An approach to the teaching of geography in the ninth grade

This project is intended as a practical guide to present to teachers some basic approaches to the study of geography, while providing them with specific examples of how these approaches can be taught in the classroom. Many secondary teachers who teach geography lack background training in the subject. The material in this project is ready for use in the classroom and serves as an indicator of the type of information the writer feels should be included in a secondary geography course. The project is designed for use in the ninth grade because that is the most common grade in which geography is taught. The writer, however, believes that the material herein presented can be easily adapted for grades seven through twelve. It should be emphasized that the field of geography is generally divided into two broad areas for the purpose of study. These are regional geography and systematic geography. In regional geography the basic concern is with the overall characteristics of a region. The region may be large or small. Some examples of large regions which may be studied are Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the United States, South America, Asia, Polar Regions and the U.S.S.R. An example of a small area that has been studied in depth is a county or group of counties. Systematic geography is "an approach to geography by way of its various contributory aspects (physical, cultural, economic, historical, political geography, etc.), each organized and presented in a specific manner." A brief elaboration on several of the areas of systematic geography will indicate to the reader the diverse nature of the field of geography. In physical geography the stress is placed upon the natural elements of man's environment and it in turn includes such topics as landforms, soils, earth-materials, earth-sun relations, surface and underground water, weather, climate, native animal and plant life. Cultural geography places the emphasis upon the study of observable features resulting from man's occupancy of the earth. It includes among other things the study of population, settlement patterns and urban development. In economic geography the relationship between man's efforts to gain a living and the earth's surface on which his activities arc conducted is correlated. The various topics within the scope of economic geography stress such things as agriculture, manufacturing, mineral production, transportation, marketing, and recreation. "Historical geography involves a reconstruction of past environments, either as a cross section or a series of successive sections in time, or a sequential and retrospective appraisal of changes throughout time. Political geography is "the study of states, their frontiers and boundaries, their inter- and global relations, their contacts and their groupings; the variation of political phenomena from place to place, considered in relation with other features of the earth as the home of man. Since geography is such a diverse discipline, the approaches used in this project by the writer are not intended to be definitive of the field of geography. The emphasis is on physical geography for two reasons: (1) The writer believes students must know the physical background of the earth before they can deal intelligently with the problems and place of man on earth; and (2) Many current ninth grade textbooks emphasize historical and cultural geography; thus this material is already readily available.