Download Unit 3 Teacher's Guide and more Summaries Geography in PDF only on Docsity!
Teacher’s Guide 1
Unit 3 Teacher’s Guide
Secondary Curriculum
Grades 9–12 Unit 3: Geographic Influences on Homebuilding
Unit Overview Physical and cultural geography contribute greatly to our ways of life and our
definitions of self; they are deeply interwoven with human history and our economic and political lives. The relationship between humans and geography, however, is not one-sided. Human activity and technology greatly impact the land around us and can contribute to adverse living conditions. Recently, Hab- itat for Humanity announced that it had reached its 100-country goal — i.e., it will be working in 100 countries around the world. What are these countries, and what are their special geographic and cultural needs and resources? What does the relationship between humans and geography in these countries look like, and how is it affecting living conditions? This unit is designed to align with a high school geography course — addressing these issues and helping students understand the far-reaching impact of our lives here on Earth.
Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (National Council for the Social Studies)
- Strand 3: People, Places, and Environments – Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of people, places, and environ- ments.
- Strand 7: Production, Distribution, and Consumption – Social studies pro- grams should include experiences that provide for the study of how people organize for the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Geography for Life: National Geography Standards
- Standard 4: The Physical and Human Characteristics of Places – The student knows and understands the changing physical and human characteristics of places.
- Standard 5: Places and Regions – The student knows and understands how multiple criteria can be used to define a region.
- Standard 15: Environment and Society – The student knows and under- stands strategies to respond to constraints placed on human systems by the physical environment.
2002 NAEP Writing Assessment Framework Objectives
- Students should write for a variety of purposes: narrative, informative, and persuasive.
- Students should write from a variety of stimulus materials, and within vari- ous time constraints.
Standards
Addressed
Teacher’s Guide 2
Unit 3 Teacher’s Guide
Secondary Curriculum
Standards
Addressed
Learning
Objectives
Teacher
Preparation Time
Class Time
Materials
Needed
Activity Sheet(s)
Standards for the English Language Arts (The National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association)
- Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
- Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
National Standards for Arts Education
- NA-VA.9-12.3: Choosing and Evaluating a Range of Subject Matter, Symbols, and Ideas: Students apply subjects, symbols, and ideas in their artworks and use the skills gained to solve problems in daily life.
By completing this unit, students will:
- Gather relevant geographic information about the country (or countries) under study.
- Analyze geographic information in relation to human needs and economic limitations.
- Synthesize geographic information to create a visual and written product.
1 hour
3 hours
- Internet access
- Media center access
- Paper
- Marker, paints, pens, or colored pencils
- Poverty Housing: Global Crisis and Global Needs
Teacher’s Guide 4
Unit 3 Teacher’s Guide
Secondary Curriculum
c. What economic benefits would the use of local materials bring to a project? d. What human benefits would the use of local materials in a building project bring to an area? e. What are houses like in your area? Are they built using local materials? Why or why not? f. Are houses in your area built to adapt to the local environment? If so, ex- plain how. g. Can you name any other housing styles that adapt to the local environment? Where are they located? h. Given the following physical characteristics of place, what do you think homes in these areas might look like? i. Arid to semiarid climate with cold winters and hot summers; mostly rugged mountains; but some plains areas ii. Tropical marine climate with little seasonal temperature variation; mostly low-lying limestone and coral islands with some higher vol- canic areas iii. Cold winters, cool and moist summers; generally flat land that con- tains much marshland, natural forests, and peat deposits iv. Climate variation from temperate to subarctic and arctic with continuous permafrost; plains, mountains, and lowlands in different areas i. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? “Housing styles and materials have an effect on the lives of the people who occupy them.” Explain your opinion.
- Review with students the guiding principles Habitat for Humanity operates under when building a home. The guiding principles are listed below, and can also be found on the Local Building Materials Research Sheet:
- Build quality houses at the lowest possible cost.
- Use cost-effective, best-practice construction methods.
- Raise awareness of the environmental impacts of house building.
- Build healthier, more energy-efficient and durable housing.
- Build simple, modestly-sized houses that use fewer raw materials than large houses since smaller houses are less expensive to build and easier to heat and cool.
