Land and Physical Geography of North America PDF

The Land and Physical Geography of North America What are the main geographical features of North America? - Key Vocabulary Natural feature Panama Canal...

The Land and Physical Geography of North America What are the main geographical features of North America? - Key Vocabulary Natural feature Panama Canal The Great Lakes Rocky Mountains _ Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains  Activity 1 Read the texts about the geography of North America and answer the questions that follow. Geography of North America There are ten countries on the continent of North America, and about 13 different nations and territorial islands in the Caribbean Sea. This lesson focuses on the three largest continental nations: Canada, the United States and Mexico. There are four other countries on the North American continent to the south of Mexico: Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. These are often referred to as Central America. The Panama Canal was constructed and opened in 1914 and allows ships to pass from the Caribbean Sea on the Atlantic Ocean side of the continent and to cross the narrow isthmus into the Pacific Ocean. Panama is the end point of the North America and where South America begins. The island nations in the Caribbean Sea, include the larger island countries of Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Another group of smaller island nations are in the Caribbean Sea along with islands that are territories of other countries including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the British Virgin Islands. The northernmost parts of North America include Canada and the US state of Alaska. Some parts of Canada lie within the Arctic Circle at 66°34’ North latitude. This is the area of the Arctic where all land remains in polar darkness during the winter months peaking on the 22nd of December, the winter solstice. Unit 6 | 117 Lesson 1: The Land and Physical Geography of North America Moral, Social & Cultural Studies  The same areas remain in sunlight during six months peaking during on the 21st of June, the summer solstice. This is because of the tilt of the earth’s axis toward and away from the sun. To the north of Canada lies the frozen Arctic Ocean and the North Pole that is at 90° North. ‘,-—a Polar day SUMMER Polar night o The Canadian Shield is a large sheet of rock that stretches all the way from the St. Lawrence River in Eastern Canada to the Great Lakes in Southern Canada and northward all the way up to the Arctic regions. Farming is limited in this region because the winters are long. Unit6 | 118 Moral, Social & Cultural Studies Lesson 1: The Land and Physical Geography of North America  a. What are the three largest countries in North America? 1. 2. 3. b. The countries to the south of Mexico: Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Cost Rica and Panama are often referred to as: List 3 Caribbean Islands. ol 1. 2. 3; d. Why do some areas of the Arctic North have darkness half the year and sunlight for half the year? Unit6 | 119 Lesson 1: The Land and Physical Geography of North America Moral, Social & Cultural Studies  Activity 2 Read the text below. As you read the text, identify the landform on the map by writing the number on the map. Land below the Arctic Circle Most of the population of Eastern Canada lives below this area in Southern Ontario and Quebec along the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Rivers. In this region the winter is shorter, the climate is warmer, and the topsoil is deeper making the land more fertile for farming. Western Canada and the State of Alaska, which is part of the United States have long high mountain ranges and coastal forests and rivers with fisheries. The Canadian Rockies and the Denali Range in Alaska have the highest m.ountain peaks in North America. The continental area of the United States has an Eastern seaboard that borders the cold and icy waters of the North Atlantic, with cold winters and hot and humid summers. The south- eastern coastal areas have moderate winters and longer hot humid summers. The areas of southern Florida have subtropical weather. The Appalachian Mountain range stretches from the Northeast to the South, where it gives way to a large Unit 6 | 120 Moral, Social & Cultural Studies Lesson 1 The Land'and Physical Geography of North America  coastal plain that spans from the Atlantic Ocean across the northern areas of the Gulf of Mexico into the Great Plains. The Great Plains are a rich agricultural area with topsoil that extends from Southern Canada down through the middle of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. The Western United States is divided from the Great Plains by the Rocky Mountains. Northern California has long agricultural valleys and forests that stretch up the northwest coastal mountain ranges with the Cascade Mountain Range extending toward British Columbia in Canada. The upper areas of the Northwest are quite wet with rain forests and a large amount of precipitation from rain. The rest of the Far West has a dry climate with extreme cold winters in the northern areas near the Rocky Mountains, but hot dry summers. The Southwestern United States remains hot and dry through most of the year. The Central Mexican Plateau is in the southern half of North America. It has rich valleys set between the long Sierra Madre Occidental Mountain range and volcanic mountains that surround the great plain of Mexico City. Mexico’s eastern coastline borders the Gulfof Mexico. The Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico’s Southeast was the location of many of Mexico’s earliest sites of civilization belonging to the Olmec and Mayan civilizations. Mexico’s western coast borders the Pacific Ocean where the climate is drier, and the area is sheltered from most tropical storms that seasonally arise in the Gulf of Mexico. The Central American countries of Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama are smaller in size and have a tropical climate. Unit 6 | 121 Lesson 1: The Land and Physical Geography of North America Moral, Social & Cultural Studies Activity 3 Match the photo of a location with the name and description of the natural feature.  