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

"Where Could I Bee" - Latin America

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Description: This activity contains approximately 50 riddles about countries in Latin America. These may be used as bell ringers, in conjunction with the Giant Map of Latin America, or to enrich other activities. Below please find a sample riddle from this packet.

Where I am now
Is more “Chile” than cold
Although the degrees
Are about 30 below
In this place there is very little rainfall
And of Earth’s deserts,
It’s the driest of all
Tell me the name
Of this warm and dry land
And “Where Could I Bee?”
Will fall into your hand

Download the packet and view Page 23 for the answer!

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

WOW! Mexico Has States, Too!

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Description: This lesson will allow students to learn the location of the states of Mexico by labeling them on a political map.

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

Developing South America: Defining the Physical and Political Boundaries

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Description: Students will develop cartographic skills by designing the physical and political boundaries of South America. They will use symbols to create their own free hand design of the physical and political boundaries of South America while also locating and categorizing the different economic systems across South America. Students will then examine the importance of the founding of and the continued use today of the Strait of Magellan.

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

How are Mexico and Central America Linked?

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Description: Students will identify and locate the countries of Mexico and Central America by examining puzzle pieces of these countries and marking them on a map. Students will analyze and categorize the information on the map regarding Mexico and Central America. Students will compare and contrast the learned information and determine if any of the countries studied are “linked” and prove how they are connected using the discovered information from the map.

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

Strait of Magellan

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Description: Students will locate the Strait of Magellan, discover its importance as a sailing route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans until the Panama Canal was completed in 1914, and will learn what its navigation purposes are today.

 Grade level(s): Middle                     Standards: OAS, GFL, C3            Produced By: Glenda Sullivan

MAXimize Student Learning

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Description: Students will be introduced to three key phases (preview/motivation, acquisition of knowledge, and extension of learning) necessary for in-depth comprehension of any type of textual information from both primary and/or secondary sources. By utilizing a hands-on case study of the Quechua rural villages of Andean Bolivia, students will experience these three phases, practicing effective research-based strategies and skills. Simultaneously, students will be given the opportunity to examine the interactions of humans who have positively modified their environments in order to satisfy their nutritional needs through somewhat unconventional means.

 Grade level(s): Middle                     Standards: PASS, GFL             Produced By: Pam Merrill

Easter Island

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Description: The goal of this lesson is to engage students in learning about the geographic make-up of Easter Island and to have them draw conclusions about the fate of the inhabitants of Easter Island due to the limited resources to support human society and all its demands.

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