- Purchase smaller quantities of materials in order to decrease the environ- mental impact of raw material extraction, processing and transportation, and also to reduce the amount of waste.
- Encourage the use of locally available construction materials.
Lesson Steps
Teacher’s Guide 5
Unit 3 Teacher’s Guide
Secondary Curriculum
- Ask students to imagine that they live in poverty housing in a developing country. (If you want to focus on a specific country or region of the world, specify which one.) Students should then try to describe what their home might look like — this exercise may simply build off of their ideas from Step 1 and Step 3.
- Now have students begin to explore the characteristics of some of the coun- tries around the world in which Habitat builds. One way to do this is on the Habitat for Humanity Web site. From the home page (http://www.habitat. org), have students click on the Local Affiliates link at the bottom of the page. From there, they can search by country.
- Have each student select a particular country to focus on. Students will be assuming the role of a Habitat project coordinator for this country. Using the attached Local Building Materials Research Sheet, students will need to gather information about the local materials available in this country as well as climate characteristics. (The Resources section provides some Web sites for obtaining this kind of information.) Using this information, have students design a house using local materials and write a field report justifying their design.
Teacher-Student Checklist
- To add a stronger economics element to this unit and to provide a comparison with costs in this country, have students investigate the actual costs of local materials in both the United States and other countries. (economics)
- Use this unit as a springboard to researching current issues related to how humans are impacting access to safe housing — e.g., Albania’s environmental “wasteland,” refugees and the environment, and Iraq’s marshes and their in- habitants. As part of the research, have students find out how local government or non-governmental organizations respond to peoples’ needs. See Resources below. (research skills, current events)
- Have students write letters to appropriate agencies advocating for the rights and needs of environmental refugees — part of this extension can include research on how Habitat for Humanity’s activities intersect with areas of the world that have environmental refugees. See Resources below. (civics)
- Have students investigate how to start a HFH campus chapter. They may begin by e-mailing [email protected], or by calling 1-800-HABITAT, Ext. 2220.
Extension
Activities
Assessment
Lesson Steps
Teacher’s Guide 7
Unit 3 Teacher’s Guide
Secondary Curriculum
- Worldwatch Institute 1776 Massachusetts Ave., NW Washington, D.C. 20036- Phone: 202-452- Fax: 202-296- E-mail: [email protected]
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Case Postale 2500 CH-1211 Genève 2 Dépôt Suisse Web: http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/contact?hq=y
- Human Rights Watch 1630 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 500 Washington, D.C. 20009 Phone: 202-612- Fax: 202-612- E-mail: [email protected]
Resources for
Extension Ideas
Global Crisis/Global Needs 1
Poverty Housing: Global Crisis and Global Needs Secondary Curriculum
Grades 9–12 Unit 3: Geographic Influences on Homebuilding
Poverty housing is a global crisis, particularly in developing countries where large percentages of the population live in poverty. In developing countries, what is defined as “poverty housing” may not be the same as it is in the United States, yet the effects of living in poverty housing are similar throughout the world. Habitat for Humanity International is one agency in particular that is devoted to addressing these global needs, in part, through its emphasis on using local materials in building homes.
Poverty housing may have many consequences: less protection against diseases, difficulty to sleep and rest, difficulty for children to do school homework, fire hazards, family conflicts, less social interaction, etc. Poverty housing may also entail inability to afford heating and cooling.
Often, sanitation systems are insufficient, drinking water unavailable or remote, evacuation and rescue difficult in emergencies. In some poor neighborhoods, waste is not removed, thus creating sources of epi- demics and other health problems.
Poverty of the household makes it impossible sometimes to pay for electricity or to be connected to the power network. Living in sub-standard housing may also lead to a loss of self-esteem and lead to isola- tion.
Housing is a human right that must be guaranteed through public and private initiative. Local, regional, and national authorities may provide low cost social housing, free or special rates for energy and water, safe water supply and sanitation, sports and recreational facilities and activities. Public and private initiatives can enable access of poor people to credit for housing and household appliances. Commu- nity initiative by people concerned can lead to cleaner environments, collective equipment. Support for administrative and legal matters can be provided through public or private initiative. Free transport and telephone services, literacy programs, vocational training and information about employment opportu- nities are also key, the goal being for people to be able to afford decent housing at equitable prices.
