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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Create a Country

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Students work in small groups to list features and elements found on a variety of grade- appropriate maps. They develop a class list of map features and elements to draw from as they create a map of an imaginary country.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Welcome to My World!

For Teachers 1st - 2nd
Young scholars use maps to locate information. They read the story, "It Looked Like Spilt Milk", view images of the continents and discuss the various continents. Afterward, they make their own Atlas to record information that they can...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mapping Your Community

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students define the boundaries of their community by comparing the community's official boundaries with other historical, political, physical, and perceived boundaries of the area and create a community map.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mending the Rift

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Learners determine what factors identify a country's political borders. After reading an article, they investigate questions surrounding the Great Rift Valley. On a map, they trace the valley from Asia through Africa and research the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Geography of Vietnam

For Teachers 9th
Ninth graders examine the geography of Vietnam.  In this Geography lesson, 9th graders create a physical and political map of Vietnam. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mapping the Border

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
Learners create maps of the borderland region. They decorate their maps with colors, pictures, icons, scenes, words that reflect their understanding of the character and history of the borderland.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay Landscape Long Ago and Today

For Teachers 4th - 5th Standards
Combine a fantastic review of primary source analysis with a study of Captain John Smith's influence on the Chesapeake Bay region in the seventeenth century. Your young historians will use images, a primary source excerpt, and maps...
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Lesson Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Teaching Geography: Workshop 4—North Africa/Southwest Asia

For Students 9th - 12th
Can Jerusalem be equitably organized? Can Israel and Palestine be successfully partitioned? Part one of a two-part workshop looks at the geo-political history of Jerusalem while Part two investigates Egypt's dependence of the Nile River...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

U.S. and Canada: How are We the Same? How are We Different?

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Get high school geographers to compare and contrast Canada and the United States. They begin by drawing a freehand map of North America, then complete readings to gain insight into Canada. The text is not provided; however, another text...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Malta: The Landscape

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students work in small groups to create a topographic map of Malta. They must include labeled line drawings of bordering countries and bodies of water. Students use salt and flour clay to make Malta three dimensional, showing the nearest...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Silk Roads Big Map: A Silk Roads Encounters Project

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Students are introduced to the Silk Road and its purpose. Using a map outline, they create an oversized replica of the Silk Road from Europe to Asia. They add political and physical features to the map along with the routes of travelers.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Global Intelligence

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students discuss the war in Afghanistan and the conditions surrounding the hunt for Osama bin Laden after reading the article "Bin Laden and Omar: Far Harder to Find" from The New York Times. After the class discussion, students...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Geography And The Revolutionary War

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students gain a deeper understanding of both geography and the Revolutionary War. They practice using on line research in examining historical events and using political, physical, and topographic maps.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Desertification

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students investigate the process of desertification in the Sahel region of Africa. They discuss photos from a National Geographic magazine, analyze the physical/political map of the Sahara, identify the causes and effects of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Land Elevation

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Students investigate land elevation. In this map skills lesson, students use a physical map to identify various elevations of the land. Students find landform features such hills and coastlines.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

U.S. Geography- The Northeast

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students investigate the geography of the Northeast states. In this map skills instructional activity, students are shown a map of the Northeast states and identify the state names and borders. Students construct individual maps of the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Welcome to My World!

For Teachers 2nd
Second graders increase their usage of maps and understand how maps are important in their lives. Students define what an atlas is, and to enforce the students' definition of what an atlas is, they also make their own atlas.
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Unit Plan
National Geographic

Australia, Antarctica, and Oceana

For Teachers 4th - 9th
Go on a traveling adventure throughout Australia, Oceana, and Antarctica! This textbook excerpt offers a full unit of study that can easily be supplemented by extra projects or research materials. Learners study maps, read about native...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Put Me in My Place: Using Alphanumeric Grids to Locate Places

For Teachers 1st - 2nd
Students practice locating points on a large wall grid and create and label a neighborhood map. In this geography lesson, students spell and discuss places as the teacher places them on the map. They discuss the concept of an...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

European Agriculture

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students make inferences on how physical geography affected the development of early civilizations and come up with solutions to global issues. In this physical geography lesson plan, students compare maps of the past to maps of today to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

US Presidential Election Process and the Campaign Trail

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers campaign for president. In this presidential election instructional activity, students discuss the process of electing presidents, write their own campaign songs, research a campaign train schedule, and create campaign maps.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Places in My World

For Teachers 2nd
Second graders explore where they are located on the globe. For this maps and globes lesson, 2nd graders use a map to show where they live and  show the cardinal directions. Students identify characteristics of mountains, flat land,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Traditional Tribal Homelands of Washington's Plateau Nations

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Learners investigate the Plateau tribes. In this Native American lesson plan, students use a political map of Washington state to identify the location of the Plateau tribes. Learners brainstorm the needs and wants of the tribes and use...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Minnesota Floor Map

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners examine the physical geography of Minnesota, work cooperatively to design a map of Minnesota and develop spatial and relative location of Minnesota landmarks and physical characteristics.