"Where Could I Bee" - Middle East

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Description: This activity contains eight riddles about countries in the Middle East. These may be used as bell ringers, in conjunction with the Giant Maps of Africa or Asia, or to enrich other activities. Below please find a sample riddle from this packet.

I’m climbing on mountains
As high as I can
But I’ve forgotten their name
Here in Southwest Iran
Tell me the name of this Middle Eastern mountain chain
Tell me where could I bee
With my forgetful brain

Download the packet and view Page 7 for the answer!

Grade level(s): Middle School, High School
Standards: OAS
Produced By: Richard Tuberville

Using the Africa Giant Map to Understand Latitude and Longitude

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Description: In this lesson, students will investigate the significance of latitude and longitude in geography, such as understanding climate zones, temperature variations, time zones, and the ability to navigate and locate any place accurately. This activity may be completed with the Africa Giant Map, and can be adapted for digital or desktop-sized maps.

Grade level(s): Middle
Standards: OAS, GFL
Produced By: Cory Williams

National Geography and Oklahoma Academic Standards Connections - Social Studies

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Description: This resource is designed to show how Geography can be used to supplement instruction in Social Studies. This packet includes a selection of each applicable Oklahoma Academic Standard for Social Studies and its alignment to the relevant National Geography Standard(s). The goal of the National Geography Standards is to enable students to become geographically informed through knowledge and mastery of three things: (1) factual knowledge; (2) mental maps and tools; (3) and ways of thinking. Contact us at okage@ou.edu to receive free resources and for more ideas about how to use Geography in your classroom.

This packet includes standards from the following revision:
Social Studies (2019)

Grade level(s): Elementary, Middle School, High School
Standards: OAS, GFL
Produced By: Becca Palczynsky and Grace Gierach

"Karibu Afrika"...Welcome to Africa! Exploring with Map Skills

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Description: Students will use the Giant Map of Africa to familiarize themselves with the continent using observation and mapping skills. This lesson will provide hands-on practice for students to use coordinates, scales, and plotting to learn about the continent of Africa and its countries.

Grade level(s): Middle School
Standards: OAS, GFL
Produced By: Cindy Petree

"Sahara Some Places in Africa You Need to Know!" Africa's Major Physical Features

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Description: Students will use the Giant Map of Africa to become familiar with locations and descriptions of the continent’s major physical features. Middle school is the first opportunity to examine the human and physical characteristics of Africa to any degree of detail. This lesson is designed to be used as an overview or introduction to the continent of Africa by examining its major physical features while also challenging students’ preconceived ideas about the continent.

Grade level(s): Middle School
Standards: OAS, GFL
Produced By: Cindy Petree

Lions, Tigers and Bears: The Dilemma of Ecotourism

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Description: The objective of the lesson is to investigate the role and effectiveness of wildlife preserves, utilizing a micro-case study from Kenya and making connections to a variety of ecosystems through an online global tour of significant wildlife preserves. Using the essential and supporting questions, students will analyze the advantages and disadvantages of current environmental protection efforts in order to make recommendations regarding a proposed wildlife preserve in Antarctica.

Grade level(s): Middle School, High School
Standards: OAS, GFL
Produced By: Pam Merrill

Saving the Mediterranean Sea

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Description: Students will understand how human activities have impacted the ecosystem in the Mediterranean Sea.

Grade level(s): Middle School Standards: GFL, OAS
Produced By: Angela Trent

Top Ten Most X-Treme Animals

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Description: Students will gain experience in utilizing technology and geographic tools, while studying conservation and human-animal conflict in Africa.

Grade level(s): Middle School, High School
Standards: OAS
Produced By: LeaAnn Wyrick

Our Turn to Eat

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Description: This lesson will help students understand causes of ethnic conflict in sub-Saharan Africa.

