Overview:

This lesson will introduce students to the important geography concept of sustainability by looking at the Roseau River floods of 2002 to discuss the impact of humans on the environment.

Objectives:

• Students will develop an understanding of how sustainability relates to everyday geography

1. Students will use maps from GIS technology to identify potential issues of human interaction on the environment
2. Students will predict the sustainability of a community
3. Students will justify their predictions regarding thesustainability of a community
4. Students will recognize examples of sustainability within their own community

Grade Level: This lesson will be taught to 11^th grade geography students.  This lesson can be effective with 9-12 grade students.

Subjects: I will present this lesson to an 11^th grade geography class.  It could be useful in other classes to talk about the valuable concept of sustainability

Time:1 class period

Required Material:

• Access to a computer and LCD panel to deliver Powerpoint entitled “Sustainability lesson6.ppt”

· Paper and writing utensil

Optional Technologies:
The teacher should have access to a computer with an LCD panel to deliver the Powerpoint presentation which is the basis for this lesson.

Suggested Procedure (Pedagogy):

Opening:  I will begin the lesson by asking students what are the characteristics of the most successful people in the world (take a moment to listen to a number of responses).

            I then use the following diagram to describe how the successful people in the world operate (this is very basic, but effective):

I go through and ask the students who they think the most successful person (arrow) is in the chart.  We discuss each of the arrows, how most people can plan a bit into the future (grocery shopping, dentist and doctor appointments, etc…) and how a few people cannot keep up with the present.  But the person who is the most successful is the person that is looking very far into the future, this person has no worry about this week, next month, or next year, as he/she is focusing on many years from now in trying to make an area desirable.

Development: With this introduction, I begin the Powerpoint presentation with the question “what is sustainability?”  This is a term a few of the students probably will have a good definition for, but this presentation is to help students think of sustainability when they think of geography.

The presentation begins with some satellite images of North America, the U.S., Minnesota, then an aerial photo and topo map of Roseau, the focus of this lesson.  I also provide the students with a definition of sustainability during this time.

We then look at the topo map and aerial photo (the students do not know what place we are looking at specifically, yet).  I ask them to make observations of the area, then I ask “Is this area in danger?”  We will decide to do a bit more research, so I show them a land use map of Minnesota and point out the northwestern part of the state (as well as other parts of the state).  Then I show a Native Vegetation Map of Minnesota from the 1800s and also point out the northwestern portion of the state as well as other parts of the state). 

            Then the class puts some observations to work to try to decide what portion of the state we are looking at in the aerial photo.  Finally, the class gets the relative location of the site, and I give them a more specific location:  the city of Roseau.

            I then ask if the students think Roseau is a sustainable community.  We ponder over this:  it has been around for a long time; it is the home of Polaris and Victory Motorcycles; it is one of the state’s leading sugar beet, barley, and wheat areas.  I show the population pyramid of the city of Roseau to show it has a solid population base.

            The next slide asks how humans have changed the landscape.  There is a topo map on this slide, and I make a point to look at least three specific things (the northern portion of the town of Roseau, the Roseau airport, and if you look very close you can notice the straight drainage ditches outside of the city.

            I next let the students know that we are going to take a look at how human changes in the physical landscape affected the city of Roseau in spring 2002.

            The next nine slides are photos of the spring flooding that occurred in the Roseau area.  I then ask “What factors do you think contributed to such a disaster?”  I take answers from the class.  I then ask if students think this disaster could have been prevented.  We discuss this for a bit.  The next three slides try to let the student know that this and other disasters can directly affect their lives.  We discuss if Roseau is sustainable.

            The next two slides bring up the question of what we should do with our nuclear waste.  We discuss options and relate it to sustainability once again.

Closing:  The final three slides close the lesson by reinforcing the importance of them to keep sustainability in mind when they are doing their geography, and don’t forget to remind them once again that “geography is found in all parts of our life.” 

Differentiation:  Teachers could omit some of the presentation on Roseau and concentrate more on the idea of sustainability for lower level learners, while inviting more advanced students to find out more history about Roseau and possibly write a paper based on more extensive research on whether or not Roseau is a sustainable community.

Student Activity—Online:

None known.

Suggested Assessment:  Each student will write a ½-1 page explanation as to whether or not they feel Roseau will be around in 100 years.  They need to describe how they think the area will look in 2102; the need to justify their position using some of the ideas of sustainability that we went over in the Powerpoint presentation.  Then, they need to give an example of something from their community which they think is sustainable, and something from their community which may not be around in 100 years.  They also need to provide justification for each of their examples.

RESOURCE BAR

Definitions:

• Sustainability:  improving present living conditions without jeopardizing future generations.
• Topo maps:  (topographic):  a representation of natural and man-made features on the earth

Standards:

MN State Graduation Standard (Human Geography)

NGS Standards

Web Links for Teachers and Students:

Discussion Questions:

Many questions come up during the presentation.  The assessment activity also includes written explanation on the topic.

Credits:

Tom Franta

Social Studies Teacher

Irondale High School, New Brighton, MN

Tom.franta@moundsviewschools.org