Regions Research: Read everything on this page and click the links to help you answer your questions.

So, your teacher wants you to find information on N.C. regions--before you Google anything, look at the map below to see which counties are in your region. Yes, I know the print is tiny, but you have access to other maps of N.C. that label its counties, like the second map below. This is just for reference, so that you can see where the regions are.

Next, follow these steps to help you understand how to use the internet for research and what you are actually doing when you use the internet. Google is a powerful search engine, but narrowing what you are searching for is absolutely necessary. When you search the internet, you are using a computer to access all the pages that contain information on the world wide web.

Narrowing the search prevents Google from returning results for all pages that include even one mention of North Carolina. If you don't limit your internet searches, the computer really thinks you want to see all there is to see about a particular subject. You might think that more is better, and that you'll just scan through all the results--THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE--

"A more recent study, which used Web searches in 75 different languages to sample the Web, determined that there were over 11.5 billion Web pages in the publicly indexable Web as of the end of January 2005.^[34] As of June 2008, the indexable web contains at least 63 billion pages.^[35] On July 25, 2008, Google software engineers Jesse Alpert and Nissan Hajaj announced that Google Search had discovered one trillion unique URLs.^{[36]" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web)}

^{11.5 billion=11,500,000,000 63 billion=63,000,000,000}

^{note that this information is current as of 2005--we will soon be in 2011. The internet is HUGE.}

Questions 1-4 and 6 require information that can be seen on a variety of maps, so a useful Google search would be "map of north carolina": Narrowing the search to maps prevents Google from returning results for all pages that include even one mention of North Carolina.

Notice that the 3rd link for Geology.com lists cities, roads, counties, rivers, lakes.

Aren't those the types of things questions 1 and 3 ask you to find? The Geology.com link is a great place to get started, because you will find information that relates to several of your questions. Be aware, however, that you will see several opportunites to link to other maps, or download this or that--all you need to do to find the information on this page is READ. Look at the different maps and make notes to organize the information you need. Geology.com

In addition to Geology.com, you will also want to do a Google search for each major city in your region. For example: I know that Greensboro is a major city in the piedmont region. To find out why Greensboro is important (Question #1), I want to search for: "official website for Greensboro, N.C." or if I want more information about Raleigh, then I want to search for: "official website for Raleigh, N.C.". Do not use a wikipedia link for this information. You want to use the official websites that have been created by the city to highlight its features.

The Geology.com website does not give information about natural resources, so doing another Google search for "natural resources n.c." seems like a good search. Unfortunately, the data for all natural resources is not available in one website, because different agencies are responsible for the policies and rules that help us protect our state's natural resources,

Anyway--searching for things like: "natural resources n.c. trees" or "natural resources n.c. water" does not yield any better results, so your only choice to gather that information (question #3) is to read what each of the other sites that you visit has to say about the trees, air, water, soil and other natural resources in your region. Using NCWiseOWL's Brittanica and searching for North Carolina gives you access to an article that provides a good overview of N.C. If you are asked to give a username and password, please enter wiseowl in both boxes. The print almanacs in the media center also provide this information, but the almanacs merely list the resources, they do not tell which region they are found in.

To be able to answer question number 2, you first have to determine the location of important landmarks in your region. A Google search for "n.c. landmarks" returns great results. The first link goes to a database that is loaded with tons of information, but is hard to use (you have to know the counties in your region and search for them one by one). The second link goes to a website maintained by our state library's Department of Cultural resources. You will need to read about the attractions to see which region it belongs to.

To find relative location, you need to notice where the landmark is in relation to major cities, etc. To find absolute location you will need to find the address of the landmark ( by Googling the name of the landmark) and use a program like Google Earth (on media computers, but can only be opened on machines with bases). Just open Google Earth, then key in the name and address (if you have it) of your landmark, click Fly To, let Google Earth do its thing, then move your mouse to touch the center of the plus sign, then write down the coordinates at the bottom of the Google Earth window.

Now, if you have read everything on this page, and you have used, looked at, and read the information available in the links, you should have all the information you need to answer 1-3 with no problems. Number 4 and 5 are inferential questions. You should be able to use the information you gather to be able to think up your own answers.

For question #6 please use a website like VisitNC, so you can read a brief overview of the regions. As the question states, "you will need to know about the other 2 regions" in order to compare your region to the other two.