School Curriculum: Geography
This page is designed to enable parents to understand what their child should be learning, when they should be learning it, and what degree of mastery the child should have attained (at a median level) by a certain grade level. For Homeschoolers, we hope that this page will serve as a valuable asset in establishing a baseline curriculum. For parents whose children attend public or private schools (or for the inquisitive student) this page should give some guidance as to whether or not the school curriculum and methods are providing students with an adequate standard of education.
What is meant by "Geography," why is it important, and how is it approached ? Below is a description of the core discipline and its components, and the answers to why-how-when these components are taught. Geography components have median level goals to be attained by the end of Grade 2, by the end of Grade 4, by the end of Grade 8, and by the end of Grade 12.
This page
does not contain articles for education in this discipline.
For educational articles, go to: Geography:
A. The
World in Spatial Terms, B. Places
and Regions, C. Physical
Systems, D. Human
Systems, E. Environment
and Society
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STANDARD 6.6 (GEOGRAPHY) ALL STUDENTS WILL APPLY KNOWLEDGE OF SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS AND OTHER GEOGRAPHIC SKILLS TO UNDERSTAND HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN RELATION TO THE PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT. |
Descriptive Statement: The study of geography is based on the principle that thinking in and understanding spatial terms will enable students to understand the many relationships of place, people, and environments. By taking an active, questioning approach to the world around them, students learn to devise their own mental world-view. As students engage in critical thinking to interpret patterns in the evolution of significant historic events and the movement of human populations on the Earth’s surface, their understanding of geography, history, economics, and civics deepens. Furthermore, the use of geographic tools and technology assists students to understand the reasons for, and the economic, political and social consequences of, human impact on the environment in different areas of the world.
This section is organized around five strands adapted from the National Geography Standards.
Strands and Cumulative Progress Indicators
By the end of Grade 2, students will:
A. The World in Spatial Terms
1. Explain the spatial concepts of location, distance and direction, including:
The location of school, home, neighborhood, community, state, and country
The relative location of the community and places within it
The location of continents and oceans
2. Explain that the globe is a model of the earth and maps are representations of local and distant places.
3. Demonstrate basic globe and map skills.
B. Places and Regions
1. Describe the physical features of places and regions on a simple scale.
2. Describe the physical and human characteristics of places.
C. Physical Systems
1. Recognize that the relationship of the Earth to the sun affects weather conditions, climate, and seasons.
D. Human Systems
1. Identify the types of transportation used to move goods and people.
2. Identify the modes of communication used to transmit ideas.
E. Environment and Society
1. Describe the role of resources such as air, land, water, and plants in everyday life.
2. Describe the impact of weather on everyday life.
3. Act on small-scale, personalized environmental issues such as littering and recycling, and explain why such actions are important.
Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 4, students will:
A. The World in Spatial Terms
1. Use physical and political maps to identify locations and spatial relationships of places within local and nearby communities.
2. Describe and demonstrate different ways to measure distance (e.g., miles, kilometers, time).
3. Estimate distances between two places on a map using a scale of miles.
4. Identify the major cities of New Jersey, the United States, and the world.
5. Identify the major countries, continents, bodies of water, and mountain ranges of the world.
6. Locate time zones, latitude, longitude, and the global grid.
B. Places and Regions
1. Identify the physical and human characteristics of places and regions in New Jersey and the United States (e.g., landforms, climate, vegetation, housing).
2. Explain changes in places and regions over time and the consequences of those changes.
3. Describe the geography of New Jersey.
4. Discuss factors involved in the development of cities (e.g., transportation, food, marketplace, religion, military protection).
C. Physical Systems
1. Describe the basic components of the Earth’s physical systems, including landforms, water, erosion, weather, and climate and discuss their impact on human development.
D. Human Systems
1. Describe the development of transportation and communication networks in New Jersey and the United States.
2. Identify the distribution and characteristics of populations for different regions of New Jersey and the United States.
E. Environment and Society
1. Differentiate between living and non-living natural resources.
2. Explain the nature, characteristics, and distribution of renewable and non-renewable resources.
Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:
A. The World in Spatial Terms
1. Distinguish among the distinct characteristics of maps, globes, graphs, charts, diagrams, and other geographical representations, and the utility of each in solving problems.
2. Translate maps into appropriate spatial graphics to display geographical information.
3. Explain the spatial concepts of relative and absolute location and distance.
4. Estimate distances between two places on a map using a scale of miles, and use cardinal and intermediate directions when referring to a relative location.
5. Use geographic tools and technologies to pose and answer questions about spatial distributions and patterns on Earth.
6. Distinguish among the major map types, including physical, political, topographic, and demographic.
7. Explain the distribution of major human and physical features at country and global scales.
8. Use thematic maps to describe places (e.g., patterns of population, diseases, rainfall).
9. Describe and distinguish among the various map projections, including size, shape, distance, and direction.
10. Describe location technologies, such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS).
11. Describe the significance of the major cities of New Jersey, the United States, and the world.
B. Places and Regions
1. Compare and contrast the physical and human characteristics of places in regions in New Jersey, the United States, and the world.
