Social Studies Curriculum

Area Studies Electives

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Adopted January 1999

North America Studies

Course Description:

North America Studies will focus upon the physical and cultural geography of this region or selected sub-regions.  An analysis of the relationships among North American nations and cultures may be conducted to examine the impact of the region on the world today.  Within the geographic context, the course will focus upon the cultural and physical forces that affect contemporary North America.

The course title and description have been approved by the Anchorage School Board.  This course outline is meant to serve as an example of one possibility for organizing this class.  It does not represent the only way the course may be organized.  Each course outline has been written by a different teacher so there will be differences in the approach used from one course to another.

Course Goals:

Through this course students will:

• Gain an understanding of the physical and human characteristics of North America in the modern world.
• Develop an understanding of the similarities and differences between the political and economic systems of Canada, Mexico and the United States as sovereign nations.
• Improve skills in the use of maps, tables, graphs and other geographic representations, to acquire, process, and report information concerning North America's social, political, cultural and economic similarities and differences.
• Develop appreciation of the contributions of each county’s history as an understanding to contemporary affairs, issues, and problems.
• Acquire understanding of the interdependence of people throughout North America and gain appreciation for differing customs, traditions, and values.
  

Course Objectives:

The student will:

• Develop maps and graphs to show the spatial relationships within and between regions of North America.
• Identify the physical or human factors that constitute the region of North America.
• Compile and, analyze various economic, demographic and social data from statistical abstracts and/or the Internet for each country and make comparisons of similarities and differences.
• Identify factors that contribute to the dynamic nature of North America due to migration, immigration and technology.
• Analyze factors that influence peoples beliefs in each country about the other.
• Analyze the patterns of trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico and explain the benefits and costs of that trade.
• Describe major treaties between Mexico, Canada and the United States at different times in history.
• Identify the history of how the current borders of each country were defined.
• Analyze the factors which explain why the Canada/U.S. border is the longest undefended border in the world.
• Explain how examples of trade among countries presented in news reports illustrate regional interdependence.
• Interpret how people of each nation and region express attachment to places and regions through essays, novels, poems, films or songs.
• Develop a list of contemporary issues, and problems between the countries or regions of North America using a variety of media and formulate solutions to those issues or problems.
• Explain why countries develop emigration and immigration policies.
• Identify the cultural characteristic that link regions of North America.
• Describe the characteristics of traditional, command, and market economic systems and describe how such systems operate in each country.
• Identify characteristics of each countries government structure and compare them.
• Compare the attitudes of Canada, Mexico and the United States toward the environment and resource use.
  

Course Outline:

1. North America as a region
   1. Major geographic features
   2. Physical and cultural geography
      1. Location
      2. Place characteristics (physical and cultural)
      3. Human/environment relationships
      4. Movement (physical and cultural)
      5. Regions (physical and cultural)
   3. Climatic zones
   4. Major cities of North America
2. Canada
   1. Brief review of Canada’s history
   2. Develop Maps, graphs or tables for the following categories:

      Natural Resources	Population characteristics
      Energy	Political/government characteristics
      Economy	Religion
      Currency and banking	Language
      Foreign trade	Education
      Transportation	Cultural life, traditions and institutions
      Communications	Music and art
      Government type	Labor characteristics
      Health and Welfare	Defense

3. Mexico
   1. Brief review of Mexico’s history
   2. Develop Maps, graphs or tables for the following categories:

      Natural Resources	Population characteristics
      Energy	Political/government characteristics
      Economy	Religion
      Currency and banking	Language
      Foreign trade	Education
      Transportation	Cultural life, traditions and institutions
      Communications	Music and art
      Government type	Labor characteristics
      Health and Welfare	Defense

      
      
4. The United States
   1. Brief review of U.S. history
   2. Develop Maps, graphs or tables for the following categories:

      Natural Resources	Population characteristics
      Energy	Political/government characteristics
      Economy	Religion
      Currency and banking	Language
      Foreign trade	Education
      Transportation	Cultural life, traditions and institutions
      Communications	Music and art
      Government type	Labor characteristics
      Health and Welfare	Defense

5. Comparisons-Review, discuss, and summarize similarities and differences between regions/places in North America and those of the countries
6. Current Events (possible student activities)
   1. Collect recent articles from news reports from concerning social, economic, cultural, political issues and problems between or within either country
   2. Complete write-ups concerning the issues and explore solutions
   3. Develop questions concerning issues/problems
   4. Acquire, organize, and analyze information relevant to the issue/problem
   5. Develop answers to questions

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