Page 154 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

126 Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students
both precisely (at a particular intersection of latitude and longitude, within a particular nation and region) and relative to one another (in terms of direction and distance), as well as the patterns of distribution of human activities occurring at different places (land use, settlement, industry, and other economic activities). The ecological aspect looks at characteristics of the physical environment, such as climate, landforms, and veg- etation, which provide affordances and constraints for human habitation and in turn are affected by human activities (Geography Education Standards Project, 1994).
Geography is a broad field that is not easily classified. If viewed as a science, it can be seen as partly a natural science (e.g., the study and mapping of land forms, weather pat- terns and natural resources) and partly a social science (the study of the ways that people adapt to and change their physical environments). Viewed as a field of study, geography is not so much a subject as a point of view that draws on and integrates other subjects (Knight, 1993). Viewed as a discipline, it is whatever geographers do, which subsumes quite a range of activities and fields of knowledge (Demko, 1992; Marshall, 1991).
What geographers have in common is the spatial point of view that they bring to bear on the topics they study. However, as Knight (1993, p. 48) noted, “Geography is neces- sarily concerned with location, much as history is necessarily concerned with time.” Libbee and Stoltman (1988) compared historians and geographers. They noted that historians approach issues or events as developments in time and ask what happened, why it happened at that time, what preceded and perhaps caused it, what else was hap- pening at the same time, and what the consequences were for the future. In contrast, geographers approach the issues or events as developments in space and focus on where the event happened, why it happened where it did, how things at that place and perhaps at other places helped to cause it, and what the consequences were for the place and for other places. Both historians and geographers seek to understand and explain why phe- nomena occur, not just to locate them on timelines or maps.
Geography in the Elementary Grades
Geography pervades the elementary social studies curriculum. Texts for each grade typi- cally include a unit on map and globe studies, placed at the beginnings or ends of the books. These units focus on building basic knowledge and skills and are not integrated with the content of the other chapters. If this is the case consider using the local setting as the context and point of departure. Subsequent units need to apply these skills and knowledge. The characteristics of places influence local human activities related to food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and most of the other cultural universals, so instruction on these topics in the primary grades should include significant geographic strands (e.g., looking at how and why different places in the world feature contrasting crops and food consumption patterns, types of homes constructed, and so on). Studies of communities, states, nations, and regions that occur in the middle grades are by nature studies of places, so units on these topics should include use of maps and globes as well as the study of ways in which the local geography provides affordances and constraints to human activities. Finally, historical studies should include geographical elements, rou- tinely to note the locations at which significant events occurred, and frequently to iden- tify geographical factors that help explain why the events developed as they did. (For example, the major reason why slavery proliferated in the Southern states was that cot- ton developed as a major crop in this region, and harvesting cotton was a labor-intensive industry that required a great many field hands; a major reason why the Americans won the Revolutionary War was that England had to ship soldiers across the Atlantic Ocean to fight on unfamiliar territory, whereas the Americans were locals operating on familiar territory with much more local support.)
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