2. Describe how regions change over time.
3. Compare the natural characteristics used to define a region.
4. Explain how regional systems are interconnected (e.g., watersheds, trade, transportation systems).
5. Discuss how the geography of New Jersey impacts transportation, industry, and community development.
6. Discuss the similarities and differences among rural, suburban, and urban communities.
7. Describe the types of regions and the influence and effects of region labels including:
Formal regions: school districts, states
Functional regions: marketing area of a newspaper, fan base of a sport team
Perceptual regions: the Bible Belt, the Riviera in southern France
C. Physical Systems
1. Describe the characteristics and spatial distribution of major Earth ecosystems.
2. Discuss how ecosystems function locally and globally.
3. Predict effects of physical processes and changes on the Earth.
4. Discuss how the community and its environment function as an ecosystem.
5. Describe how the physical environment affects life in different regions (e.g., population density, architecture, transportation systems, industry, building materials, land use, recreation).
D. Human Systems
1. Discuss how technology affects the ways in which people perceive and use places and regions.
2. Analyze demographic characteristics to explain reasons for variations between populations.
3. Compare and contrast the primary geographic causes for world trade.
4. Analyze the patterns of settlement in different urban regions of the world.
5. Discuss how and why people cooperate, but also engage in conflict, to control the Earth’s surface.
6. Compare the patterns and processes of past and present human migration.
7. Explain and identify examples of global interdependence.
8. Describe how physical and human characteristics of regions change over time.
E. Environment and Society
1. Discuss the environmental impacts or intended and unintended consequences of major technological changes (e.g., autos and fossil fuels, nuclear power and nuclear waste).
2. Analyze the impact of various human activities and social policies on the natural environment and describe how humans have attempted to solve environmental problems through adaptation and modification.
3. Compare and contrast conservation practices and alternatives for energy resources.
4. Compare and contrast various ecosystems and describe their interrelationship and interdependence.
5. Describe world, national, and local patterns of resource distribution and utilization, and discuss the political and social impact.
6. Analyze the importance of natural and manufactured resources in New Jersey.
7. Delineate and evaluate the issues involved with sprawl, open space, and smart growth in New Jersey.
Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 12, students will:
A. The World in Spatial Terms
1. Discuss the application of geographic tools and supporting technologies, such as GIS, GPS, the Internet, and CD databases.
2. Use maps of physical and human characteristics of the world to answer complex geographical questions.
3. Analyze, explain, and solve geographical problems using maps, supporting technologies, and other graphical representations.
4. Use geographic tools and technologies to pose and answer questions about spatial distributions and patterns on Earth.
5. Apply spatial thinking to understand the interrelationship of history, geography economics, and the environment, including domestic and international migrations, changing environmental preferences and settlement patterns, and frictions between population groups.
B. Places and Regions
1. Analyze and compare the functions and spatial arrangements of cities both locally and globally.
2. Evaluate how human interaction with the physical environment shapes the features of places and regions.
3. Analyze why places and regions are important factors to individual and social identity.
C. Physical Systems
1. Assess relationships between soil, climate, plant, and animal life and how this impacts the distribution of ecosystems.
2. Analyze the effects of both physical and human changes in ecosystems, such as acid rain, ozone layer, carbon-dioxide levels, and clean water issues.
D. Human Systems
1. Analyze the impact of human migration on physical and human systems.
2. Explain the spatial-technological processes of cultural convergence (cultural adaptations over distances) and divergence (separating effects of cultural diffusion over distances).
3. Analyze the historic movement patterns of people and their goods and their relationship to economic activity.
4. Analyze the processes that change urban areas.
5. Analyze how cooperation and conflict influence the control of economic, political, and social entities on Earth.
E. Environment and Society
1. Discuss the global impacts of human modification of the physical environment (e.g., the built environment).
2. Discuss the importance of maintaining biodiversity.
3. Analyze examples of changes in the physical environment that have altered the capacity of the environment to support human activity, including pollution, salinization, deforestation, species extinction, population growth, and natural disasters.
4. Compare and contrast the historical movement patterns of people and goods in the world, United States, and New Jersey and analyze the basis for increasing global interdependence.
5. Evaluate policies and programs related to the use of local, national and global resources.
6. Analyze the human need for respect for and informed management of all resources (sustainability), including human populations, energy, air, land, and water to insure that the earth will support future generations.
7. Describe how and why historical and cultural knowledge can help to improve present and future environmental maintenance.
8. Delineate and evaluate the environmental impact of technological change in human history (e.g., printing press, electricity and electronics, automobiles, computer, and medical technology).
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