Grade level(s): Middle School                  Standards: OAS, GFL
Produced By: Janet Hall

Big Oil: Exploring Alternatives

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Description: The goal of this lesson is to use map skills to gain an understanding of and make inferences about the effects of abundant oil supplies in the Middle East. Using maps, students will analyze data from a geographic perspective. They will gain an understanding of conflict and cooperation among specific groups over oil and religious differences. They will also have a better understanding of wind energy as an alternative form of energy.

Grade level(s): Middle School                  Standards: OAS, GFL, CC        Produced By: Teresa Potter

Hungry for Humanity

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Description: Students will gain understanding in the world-wide humanitarian crisis, causes of food insecurity, humanitarian relief efforts by the United Nations to address hunger in Africa, and other humanenvironmental interaction concepts related in geography.

 Grade level(s): Middle                     Standards: OAS, GFL             Produced By: LeaAnn Wyrick

Campaign to End Hunger in Africa

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Description: Students will understand socioeconomic issues in Africa and create a campaign to end hunger in the region.

 Grade level(s): Middle                     Standards: OAS, GFL             Produced By: Heather Braucher

Changing the Score in South Africa

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Description: South African mining companies are key players in the global industry. In this lesson, students will analyze the interactions of humans and their environment in South Africa. They will gain a better understanding of contemporary issues and the positive and negative impacts of mining Africa’s rich reserves of valuable minerals.

 Grade level(s): Middle                     Standards: OAS, GFL             Produced By: Teresa Potter

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor

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Description: Most students will know the issues involved in historic migrations to the United States from Europe and Asia, and more recent ones from Central and South America. Fewer know of the issues involved in migrations from much of North Africa and the Arabic-speaking world to Europe. This lesson will provide information to fill those gaps of knowledge and to give students opportunities to improve their skills of visual literacy.

Grade level(s): Middle                          Standards: OAS, GFL                      Produced By: Jayne Marley

A Threat to Northern Africa: Desertification

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Students will examine the process of desertification by identifying important terms relevant to this process. Students will get to analyze the cause and effects of desertification in Northern Africa by studying a regions map of Africa.

 Grade level(s): Middle                             Standards: OAS, GFL               Produced By: Denise Aguilar

Covered in Sand

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Description: The entire existence of the nomadic pastoralists of the Sahel is based on the ability to move livestock from area to area to secure fresh grazing lands and water. Pressure by governments to change to a life of cultivation, years of drought, and the encroachment of the Sahara on the Sahel is endangering the lifestyle of a marginal group of people who have maintained this existence for over 800 years.

Grade level(s): Middle                          Standards: OAS, GFL                      Produced By: Jayne Marley

Nigeria's Ethnic Challenges

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The first part of this lesson focuses on the pre-colonial ethnic history of Nigeria. The second part looks at how European colonization impacted the area’s development. The third part shifts the focus to modern times and the north-south conflicts of today.   

Grade level(s): Middle                            Standards: OAS, GFL                          Produced By: Janet Hall

The Disappearance of Lake Chad

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Students will examine how a change in the lake can directly affect the lives of humans and other living creatures. Students will determine the changes in the environment of distant places around the explosion and organize these affects in a poster project.

Grade level(s): Middle                              Standards: OAS, GFL                              Produced By: Denise Aguilar

Rwanda- Ethnic Conflict

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This lesson helps students discover the multiple elements that come together to make genocide possible. The focus of the lesson is on the role different elements of society played in causing or allowing the genocide to happen.

Grade level(s): Middle                            Standards: OAS, GFL                                      Produced By: Janet Hall

Crisis in Africa: The United Nation's Mission to Feed the Children of Africa

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Description: The United States has contributed over three billion dollars in private aid aimed at alleviating world hunger. The issue has been taken up by world organizations including the United Nations and at the G8 Conference. Concerns over food security, economic instability in Africa, education of women, growth of single crops for export (especially to China) have been addressed, and yet hunger is still a problem in Africa. Why?

Grade level(s): Middle                          Standards: OAS, GFL                      Produced By: Ann Kennedy