Unit studies in geography

Front matter

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Preface

This book is made up of a series of units of study in geography. The units have been selected primarily to suit children’s needs and interests; secondarily, to conform to business practices and social ideals. The child’s world and the world of business and society thus become identical — and that is one of the great purposes of modern geography teaching.

The unit studies outlined here provide the teacher with a working plan that is both flexible and individual. They show the connection between the child’s present interests and the geographical subject which he is to investigate. They suggest materials for him to work with and the way to use such materials. They are planned to start the child on the road to straight, clear thinking by giving him some¬ thing to think about and suggesting ways to do his thinking. Much of the school material that we put before children is so thin that there is nothing in it to think about! In self-defense the child resorts to mere memory work and acquires a few unrelated, comparatively meaningless facts in geography. And yet, real geography can interpret the world to the eager, wondering child!

The unit studies outlined here may be used with any course of study and with any textbook. Since each unit is made independent of any other, it may be taken in the order which best suits local needs. The order in which they are given here has been tried out in many schools and has proved generally satisfactory. There is nothing arbitrary about it, however.

About eight or ten units will make a full year’s work. If a few local studies are added and the units are arranged in the order which best suits the local school program, a course of study in geography may be made which is peculiarly your own.

The superintendent or supervisor may select the units he wishes to include in a year’s work. He arranges them

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PREFACE in the order that best suits his general program. He adds three or four unit studies on local geography. He makes the course flexible by giving the teacher some choice of the units which she may wish to emphasize in any given grade or year.

It is hoped that these studies may simplify the work of the teacher of geography by defining exactly the units which she is to prepare to teach in a given year. For the busy superintendent or supervisor, it is hoped that the unit studies may suggest a very practical way of building his own course of study in geography.

Part One Unit Studies For Primary Grades

A FOREWORD TO THE PRIMARY TEACHER

There are two series of unit studies in primary geography, “Geography of Everyday Life” and “The World Outside.” “Geography of Everyday Life” is planned to help the child understand his own environment. These unit studies are chosen with a view to opening the child’s eyes to the things around him. He is surprisingly blind to some of his every¬ day surroundings; to others, he has an open mind and an eager curiosity. We wish to use this present interest to lead him into new fields of his environment.

The units outlined here are to be made the basis of in¬ formal conversational lessons. They are simple studies on subjects of everyday experience. References to textbooks and to suitable supplementary books are given, so that the child may have an opportunity to read for himself, after each unit has been carefully introduced and discussed; or the teacher may prefer to use some of this reference material as a basis for her own discussion with the class.

It is not intended that the unit studies of these series should be taken continuously. Alternate them with units from “The World Outside” series, and thus avoid the monotony of a too continuous demand upon the child for the same form of observation.

The unit studies in “The World Outside” series were planned to help the child see how other people live. The “human types” were chosen because their environment and mode of life contrast sharply with his own, and because their response to physical environment is direct and easily understood.

These lessons, too, are informal and conversational. The reference lists suggest material suitable for extended silent

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FOREWORD reading. After a child has entered into a vigorous class discussion of one of these units and has read some of the story material, he should have the chance to stand up and talk freely on some subjects of his own choice. Perhaps he would like to stand by the sand table (which the children have previously arranged) and use it to illustrate his talk. Primary geography furnishes natural and delightful oppor¬ tunities for extended silent reading and for oral English. The children should also be encouraged to make short “write-ups” of phases of the unit study which have proved particularly interesting.

A. THE GEOGRAPHY OF EVERYDAY LIFE

UNIT 1. DIRECTION

Disclose the need for a knowledge of direction by questions like the following: Your cousin in Denver wishes to know just where you live. How can you tell him in a letter? How do you go to your home from the post office? from the schoolhouse? from the railroad station? (Show that the terms right and left are not sufficient in locating places.)

Fix north as the first direction. A few minutes before noon, stand with your back to the sun; now you are looking north. This is true all the year. It is not true that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, except in March and September. For that reason do not fix those directions in that way, except in March and September. Now fix other cardinal directions from north; then the semi-car¬ dinal directions. In an out-of-doors lesson, call attention to the direction of shadows at noon. Suggest that a line following this noon shadow direction is called our noon line or meridian. Help the children to imagine that line as it extends far north and far south. It passes through many interesting places, where strange people live; yet their noon shadows are on that line, and their noon comes just when ours does.

Drill questions. Face east. Point north. Name two objects in the room that are south of you. What direction are you facing as you sit at your desk? In what direction is the nearest church? In what direction is the river or creek from the schoolhouse? In what direction does it flow?

Draw on the floor a diagram of an eight-pointed star, showing the cardinal and semi-cardinal points. Teach these directions. Now let eight children occupy the eight points. Name any two points and ask the children to change places.

Continue direction drill for a few minutes at frequent intervals throughout the year. Discover other methods of telling directions, as moss on trees, North Star, length and direction of shadows, the compass. Encourage the chil¬ dren to think about the noon line and to use the new word meridian.

Dodge: Elementary Geography, page 50.

Frye: New Geography, page 55.

Tarr and McMurry: Geography , First Book, page 83.

Part One. Unit Studies For Primary Grades Page

A Foreword to the Primary Teacher. 1

A. The Geography of Everyday Life. 3

Unit 1. Direction. 3

“ 2. Distance and Size. 5

“ 3. Surface Features in Your Neighborhood ... 6

“ 4. The Work of Running Water. 9

“ 5. Soil, and Soil Formation. 11

“ 6. The Air. 13

“ 7. The Needs of Life. 16

“ 8. Our Town. 24

“ 9. Map Reading. 25

B. The World Outside. 29

Unit 1. Indians, and How They Live. 29

“ 2. The Arab, and Life in the Desert. 31

“ 3. The Eskimo, and Life in the Northland ... 33

“ 4. The Swiss, and Life in the Mountains ... 35

“ 5. The Dutch, and Life in Coastal Lowlands . . 37

“ 6. The Black Man of Equatorial Africa .... 39

“ 7. The Japanese. 41

“ 8. The Ocean. 42