Star Wars in the Classroom
Star Wars Geography Unit
What kind of animals live on an ice planet like Hoth? How would the habitat on Tatooine allow different organisms to thrive? Connect social studies, science, and Star Wars in one engaging activity that focuses on the ecosystems of the...
Curated OER
Create Your Own Country Project
Young scholars demonstrate their knowledge of geography with this fun, collaborative social studies project. Working in small groups, students develop their very own countries, writing descriptions of their physical location, social...
New York City Department of Education
Egypt
This six-week unit encompasses all subjects with a focus study on world history and the development of ancient civilizations. As gifted and talented students dive into the interesting yet challenging topic of Egypt, they think critically...
Curated OER
A World of Information
Students analyze data and statistics about countries around the world. They read graphs and charts, color a world map to illustrate the top ten statistics about the world, and write a paragraph to summarize their information.
Curated OER
Geomnemonics: Facilitating the Teaching of Social Studies Content with Geography Skills
Young scholars explore how to draw a world map by hand and how to locate countries.
Curated OER
Tracing Our Own Family Pilgrimages
The Pilgrims may have arrived in North America by way of the Mayflower, but chances are, your class members' ancestors came to the United States in another way. Guide them through an exploration of their own heritage, countries of...
Pardee Home Museum
Geography of Alaska
A unit on the 49th state covers a variety of topics from the geography of Alaska to Native American myths. Academics work to analyze information found in primary source materials including old newspaper articles and artifacts. Young...
Curated OER
Desert Fever: A Student-Centered Approach to Learning About the Middle East
Explore the exciting and diverse geography, people, history, governments, and economies of the Middle East. Curious minds develop a basic vocabulary of Arabic terms and work with various materials to create an aesthetically pleasing,...
Curated OER
US Geography: The Midwest
Students investigate the geography and agricultural products of the Midwestern United States. In this US geography lesson plan, students watch and discuss a video that depicts the Midwest of the US as the breadbasket of the country. They...
Curated OER
Geography/Current Events Project
Using the Balkan region as an example, fourth graders review the five themes of geography as a class. They identify the physical and human characteristics of a region before labeling the countries and landforms on a map. They then...
Owl Teacher
Five Themes of Geography Book Project
Young geographers choose a country to research and design a book explaining how their country applies to the five themes of geography, including three facts or details for each of the themes.
Curated OER
Geography: Puerto Rico
Take a trip to Puerto Rico! Learners engage in a web quest, identify Puerto Rico on the map, and gather information related to physical features and cultural factors. Their efforts culminate when they design a brochure comparing the...
Curated OER
Social Studies: International Food Fair
Students identify activities that promote social studies education and enjoy an international food tasting session. On food item sheets, they write the origins of the various food items. On a laminated world map, each cook circles the...
Foreign Policy Research Institute
A Geography Lesson
Fewer and fewer people have a strong grasp of world geography, but this activity helps students understand geopolitics by creating their own original historical map. The activity requires selecting a country from the list provided,...
National Geographic
Mapping the Americas
Celebrate the geography of the Americas and develop map skills through a series of activities focused on the Western Hemisphere. Learners study everything from earthquakes and volcanoes of the Americas and the relationship between...
Curated OER
Buffalo Hide Paintings
To the Native American people living on the plains, the buffalo represented culture, art, sustenance, and survival. Explore the history of the buffalo with a social studies lesson, in which learners create a buffalo hide painting in the...
Curated OER
Travel Diary
Darwin kept a travel diary as he voyaged to South America, noting the politics, geography, cultures, animals, and interesting facts he encountered. Your class will do the same. Each student chooses a country to research and keep a five...
Fremont Unified School District
4th Grade California Relief Map Project
Bring life to your next California geography lesson with this great project! Learners design a three-dimensional wall relief map of California, painting and decorating regions using a variety of materials and labeling major geographical...
Curated OER
European Elevation Sort
Given a prepared database of European countries, sixth graders sort the countries in ascending order by elevation and identify the five countries with the highest elevations. This cross-curricular lesson plan combines elements of...
Curated OER
My Own Private Idaho; Using Social Studies to Explore Idaho
Young scholars engage in several activities to explore Idaho and Social Studies themes. Using an variety of media, students become familiar with Idaho's geography and geology.
Curated OER
The Zabbaleen, Cairo's Garbage Workers
Here is a fascinating human geography study of the Zabbaleen. They are a sub-class of people who work as garbage collectors in Cairo, Egypt. I can't say enough good things about this resource in my limited space here. It is fabulous! If...
Curated OER
Geo-Magazine
Divide your geography class into groups and have each research an assigned region. The result of this project is a regional magazine that addresses the five themes of geography. Many valuable resource links are embedded into the page...
Curated OER
Geography: Ancient Rome
Students research Ancient Rome, the Mediterranean Region, Roman myths, and Latin. In this Roman life lesson, students study maps of the region, learn their language and customs, research the Punic wars, the catastrophe of Pompeii, and...
Curated OER
Cyberspace Safari
Middle schoolers go on an information gathering hunt on the Internet to study West African empires. They work in teams; meteorologists, bankers, writers, and archaeologists. They collect data on all sorts of topics related to West...