Page 347 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

APPENDIX C
A RESOURCE UNIT ON MOUNTAINS
Resource units are very useful for developing teaching units. They describe the intellectual substance, learn- ing goals, and big ideas that can inform the teaching units. They also suggest possible activities for the teaching units, readings for teachers to use in devel- oping the teaching units, and related readings for children to use in the teaching units. This resource unit focuses on regions, one of the five themes of geography. Regions include selected criteria such as landforms, types of vegetation, climate, and so forth. We have selected mountains as one of the types of physical features to use as an example. It serves to illustrate the possibilities of combining the physical and social aspects of geography built around big ideas from the field. The resource unit could serve as a springboard for your planning, giving balanced attention to the five themes.
Understanding of regions sharpens appreciation for the diversity that exists in human activities and cultures and the ways different groups of people inter- act within regional contexts.
GOALS
• Help students to understand the nature of moun- tains, the physical environments that they create, and the advantages and limitations that these environments pose for human activities.
• Help students to learn about mountain regions in the United States, especially those in which they live or which have noteworthy connections to the region in which they live.
• Engage students in personal and civic decision making related to the nation’s mountain regions.
KEY IDEAS TO BE DEVELOPED
The Physical Geography of Mountain Regions
1. Mountains are not just hills but very high eleva- tions of land. Define mountains in terms of dis- tance from sea level and compare them with plains that are mostly within a few hundred feet of sea level. (Show and explain relief maps and schematic diagrams that name and illustrate the landforms found between sea level and the highest mountains.)
2. Mountains were not "just always there." They were formed by movements of the earth’s surface plates or by volcanic activity erupting from below the sur- face. Three major causal mechanisms have been identified: (1) two surface plates clash directly and force each other upwards at the point of contact (as when you push two clay pancakes together on a tabletop). This process created most of the major mountain ranges that feature high and sharp peaks. (2) Two plates come together, but instead of a direct clash, the edge of one plate slips over the edge of the other, which slips under. This creates more rounded ranges, high enough to be consid- ered mountains but not among the highest peaks on earth. (3) Volcanoes cause upward bulging of the earth while they are still underground, and once they begin erupting above the ground they expel lava (sometimes millions of tons) that can build up to mountainous proportions over the centuries.
3. Although there are isolated peaks (mostly volca- noes), most mountains are parts of ranges (study the globe or sets of maps to locate and discuss
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