students to select one story, read it and copy it down on paper. Remind students that they will be asked to locate the place selected from "Earthweek" on a world map. Distribute fact sheet and explain that students are to use the atlas to complete the fact sheet after reading the "Earthweek" story.
  3. After completion of the fact sheet, ask one pair at a time to report their findings and point to the location of the natural/human event on the map. To summarize, ask for some impressions, predictions, long-term effects of the event. How might the animals or humans have felt? Could the event have been avoided. How? How did the stories make them feel?

Extensions:

Students may be asked to research one or more "Earthweek" events, collect newspaper or magazine articles on the stories, keep a diary or journal, creative writing, write to individuals involved in one of the stories.