Livability Unit Overview 1-The Story Behind the Story 2-Pre-Survey Foundations 3-Livability Survey & Results
Lesson 1 - The Story Behind History
Content Objective: Students will understand how geography and natural disasters have affected the history of regions and places. For our livability unit we'll be learning about how geographic features affect peoples' feelings and decisions about where to live. We're going to start by reading first-hand accounts of what happened in various situations like floods, droughts, earthquakes, fires, etc., to find out the stories behind the history of an area. Hopefully this assignment will help you appreciate the story behind why a region or place is or isn't a desirable place in which to live.
NETS: 1a,b,d; 2d; 3b,d; 4c; 5a,b; 6a,b
Motivation Activity: Students will read an article about The San Francisco Earthquake
You will choose from the following sites/stories:
Earthquake: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/sfeq.htm
Hurricane: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/galveston.htm
Discovery:
Hurricane: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/galveston.htm
Discovery:
California Gold Rush: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/californiagoldrush.htm
The Vikings: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/vikings.htm
Westward Expansion: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/buildingamerica.htm
You Decide: http://news.google.com/archivesearch
Westward Expansion: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/buildingamerica.htm
You Decide: http://news.google.com/archivesearch
You get to choose one site that interests you from the blue section. You must also go to the You Decide: Google News Archive search and find one additional first-person account.
For the blue section simply choose one of the sites to go to and; 1) read the article, 2) summarize it using the 6W format we've used before. For the news archive search, you might type into the search engine something like 'Idaho flood,' and find an article like this. Again, summarize the article with the 6W format.
Application Activity:
Students will schedule a time while in class to get on our classroom computer and open Google Earth. Once there, placemark the item you researched from the You Decide: Google News Archive search. In the label for the placemark include a very brief description of what event happened there. Give a more detailed (but still brief) overview of what your research uncovered. You placemark label should have your last name and first name initial, then the title (i.e. hogans--Spokane Firestorm).
Lesson Assessments:
Students article summary work will be evaluated with this rubric.
Assigning Markers to the Google Earth Map: Students will receive 5 points for properly placing the marker onto the map, and 5 points for the summary about the event.