The geographically informed person must understand the genesis, evolution, and meaning of places. Places are locations having distinctive features that give them meaning and character that differs from other locations. Therefore, places are human creations, and people’s lives are grounded in particular places. We come from a place, we live in a place, and we preserve and exhibit fierce pride over places. Places usually have names and boundaries and include continents, islands, countries, regions, state, cities, neighborhoods, villages, and uninhabited areas.
Therefore, Standard 4 contains these themes: The Concept of Place and The Characteristics of Places.
Places are jointly characterized by their physical and human properties. Their physical characteristics include landforms, climate, soils, and hydrology. Things such as language, religion, political systems, economic systems, and population distribution are examples of human characteristics. Places change over time as both physical and human processes change and thus modify the characteristics of a place. Places change in size and complexity as a result of new knowledge, ideas, human migrations, climatic changes, or political conflicts. Places disappear and are renamed (e.g., Czechoslovakia became the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the Spanish rebuilt Tenochtitlan and renamed it Mexico City, and St. Petersburg changed to Leningrad and then reverted back to St. Petersburg).
Knowing the physical and human characteristics of their own places influences how people think about who they are. Personal, community, and national identities are inextricably bound with a person’s and a population’s experiences in those places. Knowing about other places influences how people understand other peoples, cultures, and regions of the world. Such knowledge not only broadens a person’s world perspective and allows a better understanding of places with which they have a strong personal identity.
Students must understand how physical and human characteristics give meaning to places. They must also understand that these characteristics vary from place to place and change over time. Understanding these themes enables students to comprehend and appreciate the similarities and differences in places in their own communities, states, and countries, as well as across Earth’s surface.
1. Places are locations having distinctive characteristics that give them meaning and distinguish them from other locations
Therefore, the student is able to:
A. Describe the distinguishing characteristics and meanings of several different places, as exemplified by being able to
2. Places have physical and human characteristics
Therefore, the student is able to:
A. Describe and compare the physical characteristics of places at a variety of scales, local to global, as exemplified by being able to
B. Describe and compare the human characteristics of places at a variety of scales, local to global, as exemplified by being able to
1. Personal, community, and national identities are rooted in and attached to places
Therefore, the student is able to:
A. Explain how personal, community, or national identities are based on places, as exemplified by being able to
2. Physical and human characteristics of places change
Therefore, the student is able to:
A. Explain the ways that physical processes change places, as exemplified by being able to
B. Explain the ways that human processes change places, as exemplified by being able to
CREATED BY
GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION NATIONAL IMPLEMENTATION PROJECT