A. Yellowstone National Park B.The rain forests of the in Wyoming, United States Pacific Northwest contain has open active geological lush ferns and other plant features such as hot life as ground cover and springs, natural geysers and tall evergreen forests mineral pools such as this with cedar, spruce and fir one, known as the Grand trees. This scene is from Prismatic Pool. Macmillan Provincial Park in British Columbia. C.The Canadian Shield is a D.The Grand Canyon is a rock -base with lakes and 1,800 metre deep canyon marshes in this northern in Arizona, United States. landscape that was sculpted It was formed because of by the retreat of glaciers water erosion from the during the Ice Age about Colorado River. 200,000 years ago. E.The Columbia Ice Fields F. Mt. Denali, in Alaska, also in Banff National Park in referred to as Mt. McKinley, Alberta, Canada is one of is 6,190 metres tall. It is the largest glaciers in the the highest peak in North Canadian Rockies. It is the America. source of the Columbia River that stretches 2,000 km from Canada to Washington and Oregon states on the Pacific Ocean. Unit6 | 123 Lesson 1: The Land and Physical Geography of North America Moral, Social & Cultural Studies  Activity 4 Fill in the names and colour of the countries in North America. Countries of North America ' Canada Guatemala " United States ~ ElSalvador © Mexico © Handuras. Belize © Costa Rica Unit6 | 124 Moral, Social & Cultural Studies. Lesson 1: The Land and Physical Geography of North America  Activity 5 Imagine that you live in the northern most area of Canada and have six months of night and six months of day. How do you think you would feel? How do you think your life would be different? Unit 6 | 125 Lesson 1: The Land and Physical Geography of North America Moral, Social & Cultural Studies.  At 1er| L ) What ancient North American civilizations can you name? What contributions have ancient North American civilizations made to human history? Aztecs Native Americans Native Canadians  Activity 1 Were the Europeans the first people to travel to North America? Who visited or lived in North America before the European explorers of the 15th century? Discuss and write notes. Unit 6 | 127 Lesson 2: Indigenous People of North America Moral, Social & Cultural Studies  Activity 2 Read the text and answer the questions. The First People Arrive in North America It is not clear when the first people arrived in North America. Some scientists believe that people migrated to North America from Asia during the last ice age 20,000 years ago. The migration would have taken people from a northern area in what is now Russia across the Bering Strait. At the time the strait would have not had water. It would have appeared as a shallow valley. Other scientists believe that there were several migrations. Evidence has been found showing settlements in the Orogrande Cave in New Mexico, USA, from around 35,000 BCE. This was before the last Ice Age. The evidence suggests that earlier migrations could have happened as early as 40,000 BCE. The people who were living in the Americas before the European explorers arrived are considered indigenous people. Indigenous people are called First People in Canada or Native Americans in the US. Unit6 | 128 Moral, Social & Cultural Studies Lesson 2: Indigenous People of North America  Indigenous people were called Indians because the first European explorers thought they were in the East Indies when they landed in the Americas. Native people of the Americas should not be called Indians. a. What are the time periods of migration suggested by evidence? b. Why were the indigenous people of North America called “Indians” by the European explorers of the 15th century?. c. What are appropriate names for indigenous people of North America? Unit 6 | 129 Lesson 2: Indigenous People of North America Moral, Social & Cultural Studies  Activity 3 Read the texts and match a solution used by the native peoples in their local environment with their region or people. Adapting to the Land In the Arctic regions of the far North, the Inuit tribes lived by hunting in the polar region and fishing in the icy waters. The Northwest Coastal tribes, including the Salish tribes of British Columbia lived from fishing and gathering the plentiful shellfish they found along the Pacific Coast. The California Native Peoples hunted, gathered and fished. On the Plains, the tribes included the Sioux and Cheyenne who hunted buffalo as they migrated across the grasslands of the Great Plains. In the East the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederation, thrived well into the 18th century. In the Southeast the Mound Cultures that populated the city of Cahokia, in the present-day state of lllinois, in around the year 1300 CE flourished. The Mound Culture was still intact in the 16th century when Spanish explorers reached the area in the early 1500s. In the Southwest, the Apache and Navajo tribes lived in the dry areas of Arizona, New Mexico and to the South in Mexico. In earlier centuries, people built pueblos of stone in cities carved into rock in the dry climate of it Sonoran Desert. In Taos, New Mexico the pueblo style of construction has been continuously maintained