United States Geography Project
September 2007
Dear sixth grade students,
Welcome to your first research project of your middle school career! Rest assured, it will be the first of many, especially when I am back at school with you (I can't wait to meet all of you, by the way). The purpose of this research project is twofold: you are finding out information for Sra. Ballón's Social Studies class, and you are practicing the steps involved in informational writing.
Sra. Ballón will assign each of you a region of the United States, and you are going to find out specific information about the area's geography. Usually, when we do research, we start off asking the question, 'What do we want to know about our topic?'. This time, however, we've answered that question for you by assigning you the following subtopics that you will research:
the climate of the area
what landforms are present
the natural resources in existence
Please feel free to ask Sra. Ballón to further define each of those three subtopics for you, since you are studying Geography with her. The next step of the research process is to find sources to answer your questions. Guess what? The Internet is not the only source of information in this world!! In fact, for this project, you might find even more specific information in books, atlases, encyclopedias, videos (think National Geograpahic or the Discovery Channel). The Internet is a useful tool, but you have to be careful. Click here to brush up on your research skills, dos and don'ts. Below is a list of possible quality sites that you could use for this project, and remember, you'll have to READ through each site carefully- I have not listed only the information you'll need, and in fact, you may have to search elsewhere for your subtopics as well:
http://www.edu.pe.ca/southernkings/landforms.htm Read this information about types of landforms BEFORE finding out which ones your state(s) contain.
http://www.factmonster.com/atlas/unitedstates.html Click on your state(s), then decide if an almanac or encyclopedia entry (or both) will be helpful to you.
http://www.kidport.com/RefLib/UsaGeography/UsaGeography.htm Choose your state(s), then review the information offered.
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761576470/Alabama_(state).html In the “MSN Encarta” box at the top, type the name of your state(s), then click “search Encarta”. Warning: there is a lot of information to sift through, but it is worthwhile.
http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/usclim.pdf Climate & geography averages, from 2001- you’d better be a good map reader!
http://worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/usstates/usland.htm On the right side of the page, click your state(s), and again, get ready to look at a map to learn about landforms, but also to read information about your state.
http://www.ipl.org/youth/stateknow/ Pretty friendly site- click your state(s), then hunt for the information you are researching.
http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/usaquiz.html Just for fun, a geography quiz about the United States
http://www.toonuniversity.com/flash.asp?err=192&engine= Another game to test your state knowledge
http://www.eduplace.com/geonet/ Test your knowledge of a particular region of the U.S. when you are done!
http://www.census.gov/schools/facts/index.html Interesting information by state, though not really about the topics requested by Sra. Ballón.
As you read about your topic, take notes. Sra. Lybbert will explain how that is to be done, but don't forget to note the bibliography information of the source you're using. It's important to give credit to the original authors of information (after all, you are not visiting the states to visually check for rivers and mountains, are you?).
Last but not least, report your information. Again, Sra. Lybbert will tell you how that is to be done correctly. But remember, use your own words, and make your informational report interesting. Look it over to revise and edit (is it correct? would someone else want to read it?), and make sure your writing meets all of the criteria set out for you.
Good luck researchers! See you in October!
Sra. Thompson