Grade 7 Social Studies- Study Notes

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MME TURGEON'S HOMEWORK PAGE!

Term 1- Themes of Geographic Inquiry

Marks breakdown

Tests and Quizzes= 40%

Classwork (6 assignments x 5%)= 30%

Major Project = 30%

TOTAL-----100%

Geography- Themes in Geographic Inquiry

Theme One: Place/Location

1. What is the difference between absolute and relative location?

ABSOLUTE- exact location or "SITE" (eg. address, latitude/longitude)

RELATIVE- where something is located using another reference point (eg. My house is 2 km southeast of Annandale School), also known as "SITUATION"

2. Name the six natural disasters we studied in class and where they are common.

EARTHQUAKE/VOLCANO- These occur on fault lines (where two of the earth's plates meet and can crash together). California, BC and Japan are on fault lines, therefore they get more frequent and intense earthquakes than other placed that are further from fault lines.

TSUNAMI- these are tidal waves usually caused by earthquakes or other large disturbances from the earth's core. These happen mostly on fault lines, often in the islands of the South Pacific.

HURRICANE- These are most frequent in tropical zone, often islands or coastal regions close to the ocean. (eg. Caribbean, Florida etc.)

TORNADO- These occur frequently in an area known as "Tornado Alley" which is in the interior plains of the USA (think Kansas and the Wizard of Oz!!). These places can get several hundreds of tornados per year- sometimes with handfuls of funnel clouds spotted in a region on the same day!

FLOODS- these happen mostly in low lying areas where water from rain has no place to drain. Floods are caused by heavy rains and other natural environmental disturbances.

3. How do you think that the Olympic committee uses Geography to decide where to hold the Summer and Winter Olympic games?

- suitable climate

- adequate space to provide shelter and tranportation for millions of visitors.

- a transportation system to handle the influx of people.

- low crime rates

- $$$$ to build venues and pay for promotion

- Adequate landscape for holding each event. (eg. need hills for downhill skiing!)

- tolerance of the citizens of other cultures/countries/languages

- political stability (ie. country is not at war or have enemies that would make it a target for terrorism)

Can you think of any others?? :-)

THEME 2: Region

"REGION" is defined as "a part of the earth's surface that has similar physical and/or human characteristics and differs from other regions around it".

How would you describe your own "personal region"? (ie. the neighborhood in which you live and spend time)

HOMEWORK is to draw a fully labelled map of your "personal region" or neighbourhood. Make sure to include Annandale, your house and some other areas of Tillsonburg that you frequent (eg. Tillsonburg Town Centre, Norfolk mall, Community Centre etc.)

THEME 3: Interaction

Interaction refers to the collaboration of different individuals and groups in order to come up with a viable solution to local problems. An example of this would be to come up with an adequate supervision schedule for before school, lunch and afterschool to ensure the smooth flow of traffic in the school and the safety of all students.

THEME 4: MOVEMENT

There are two main ideas to take away from the movement theme..

MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE:

In a whole class lesson, students identify the major traffic/pedestrian routeways within and around their school and how to map these movements. By analyzing the patterns on their map, students attempt to identify the factors that influence where traffic is heavy or light. Then the basic traffic patterns of the region around the school are mapped by students to identify areas of heavy, moderate, and light traffic. Based on their experiences in mapping traffic within and around the school grounds, students brainstorm reasons for the traffic flows identified on the streets around the school.

MOVEMENT OF INFORMATION

Information is another "commodity" that is always on the move from one place to another. Students should identify ways in which they themselves experience the movement of vast amounts of information through everyday items such as TV, radio, books, magazines, telephones, the Internet, and CDs.

THEME 5: ENVIRONMENT

rainforest lowland- Hot, wet, tropical climate, dense vegetation, low altitude (flood risk?)

desert plateau- dry, flat land, hot climate

mountainous desert- dry, hot, rocky terrain

tundra lowland- cold, dry, no vegetation, low lying areas.

coniferous forested lake and hill lands- evergreen trees, lakes and hills, temperate climate, perhaps cooler than average given the vegetation.

grassland plain- temperate climates, flat land, good for growing crops (eg. prairie provinces)

deciduous forested mountains- trees that lose their leaves in cold temperatures (eg. maple), forests and other vegetation, mountains, temperate climate