since the 1300s and is recognized as a World Heritage Site. Unit 6 | 130 Moral, Social & Cultural Studies: Lesson 2: Indigenous People of North America  Tools and Inventions of the Early People of North America Native Americans in North America adapted to their local environment in various ways. In the Pacific Northwest, they used the bark of coastal fir trees to make fibres and materials for shelter and for rain gear to keep dry in the wet climate. In the Southwest they used stone and mud bricks to make permanent housing shelters and in other places they carved their housing into soft stone canyon walls. In the Eastern regions of Canada and the United States, the Iroquois tribes and other First Peoples carved canoes out of trees and used them to travel great distances along the rivers and lakes of their region. In the Plains region, the native people lived in a / semi-nomadic pattern of movement to follow herds of buffalo and other animals across the great grass plains of the Plains region. 5 They used arrows with stone tips to hunt buffalo. After the Spanish introduced horses, they used horses to travel and hunt animals. The native people used the skins of the buffalo and deer that they hunted to make tents and clothing to protect against the cold weather. Unit 6 | 131 Lesson 2: Indigenous People of North America Moral, Social & Cultural Studies  Technology Description Pueblo peoples of the Buffalo and deer skins Southwest. Stone or mud brick and The Salish and people carving of housing out of soft living on the Pacific stone cliffs Northwest Coast. The bark of fir trees and cedar Tent making and trees were used for making clothing in the Plains clothing and shelter region. The carving of canoes from The people living in tree trunks to make boats for the East, including the travel along rivers and lakes Iroquois tribes. Unit6 | 132 Moral, Social & Cultural Studies’ Lesson 2: Indigenous People of North America  Activity 4 Read the texts and match the term on the left with the definition on the right. Aztec Civilization in Mexico In Mexico, in 1519 the Spanish viceroy, Hernando Cortés, conquered Tenochtitlan, the largest city of the Aztec empire. At that time, Tenochtitlan was the largest city in North America. After the Spanish conquest, it became the site of Mexico City, the capital city of Mexico today. i e When Cortés entered Mexico City for the first time, he found a highly developed civilization. The Aztecs had their own written language and a highly developed system of city planning, irrigation, agriculture, markets, public spaces, temples and a long-distance system of trade. The Aztecs were not liked by other tribes. Cortés took advantage of these rivalries among Mexican tribes. He got some of them to join him in attacking the Aztecs. Cortés had the Aztec chief Montezuma imprisoned where he died of disease or poisoning. Unit 6 | 133 Lesson 2: Indigenous People of North America Moral, Social & Cultural Studies  European countries sent their own people to North America to live so that they could grow crops or make products to send back to Europe. These people were called settlers. Europeans saw the Americas as a place to expand into. They felt that they had the right to use the land and resources as they wished. Whenindigenous people met European settlers, they sometimes becameill and died. Indigenous Americans lacked immunity to diseases that the Europeans brought with them. Large numbers of their tribe members died from smallpox and other diseases. For indigenous people this was confusing and frightening. They did not know how the diseases were transmitted. They simply knew that often when they had contact with European setters many of them became ill and died. Even if they used items such as blankets or clothing purchased from setters, people who used the products became ill and died, especially elderly and children. Assettlersarrived in greater numbers, they took over land where the indigenous people lived. Sometimes US troops were used move indigenous people to make the land available to settlers. Troops had guns and cannons which were superior to the arrows and spears that indigenous people produced. About Unit 6 | 134 Moral, Social & Cultural Studies Lesson 2: Indigenous People of North America  350 years later, the indigenous population was very small and mostly relocated to isolated areas called reservations. Key Word Description Aztec The name of the Aztec Capital. A deadly disease that ravaged, killed Salish and depleted the populations of most Native American tribal peoples. A tribe in the Pacific Northwest in Canada who lived in the area of British Tenochtitlan Columbia and prospered from fishing and collecting of shellfish. A major civilization in Mexico whose Taos capital was in the present city of Mexico City. The name of a place in New Mexico Smallpox ’ where the Pueblo people lived since the 1300s. Unit 6 | 135 Lesson 2: Indigenous People of North America Moral, Social & Cultural Studies  Activity 5 Read the text and follow the instructions after it. During a period of about 350 years, the indigenous population of North America decreased by more than 90%. In 1492 it is estimated that there were between 8 to 112 million indigenous people in North America. By 1650 the estimates were less than 6 million. By 1800 the population was reduced to about 600,000 and in the 1890 only about 250,000 remained. a. Fillin the table with information from the text. Population Estimates of Indigenous People of North America Year Estimated Population b. List major factors from the text that caused the indigenous population of North America to decline. 1. 2. 3 4. Unit6 | 136 Moral, Social & Cultural Studies. Lesson 2: Indigenous People of North America