World Geography Unit 1

Big Idea:

• Relationships among people, places,and environments affect geographic patterns on Earth's surface.
• People create systems of government as well as structures of power and authority to provide order and stability.
• People organize economic systems to produce, distribute, and consume goods and services.

Student Expectations:

Priority TEKS

WG.4(A) [Readiness] explain how elevation, latitude, wind systems, ocean currents, position on a continent, and mountain barriers influence temperature, precipitation, and distribution of climate regions,

WG.4(B) [Supporting] describe different landforms and the physical processes that cause their development,

WG.4(C) [Supporting] explain the influence of climate on the distribution of biomes in different regions,

WG.5(B) [Supporting] interpret political, economic, social, and demographic indicators (gross domestic product per capita, life expectancy, literacy, and infant mortality) to determine the level of development and standard of living in nations using the terms Human Development Index, less developed, newly industrialized, and more developed

Focus TEKS

WG.3(A) [Supporting] explain weather conditions and climate in relation to annual changes in Earth-Sun relationships,

WG.3(B) [Readiness] describe the physical processes that affect the environments of regions, including weather, tectonic forces, erosion, and soil-building processes,

WG.3(C) [Supporting] examine the physical processes that affect the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere,

WG.5(A) [Readiness] analyze how the character of a place is related to its political, economic, social, and cultural element,

WG.7(A) [Supporting] construct and analyze population pyramids and use other data, graphics, and maps to describe the population characteristics of different societies and to predict future population trends,

WG.8(B) [Readiness] describe the interaction between humans and the physical environment and analyze the consequences of extreme weather and other natural disasters such as El Niño, floods, tsunamis, and volcanoes,

WG.9(B) [Supporting]describe different types of regions, including formal, functional, and perceptual regions,

WG.10(A) [Supporting] describe the forces that determine the distribution of goods and services in free enterprise, socialist, and communist economic systems

WG.10(B) [Supporting] classify where specific countries fall along the economic spectrum between free enterprise and communism,

WG.10(C) [Readiness] compare the ways people satisfy their basic needs through the production of goods and services such as subsistence agriculture versus commercial agriculture or cottage industries versus commercial industries,

WG.10(D) [Readiness] compare global trade patterns over time and examine the implications of globalization, including outsourcing and free trade zones,

WG.11(A) [Readiness] understand the connections between levels of development and economic activities (primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary)

WG.11(B) [Readiness] identify the factors affecting the location of different types of economic activities, including subsistence and commercial agriculture, manufacturing, and service industries,

WG.11(C) [Supporting] assess how changes in climate, resources, and infrastructure (technology, transportation, and communication) affect the location and patterns of economic activities,

WG.12(A) [Readiness] analyze how the creation, distribution, and management of key natural resources affects the location and patterns of movement of products, money, and people,

WG.12(B) [Supporting] evaluate the geographic and economic impact of policies related to the development, use, and

scarcity of natural resources such as regulations of water,

WG.14(A) [Supporting] analyze current events to infer the physical and human processes that lead to the formation of boundaries and other political divisions

WG.14(B) [Supporting] compare how democracy, dictatorship, monarchy, republic, theocracy, and totalitarian systems operate in specific countries,

WG.14(C) [Readiness] analyze the human and physical factors that influence the power to control territory and resources, create conflict/war, and impact international political relations of sovereign nations such as China, the United States, Japan, and Russia and organized nation groups such as the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU),

Ongoing TEKS

WG.8(A) [Readiness] compare ways that humans depend on, adapt to, and modify the physical environment, including the influences of culture and technology,,

WG.8(C) [Supporting] evaluate the economic and political relationships between settlements and the environment, including sustainable development and renewable/non-renewable resources,

WG.9(A) [Readiness] identify physical and/or human factors such as climate, vegetation, language, trade networks, political units, river systems, and religion that constitute a region,

WG.9(B) [Readiness] describe different types of regions, including formal, functional, and perceptual regions,

WG.13(A) [Readiness] interpret maps to explain the division of land, including man-made and natural borders, into separate political units such as cities,

WG.13(B) [Supporting] compare maps of voting patterns or political boundaries to make inferences about the distribution of political power states, or countries,

WG.21(A) analyze and evaluate the validity, and utility of multiple sources of geographic information such as primary and secondary sources, aerial photographs, and maps

WG.21(B) locate places of contemporary geopolitical significance on a map,

WG.21(C) create and interpret different types of maps to answer geographic questions, infer relationships, and analyze change.

WG.22(A) design and draw appropriate graphics such as maps, diagrams, tables, and graphs to communicate geographic features, distributions, and relationships.

Student Learning Targets:

• I will write about how landforms, water, climate, and weather affect population and where people live.
• I will determine why a majority of the world’s population lives between 30* N and 30* S lines of latitude.
• I will examine elements of culture and diffusion.
• I will examine how the earth continues to be affected by tectonic plates.
• I will describe forms of government and economy and levels of economic structure.
• I will observe the essential element of the 5 major religions.

Essential Questions:

• How does movement impact the world?
• How are push-pull factors affected by the 5 themes of geography.
• How does cultural diffusion impact the world?
• How do landforms impact where people live.
• How could the 5 themes help you understand geography?
• Why is culture important?

Extra Information:

Adopted Textbook: World Geography Texas - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Holt McDougal

District Grading Policy

Texas Gateway Online Resource Center