Bath School Department 2003
Content Area: Social Studies
Grade 3

Content Standard: Geography
B. Human Interaction with Environments

Students will understand and analyze the relationships among people and their physical environment.
Common Assessment(s):
Performance Indicators

Students will be able to:

Essential Elements
(Specific grade level learning objectives)
Suggested Performance Activities

Suggested Classroom Assessments
Vocabulary

1. Demonstrate an understanding of why certain areas of the world are more densely populated than others.

Factors affecting density of population would include:

  • climate
  • physical characteristics
  • natural resources
  • jobs
  • leisure opportunities
  • culture and family
  • religion

The students will demonstrate density through role play.
The students will list various environments (mountains, shoreline, desert, etc.) and discuss why one would choose to live in these places now and in the past.
The students will make a booklet defining and illustrating the terms natural resources, physical environment (physical characteristics), and climate.

The students will explain why more people live in Bath than on Mt. Katahdin.

rural
urban
country
densely populated

2. Explain ways in which communities reflect the backgrounds of their inhabitants.

Ways would include:

  • place names
  • customs and traditions
  • religion
  • community events
  • type of industry

The students will discuss family customs and traditions. They will research at home how these customs got started.
The students will discuss community festivals and how they reflect the backgrounds of the inhabitants (Heritage Days, Lobster Festival, Clam Festival, La Kermesse, Greek Festival, etc.)

The students will explain how a souvenir shop in Maine might differ from one in another specific state.

culture

3 Use a variety of materials and geographic tools to explain how the physical environment supports and constrains human activities.

Students will discuss effects of

  • climate
  • landforms
  • bodies of water
  • plant and animal life
  • pollution

The teacher will expose the students to a wide variety of geographical tools (contour maps, physical maps, political maps, atlases, globes, etc.)
The students will use the booklet from Geography B1 to define physical environment. They will brainstorm a list of human activities.

Given a map of Maine, the students will list jobs and recreational activities which are best suited for Maine and explain why.

contour maps