Activity
1. Ask the students what might be 3 professions
that are fairly specific to their city. For example,
in Tucson, Arizona, the Astronomy Department at the University
of Arizona is able to research extensively due to the
city’s climate and surrounding geology. Jobs associated
with astronomy are not only research astronomers, but
also engineers and technicians involved in creating the
telescopes. In a port city students might suggest long-shore
or dockworkers. Some cities in Arizona conducting copper
and uranium mining might be offered as examples. They
should come up with 3 examples and explain how these
professions are products of the city’s geography
and/or climate.
2. Once students have identified 3 professions and how
they relate to the geography and/or climate, they are
to, as a class, create a chart of jobs and the aspect
of the climate and/or geography that allows that profession
to exist there.
3. Ask students to consider how city planning might reflect
major industries in a city. For example, again in Tucson,
city planning results in special types of night lighting
that reduces light pollution. Light pollution would detract
from the ability of the city to attract astronomers and
therefore, millions of dollars annually in jobs in the
city would be lost. Another example might be the organization
of different types of transportation within a city.
For
example, there is a need to have railroads connected
to a port. Explain that cities often use zones to decide
what can and can’t be built in a certain area.
Those zones often take the cities economy into account,
ex.
Flight routes may restrict housing and school locations
and if the city has a large military base, maintaining
flight routes may need to be balanced with the environmental
quality for residents.
4. You may wish to return to the original review of the
city that students performed and look at zoning again.
Your local city government planning department will have
information on zoning.
5. Ask students to list three forms of transportation
used in their city. Ask students to answer the following
question for each form of transportation: Explain how
the city’s geography and/or climate helped this
form of transportation develop in your city.
Closure
The teacher facilitates a question and answer class discussion
based on the activity, making sure to focus the discussion
on the original objectives which were to help students understand
the influence of geography and climate in relationship to
the ways people develop their cities and live within them.
Homework
None |
Embedded
Assessment
Are
students able to explain how climate and geography affect
employment and transportation in their city? Students
can be assessed on their discussion of employment and
transportation throughout the class discussion and within
the responses they contribute to the class chart.
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