| Subject:
Math/Geography |
| Grade:
K-12 |
| Presented by:
Margie Atkinson, Buhl, Idaho |
| Geography Themes:
Location, place, human interaction |
| Geography Standards:
2, 3, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16 |
Skills:
Spatial perspective, writing, communication, comparison, speculation, observing,
listening, presenting. |
Objectives:
1. Visually, verbally, and kinesthetically demonstrate the inequality of the
distribution of Earth’s resources. 2. Compare
population, food production, and wealth of the 7 continents. 3.
Analyze their findings and speculate as to why the distribution is the way it is. |
Method:
Students will use their kinesthetic, verbal, and visual intelligences to
demonstrate and compare the inequality of population, food production, and wealth of
Earth’s 7continents. The class is divided to represent the 7 continents. |
Materials:
- Seven huge circles of paper, or divide the
room in other ways. I used masking tape on the floor.
- Caramels
- Chocolate kisses
- Paper with 3 large circles (attached)
- Slips of paper with names of continents in
proper percentages
|
Procedures:
- Show the students the representation of the 7
continents and explain that we will be discussing the distribution of population, wealth,
and food among the continents of the world.
- Have each student draw out a continent name
and go stand in that continent area in the room.
- List on the board or overhead the percentages
of population for each continent.
- Asia = 59% which is 17 students
- Africa = 11% which is 3 students
- Europe = 16% which is 4 students
- North America = 8% which is 2 students
- South America = 5.5% which is 1 student
- Australia = .5% which is ½ a student
- Talk to the students about how comfortable
they are in their areas. Asia will be pretty crowded, while the other
continents will have adequate room.
- Tell the students that you will now list the
distribution of food production. Use chocolate kisses here to represent percentages of
food production.
- Asia = 36% or 9 Kisses (hand 9 Kisses to Asia)
- Europe = 31% or 8 Kisses
- North America = 16% or 4 Kisses
- South America = 9% or 2 Kisses
- Africa = 7% or 2 Kisses
- Australia = 1% or ½ Kiss
- None for Antarctica
- Ask students again if Asia has enough food.
Does Africa? And so on. Listen to the comments of the students.
- The last is the wealth of each continent, and
caramels represent wealth.
- Asia = 13% or 3 caramels
- Africa = 2 % or ½ caramels
- Europe = 30% or 8 caramels
- North America = 35% or 9 caramels
- South America = 14% or 4 caramels
- Australia = 5% or 1 caramel
- None for Antarctica
- Ask the students if each continent has enough
wealth to provide for their populations. Is anyone willing to share?
- After the students are seated, have them graph
the information on three pie charts and use the same color for each continent. They can
see on the graph the inequality of the distribution. (Upper grade students can use a
database or spreadsheet program to construct the graphs).
|
Closure:
Time in class should be used to debrief the activities and to discuss for
understanding. |
Evaluation:
Have older students write a journal entry or one-page paper about what they
learned from the lesson and how they felt about it. |
Extension:
- Have student “continent groups”
research their continent and present information about why their continent has a large or
small population, why their continent is wealthy or not, and why the food production is at
the level it is. They can use music, dance, art, and various media to present their
information.
- Have the “continent groups” provide
a presentation on one culture of each of the continents.
|
Notes:
- Students will understand that the Earth’s
resources are not distributed equally (by having them experience a small measure of the
challenges faced in other parts of the world).
- Students will apply movement (kinesthetic
intelligence) to understand distribution of people, goods, and wealth.
|
