THE RED RIVER
GEOGRAPHY

Grade Level:
4^th-8^th

Standards Integration:
Minnesota:
Grades 4-5: Social Studies: Geography and Citizenship
1. >How to locate regions of the United States and selected regions of the world and identify geographic features and cultural characteristics of regions.
Economics and Business: Technology Skills
A. Gathering and evaluating information from electronic resources.
Grades 6-8: Write and Speak: Writing
3b. An idea or opinion that uses evidence to support the idea.
Inquiry and Research: Accessing Information
2. Using electronic media or other available means to access relevant information.

North Dakota:
Grades K-4: Social Studies: Social Studies Resources
4.4.2 Use primary and secondary resources to gather, interpret, or evaluate information about people, places, and events.
Social Studies: Geography
4.6.2 Understand the characteristics of various types of places and regions.
Grades 5-8: Social Studies: Geography 8.6.3 Understand how Earth’s physical system influences human systems.

Materials:
Maps of the region

Objectives:

The students will respond to a question about geography by examining various maps, learning how to use them, and demonstrating a working knowledge of them.

Background:
Immigrants to the region understood that the most efficient means of travel and the transport of goods and services usually were conducted along waterways. In addition, settlers needed water to sustain their lives and those of their crops and animals. Consequently, it was normal for the first European settlers to establish communities on or near lakes and rivers.

Pre-Visit Activity 1:
Gather detailed maps of the region from your school or local library and share them with your students. Ask the students note of common characteristics of the locations of towns in the Red River Valley. Suggest that the answer is a geographical feature, which sustains life. Students will discern that most towns in the region are located on or near a major water source.

Post Visit Activity 1:
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of locating a town on a river. Did Native peoples create communities next to rivers? Is it necessary to do so today?  Ask the students to research and write an essay about whether or not they would establish a town along a river. Ask the students to consider where the physical features of the land through which the river flows.

Activity 2 Summary:
Students familiar with the geography of their own region use what they know to locate a similar area elsewhere in the world. Limit the students to specific geographical factors to encourage them to locate regions similar to the Red River Valley. After the students research a similar region, encourage them to compare and contrast lifestyles in the two places to address the question: "How does geography where people choose to create a community?"

Pre-Visit Activity 2
Ask students to volunteer information about the geography of their region based on knowledge and experience as well as on what a map reveals. Initiate a discussion on how the geography of their region affects their lifestyle. For example, is his or her lifestyle different from that of someone who lives next to an ocean? If any of students have lived in other regions, encourage them to compare that region to the Red River Valley.

Post Visit Activity 2
Have students work in groups and instruct them to use maps and a globe to locate the latitude closest to their home region. Suggest that they follow the latitude either west or east until they find a region they think is similar to their own (in a lakebed, next to a river, flat). Tell each group to learn as much as it can about the region it selects. Students should be prepared to compare the region they live in to the one they select to study. Source: http://www.eduplace.com/activity/ground.html