For many people, the word geography conjures up memories of political maps with little dots and stars and place name labels that needed to be memorized. But geography actually touches many areas of study, including geology, anthropology, cartography, climatology, history, economics, sociology, and health science. In order to help students and teachers better comprehend the concept of geography, educators have typically classified the discipline into five themes: Location (the absolute or relative position of a place on the earth’s surface), Place (the physical characteristics of an area), Human-Environment Interaction (how humans are influenced by their environment and the ways humans modify it), Movement (migration, settlement patterns, and transport), and Regions (artificial groupings of areas with common characteristics). The lesson arcs of most subjects include the instruction to use maps to help with comprehension whenever possible, so geography is heavily integrated with the rest of the curriculum. It also has a prominent place of its own in the weekly schedule. 

Outdoor Geography 

Geography is taught similarly to mathematics by using concrete objects prior to pictorial representations or abstract concepts. Students will enjoy getting to know their local geography by going outside and seeing it for themselves. They will make models of places that are familiar to them, watch water drain after a big rain, trace local streams and rivers, and pace boundaries. Seeing these small things first-hand will help them understand the concepts on a larger scale later. 

National & World Geography 

While geographical readers are used, sometimes the primary “text” is the atlas. Students are guided by map questions to observe a map closely and make hypotheses about the climate, main industries, population patterns, and more. They then read a passage related to the map to check their predictions. The geographical reader furnishes the imagination with vivid descriptions, historical events and characters, local culture and industry, and other information that can be used to make generalizations about the region. 

Grades 4-6 study world geography through maps and geography readers based on the historical time period. In grade 7, students learn about the history of cartography and practice drawing the outline of all the countries of the world.  Then in Grade 8 students focus on the US/Canada with geography readers from the historical time period and map drawings that emphasize the borders and boundaries. 

High school students engage in a more in-depth regional study of the US and Canada as well the study of cartography. They also learn more about current and historical studies of regional, physical, and world geography with map work and geography readers.

Mapmaking 

Students begin in Grade 1 by creating simple, physical models representing small spaces. As students understand the relationship between physical models and real-world places, they progress towards using two-dimensional illustrations to represent three-dimensional places to an increasingly larger extent. Students are introduced to the principal geographical features of the regions they read about in their geographical readers by sketching maps, studying them, and then either drawing them from memory or filling in a blank map. Each lesson introduces specific geographical features (e.g., landforms, waterbodies, cities, industries, etc.). 

Map Work 

Starting in Grade 4, map drills become part of the lessons.  During Map Drill lessons, students are guided by questions to engage with maps at a deeper level. They learn to interpret the symbolic representations into a narrative of the places and people they represent. The work progresses from foundational concepts to details of specific places.