World Geography Studies

Analyze significant physical features and environmental conditions that have influenced the past and migration patterns and have shaped the distribution of culture groups today.

Trace the spatial diffusion of phenomena such as the Columbian Exchange or the diffusion of American popular culture and describe the effects on regions of contact.

Describe the human and physical characteristics of the same regions at different periods of time to analyze relationships between past events and current conditions.

Explain how changes in societies such as population shifts, technological advancements, and environmental policies have led to diverse uses of physical features over time such as terrace farming, dams, and polders.

Explain weather conditions and climate in relation to annual changes in Earth-Sun relationships.

Describe the physical processes that affect the environments of regions, including weather, tectonic forces, erosion, and soil-building processes.

Describe how physical processes such as hurricanes, El Niño, earthquakes, and volcanoes affect the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere.

Explain how elevation, latitude, wind systems, ocean currents, position on a continent, and mountain barriers influence temperature, precipitation, and distribution of climate regions.

Describe different landforms such as plains, mountains, and islands and the physical processes that cause their development.

Explain the influence of climate on the distribution of biomes in different regions.

Analyze how the character of a place is related to its political, economic, social, and cultural elements.

Interpret political, economic, social, and demographic indicators (gross domestic product per capita, life expectancy, literacy, and infant mortality) to determine the level of development and standard of living in nations using the levels as defined by the Human Development Index.

Locate and describe human and physical features that influence the size and distribution of settlements.

Explain the processes that have caused changes in settlement patterns, including urbanization, transportation, access to and availability of resources, and economic activities.

Analyze population pyramids and use other data, graphics, and maps to describe the population characteristics of different societies and to predict future population trends.

Explain how physical geography and push and pull forces, including political, economic, social, and environmental conditions, affect the routes and flows of human migration.

Describe trends in world population growth and distribution.

Analyze how globalization affects connectivity, standard of living, pandemics, and loss of local culture.

Compare ways that humans depend on, adapt to, and modify the physical environment, including the influences of culture and technology.

Analyze the consequences of extreme weather and other natural disasters such as El Niño, floods, tsunamis, and volcanoes on people and their environment.

Evaluate the economic and political relationships between settlements and the environment, including sustainable development and renewable/non-renewable resources.

Identify physical and/or human factors such as climate, vegetation, language, trade networks, political units, river systems, and religion that constitute a region.

Describe different types of regions, including formal, functional, and perceptual regions.

Describe the forces that determine the distribution of goods and services in traditional, free enterprise, socialist, and communist economic systems.

Classify countries along the economic spectrum between free enterprise and communism.

Compare the ways people satisfy their basic needs through the production of goods and services such as subsistence agriculture versus commercial agriculture or cottage industries versus commercial industries.

Compare global trade patterns over time and analyze the implications of globalization, including outsourcing and free trade zones.

Understand the connections between levels of development and economic activities (primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary).

Identify the factors affecting the location of different types of economic activities, including subsistence and commercial agriculture, manufacturing, and service industries.

Assess how changes in climate, resources, and infrastructure (technology, transportation, and communication) affect the location and patterns of economic activities.

Analyze how the creation, distribution, and management of key natural resources affects the location and patterns of movement of products, money, and people.

Evaluate the geographic and economic impact of policies related to the development, use, and scarcity of natural resources such as regulations of water.

Interpret maps to explain the division of land, including man-made and natural borders, into separate political units such as cities, states, or countries.

Compare maps of voting patterns and political boundaries to make inferences about the distribution of political power.

Analyze current events to infer the physical and human processes that lead to the formation of boundaries and other political divisions.

Compare how democracy, dictatorship, monarchy, republic, theocracy, and totalitarian systems operate in specific countries.

Analyze the human and physical factors that influence control of territories and resources, conflict/war, and international relations of sovereign nations such as China, the United States, Japan, and Russia and international organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU).

Identify and give examples of different points of view that influence the development of public policies and decision-making processes at national and international levels.

Explain how citizenship practices, public policies, and decision making may be influenced by cultural beliefs, including nationalism and patriotism.

Describe distinctive cultural patterns and landscapes associated with different places in Texas, the United States, and other regions of the world and how these patterns influenced the processes of innovation and diffusion.

Describe elements of culture, including language, religion, beliefs, institutions, and technologies.

Describe life in a variety of urban and rural areas in the world to compare political, economic, social, and environmental changes.

Describe and compare patterns of culture such as language, religion, land use, education, and customs that make specific regions of the world distinctive.

Describe central ideas and spatial distribution of major religious traditions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism.

Compare economic, political, or social opportunities in different cultures for underrepresented populations such as women and ethnic and religious minorities.

Evaluate the experiences and contributions of diverse groups to multicultural societies.

Analyze cultural changes in specific regions caused by migration, war, trade, innovations, and diffusion.

Assess causes and effects of conflicts between groups of people, including modern genocides and terrorism.

Identify examples of cultures that maintain traditional ways, including traditional economies.

Evaluate the spread of cultural traits to find examples of cultural convergence and divergence such as the spread of democratic ideas, language, foods, technology, or global sports.

Evaluate the significance of major technological innovations in the areas of transportation and energy that have been used to modify the physical environment.

Analyze ways technological innovations such as air conditioning and desalinization have allowed humans to adapt to places.

Analyze the environmental, economic, and social impacts of advances in technology on agriculture and natural resources.

Describe the impact of new information technologies such as the Internet, Global Positioning System (GPS), or Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Examine the economic, environmental, and social effects of technology such as medical advancements or changing trade patterns on societies at different levels of development.

Analyze and evaluate a variety of sources of geographic information such as primary and secondary sources, aerial photographs, and maps for validity, utility, credibility, bias, and accuracy.

Identify places of contemporary geopolitical significance on a map.

Create and interpret different types of maps to answer geographic questions, infer relationships, and analyze change.

Analyze information by sequencing, categorizing, identifying cause-and-effect relationships, comparing, contrasting, finding the main idea, summarizing, making generalizations and predictions, drawing inferences and conclusions, and developing connections over time.

Identify different points of view about an issue or current topic.

Formulate and communicate visually, orally, or in writing a claim supported by evidence and reasoning for an intended audience and purpose.

Create appropriate graphics such as maps, diagrams, tables, and graphs to communicate geographic features, distributions, and relationships.

Generate summaries, generalizations, and thesis statements supported by evidence.

Use social studies terminology correctly.

Create original work using effective written communication skills, including proper citations and understanding and avoiding plagiarism.

Apply foundational language skills to engage in civil discourse about social studies topics, including those with multiple perspectives.

Explain governmental and democratic processes such as voting, due process, and caucuses using simulations and models.

Plan, organize, and complete a research project that involves asking geographic questions; acquiring, organizing, and analyzing information; answering questions; and communicating results.

Use case studies and GIS to identify contemporary challenges and to answer real-world questions.

Use problem-solving and decision-making processes to identify a problem, gather information, list and consider options, consider advantages and disadvantages, choose and implement a solution, and evaluate the effectiveness of the solution.