By: William R. Jamieson, South Newton Middle School; Kentland, IN; 6/14/97

Purpose:

In order to better understand "how" to utilize a specific web site, MapQuest, students will compare the location of their home city/town with a town in another country (non U.S.) that they have selected and researched utilizing the Internet.

Grade Level: 7th Grade

Geography Standards Addressed:

• #1) How to use maps and other geographic represenations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process and report information from a geographic perpective.
• #4) The physical and human characteristics of places.
• #6) How culture and experience influence people’s perceptions of places and regions.
• #10) The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth’s cultural mosaics.
• #12) The processes, patterns and functions of human settlement.

Materials required: Computer lab and paper and pens/pencils

Procedures:

• 1. Discuss with the students the assignment prior to arriving at the computer laboratory.
• 2. Have the students, individually, select a country that they are interested in learning more about. Make a list of the countries and respective researchers.
• 3. In the computer lab, have each student begin to research for cultural and economic information about their selected country; they will need to make notes about the information that they find or print the web pages that may be useful in report preparation.
• 4. Once the students are completed researching their selected country, they are to research their home city/town for cultural and economic information to report to their colleagues.
• 5. A presentation will be made by each student comparing their selected country with their home city/town in terms of culture and economy; four (4) differences in economy and culture must be incorporated into the written and oral reports.
• 6. Allow for diversity in presentation style and information. Each student may discover something new about their home city/state that they deem necessary to share and compare.
• 7. Have some of the students create a binder of their reports for future research.

Evaluation:

The students should be able to identify the major economic and cultural differences and similarities between their town and a selected foreign town. Their essay should be neat, 250 words and identify four (4) similarities and four (4) differences.

Adaptations and Extensions:

The students will follow up in the next day’s class with a discussion of "what" they learned. An "essay" will be written by each student after the discussion regarding "what" their perceptions were prior to doing the research and "how" those perceptions changed or modified subsequent to their research and presentations.