Author Description

A collection of pieces authored by leading geography educators - What each American student should know and be able to do in geography by grades 4, 8, and 12. The eighteen standards are organized under six "essential elements." They represent the essentials and fundamental ideas of geography. The outcome of Geography for Life is a geographically informed person who sees meaning in the arrangement of things across the Earth's surface; who appreciates the relationships between people, places, and environments; who uses geographic skills; and who applies geographic perspectives to life situations. The World in Spatial Terms: Geography studies the relationships between people, places and environments by mapping information about them into a spatial context. The geographically informed person knows and understands: 1. How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information. 2. How to use mental maps (a person's internalized picture of a part of Earth's surface) to organize information about people places, and environments. 3. How to analyze the spatial organization of people places, and environments on Earth's surface. Places and Regions The identities and lives of individuals and peoples are rooted in particular places and in those human constructs called regions. The geographically informed person knows and understands: 4. The physical and human characteristics of places. 5. That people create regions to interpret Earth's complexity. 6. How culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions. Physical Systems Physical processes shape Earth's surface and interact with plant and animal life to create, sustain, and modify the ecosystems. The geographically informed person knows and understands: 7. The physical processes that shape the patterns of Earth's surface. 8. The characteristics and distribution of ecosystems on Earth's surface. Human Systems: People are central to geography i