Excerpt taken from the United Nations Development Program at http://www.undp.org/teams/english/housing.htm
The excerpt from the United Nations Development Program provides a sense of the negative effects of poverty housing around the world. Sadly, there are numerous obstacles in life when poverty housing is so prevalent. To give you a glimpse of how poverty housing and its obstacles have affected specific families, we have provided a short snapshot of two families in different parts of the world. Please read them and learn how these families have dealt with their obstacles with the help of Habitat for Humanity International.
Local Construction Materials 1
Local Construction Materials Secondary Curriculum
Grades 9–12 Unit 3: Geographic Influences on Homebuilding
Local Construction Materials: Democratic Republic of Congo, Papua New Guinea, and Guatemala
Since Habitat for Humanity International’s founding in 1976, Habitat’s board of directors has encour- aged the use of locally-available construction materials. A sound choice for sustainable development, the use of local materials cuts down on materials transportation costs and educates the community about quality construction methods that are readily available.
For example, in the Democratic Republic of Congo , some Habitat houses are built with bricks and roof tiles made of fired clay. Here, the roof is the most critical and expensive element of each house, account- ing for as much as half of the total house cost. Using a kiln firing method, Habitat affiliates produce roof tiles locally, making efficient use of area resources, providing employment and a ready source of replace- ment tiles for roof maintenance.
In Papua New Guinea , Habitat houses are built on stilts and provide a major improvement in hygiene and sanitation, especially in protection from malarial mosquitoes with screening. Due to the high cost of concrete and its local scarcity, houses are constructed of wood. House costs are kept especially low through the use of portable saw mills which produce all of the timber for the houses. In turn, HFH affili- ates in Papua New Guinea maintain reforestation projects in each of their communities.
Guatemala , because of its geographic location, is prone to natural disasters such as tremors, earth- quakes, hurricanes, volcano eruptions, and floods. Habitat houses in Guatemala are earthquake-resistant and constructed of concrete floors, block walls, and corrugated zinc roofs. (Unlike Papua New Guinea, concrete is relatively inexpensive to produce in Guatemala.) A Habitat house in Guatemala typically replaces a makeshift structure that lacks a septic system, plumbing, or electricity.
Research Sheet 1
Local Building Materials Research Sheet Secondary Curriculum
Grades 9–12 Unit 3: Geographic Influences on Homebuilding
When Habitat for Humanity builds a house — no matter what the location — it operates under these guiding principles:
- Build quality houses at the lowest possible cost.
- Use cost-effective, best-practice construction methods.
- Raise awareness of the environmental impact of house building.
- Build healthier, more energy-efficient and durable housing.
- Build simple, modestly-sized houses that use fewer raw materials than large houses (smaller houses are less expensive to build and easier to heat and cool).
- Purchase smaller quantities of materials (decreases the environmental impact of raw material extrac- tion, processing and transportation, and also reduces the amount of waste).
- Encourage the use of locally available construction materials.
In this activity, you will combine the geographic characteristics of a particular country discovered through research (such as climate, environment, and topography) with the principles discussed above to design a locally-appropriate housing structure. You will also use the information you have learned to justify your design.
Country: _____________________________________________________________
Area of country in which you will be building: _______________________________
- How would you describe the climate of this area?
- What types of housing characteristics would this climate naturally encourage?
- What natural resources are available in this area?
- Are these natural resources renewable or non-renewable?
Research Sheet 3
Local Building Materials Research Sheet Secondary Curriculum
Criteria (10 points possible)
Teacher score and justification
Student score and justification
Research questions are complete and accurate
Design appropriately addresses local climate criteria
Written justification appropriately addresses local climate criteria
Design appropriately addresses natural resources of the area
Written justification appropriately addresses natural resources of the area
Design appropriately addresses topography of the area
Written justification appropriately addresses topography of the area
Design labels building materials
Design is clearly presented and visually appealing
Written justification explains and justifies design
TOTAL
Teacher-Student Checklist:
