Social Studies Curriculum

Middle East

National
Standards for
Geography:
Standards #1 - #18
(See National
Standards
Document)

Alaska State
Geography
Content
Standards
Addressed:
Standards A-F
(See Alaska State
Geography
Standards
Document)

1. The five themes of geography allow us to explore patterns in location, place, human environment interaction, movement, and regions.
2. Geography has a range of helpful tools that can assist us in understanding our earth and its patterns.
3. Culture and experience influence people’s perception of place and region.
   • How do culture and experience influence people’s perception of place and region?
   • Why are people’s perceptions about the geography and cultures of the Middle East so varied and so much in flux?
   • How do cultural stereotypes emerge? Why do they sustain themselves? How can we identify and overcome them?
4. The Middle East reflects the characteristics, distribution, and complexity of earth’s cultural mosaics.
   • To what extent is the Middle East a cultural mosaic? How do its diverse elements affect its present and impact its future?
   • What are the common characteristics of all Middle Eastern regions and countries? What are the unique elements of each region?
   • How do religion and religious traditions influence the Middle East today?
5. Forces of cooperation and conflict among peoples influence division and control of the earth’s surface and resources.
   • How do forces of cooperation and conflict among peoples influence the division and control of the earth’s surface and resources?
   • To what extent do forces of cooperation and conflict related to oil and water in the Middle East influence political, economic, and social conditions there?

Africa

1. The five themes of geography allow us to explore patterns in location, place, human environment interaction, movement, and regions.
2. Geography has a range of helpful tools that can assist us in understanding our earth and its patterns.
3. Because of the geographic characteristics of Africa, food production and resource distribution are hampered, resulting in powerful social, economic, and political consequences.
   • How do human actions modify or influence the physical environment?
   • To what extent does the physical environment influence human actions?
   • How does the unique physical geography of Africa influence its food production and resource distribution?
   • How does physical geography within a region impact social, economic, and political conditions?
4. Africa represents a diverse cultural mosaic resulting from its history of colonization, migration, and economic and political development.
   • How does Africa represent a diverse cultural mosaic?
   • What is the enduring legacy of colonization and migration within the continent of Africa?

Oceania;
Antarctica

1. The five themes of geography allow us to explore patterns in location, place, human environment interaction, movement, and regions.
2. Geography has a range of helpful tools that can assist us in understanding our earth and its patterns.
3. Although Australia, Oceania, and the Antarctic exist within the same world region, they are strikingly unique and distinct in their physical and cultural geography.
4. The processes and patterns of human settlement had a powerful and enduring impact upon the development of Australia, Oceania, and the Antarctic.
   • How do the processes and patterns of human settlement have a powerful and enduring impact upon Australia, Oceania, and the Antarctic?
   • To what extent can geographically isolated regions remain intact? To what extent do patterns of human settlement make geographic isolation a relative impossibility?