Grade Level 9-12
Course: World Geography
CURRICULUM MAP
2011-2012
Organizing Principle: The World in Spatial Terms
Concept
Locations and
Technology
Estimated Number of Weeks:
Semester Course: 2 weeks
Year Course 4 weeks
Essential Questions
How do Geographers describe where things are?
Why is each point on Earth unique?
How does technology impact our understanding of geographic patterns and processes?
5 themes of geography
What are the 5 themes of geography and how do they explain the relationship between humans
and their environment?
Maps
What is geography scale and how are various map forms and spatial data used?
Activities (Teaching Resources)
Department
Pacing:
People, Places, Events, Terms
Benchmarks
GIS, GPS, Location, Place, Cartography, Site, Situation, Scale,
Escarpment, faults, savanna,
subcontinent, monsoon, cyclone,
archipelago, tsunami, loess,
typhoons, desertification, doldrums
Hurricane Katrina, Japanese
Tsunami, Eratosthenes
Assessment
Pinellas County Schools
2009
Grade Level 9-12
Course: World Geography
CURRICULUM MAP
2011-2012
Organizing Principle: Globalization
Estimated Number of Weeks:
Semester Course: 1.5 weeks
Year Course 3 weeks
Concept
Essential Questions
Pacing:
People, Places, Events, Terms
Pre-Modern World,
Empires, Colonization
What effect does globalization have on people and places?
glocalization, interdependence, mediascapes, e-commerce, WTO,
Infastructure, e-commerce,
megalopolis, nuclear proliferation,
interdependent, free port
Industrialization
Why does globalization of popular culture cause problems?
McDonald’s, Wal-Mart
Advantages/
Disadvantages of
Globalization
What are the advantages are disadvantages of globalization?
How does the evolution of technology promote or deter globalization?
Activities (Teaching Resources)
Department
Benchmarks
Assessment
Pinellas County Schools
2009
Grade Level 9-12
Course: World Geography
CURRICULUM MAP
2011-2012
Organizing Principle: Population and Migrations
Concept
Estimated Number of Weeks:
Semester Course: 1.5 weeks
Year Course 3 weeks
Essential Questions
Pacing:
People, Places, Events, Terms
Birth Rates/Death
Rates, Population
Pyramids
Where is the world’s population distributed?
Where has the world’s population increased?
Why might the world face an overpopulation problem?
Census, Crude Birth Rate, Crude
Death Rate, Demographic Transition,
Doubling Time, Life expectancy,
Natural Increase Rate, Population
pyramid
Push/Pull Factors,
Forced Migration
Why do people migrate?
Why do migrants face obstacles?
Why do people migrate within a country?
How do geographers measure and study human population?
Emigration, Immigration, Push
factor, Pull factor
Illegal Immigration,
Immigration Trends,
Guest Workers
Where are people located on the earth’s surface and why?
Why are populations growing faster in some areas of the world than in others?
How does migration differ from mobility?
What are push and pull factors and how do they impact voluntary and involuntary migration?
Will the earth’s population increase to a level that could lead to a global crisis?
What measures have governments used to influence population growth?
Shifting farming, extinction,
homogenous, culture hearth, endemic
Thomas Malthus, Darfur, Sudan,
Balkans, World Wars, famine,
Arizona Immigration Laws,
Immigration reform
Activities (Teaching Resources)
Department
Benchmarks
Assessment
Pinellas County Schools
2009
Grade Level 9-12
Course: World Geography
CURRICULUM MAP
2011-2012
Organizing Principle: The Geography of Cultural Diffusion
Concept
Estimated Number of Weeks:
Semester Course: 3 weeks
Year Course 6 weeks
Essential Questions
Pacing:
People, Places, Events, Terms
Folk Culture, Pop
Culture,
What distinguishes Folk from Popular Culture?
How do geographers define culture?
Language, dialect, slang, Klan,
extended family, nuclear family,
,
cultural hearth, Shifting farming,
extinction, aborigine, homogenous,
culture hearth
Technology,
How do cultural traits move through space and time (diffusion)?
How is culture expressed in landscapes, and how do different landscapes reflect different
cultural identities?
Social Networks, Bill Gates,
Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg,
Casey Anthony, communication
Food, Language,
Architecture, Art,
Music, Sports, Religion
How do religion, language, and culture shape a region?
How are art, music, food, and sports diffused throughout the world?
How do aspects of culture like folk vs. pop, language, religion, race, ethnicity, and gender shape
society?
oral tradition, taboo,
universal suffrage, habitat, tourism,
Activities (Teaching Resources)
Department
Benchmarks
Assessment
Pinellas County Schools
2009
Grade Level 9-12
Course: World Geography
CURRICULUM MAP
2011-2012
Organizing Principle: Politics of Territory and Space
Concept
Estimated Number of Weeks:
Semester Course: 3weeks
Year Course 6 weeks
Essential Questions
Pacing:
People, Places, Events, Terms
Shapes of states,
boundaries, disputed
land,
How do cultural, physical, and political boundaries shape states?
Apartheid, universal suffrage, raj,
What are the types of boundaries and how do they relate to the economic, cultural, and
dynasty, shogun, samuri, dissidents,
environmental activities of an area?
buffer state , supernationalism
How do political policies such as segregation and apartheid and forces such as ethnic separation
and conflict, globalization, regional supranationalism, and regional environmental problems affect
the country in the modern world?
Colonization and
Imperialism
How have occurrences such as colonialism and imperialism shaped the world political map?
What are the forces that bring countries together and divide countries?
Types of Government,
Modern Atrocities,
Terrorism
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Autocracy, Oligarchy, and Democracy?
Why do ethnicities clash?
What is ethnic cleansing?
Why has terrorism increased?
Activities (Teaching Resources)
Department
Benchmarks
Nelson Mandela, Osama Bin Laden,
Louisiana Purchase, Puerto Rico,
U.S. Territories, European Union
Assessment
Pinellas County Schools
2009
Grade Level 9-12
Course: World Geography
CURRICULUM MAP
2011-2012
Organizing Principle: Economic Development
Concept
Estimated Number of Weeks:
Semester Course: 3 weeks
Year Course 6 weeks
Essential Questions
Pacing:
People, Places, Events, Terms
Agriculture
Where did agriculture originate?
Why do farmers face economic difficulties?
What are the characteristics of the world’s agricultural regions?
How has agricultural change affected the environment and people’s quality of life?
Why do agricultural practices exist where they do?
What is the status of food supplies throughout the world? Can humans increase the food supply
and reduce starvation on a glocal level?
Agribusiness, Green revolution, Commercial agriculture, Subsistence agriculture, Cottage industry, Central
Business District, Domesticate, subsistence farming, sedentary farming,
commercial farming, cash crops, conservation farming, poaching, alluvial
plain, green revolution, biomass,
Industry
Where did industry originate?
Why do industries face problems?
How does industrialization differ from development?
command systems, communes, trade
surplus, trade deficit, economic sanctions, aquaculture, paddies, subsistence crop, shifting cultivation, cottage industry, Industrialization,
Services
Where did services originate? Why do business services locate in large settlements?
Why do services cluster downtown? How have cities grown and developed?
Why are there differences in levels of urbanization throughout the world?
What do patterns in urban land use look like, and how do they compare to rural land use patterns?
How do urban places differ across the world?
What are modern trends in urban development?
More Developed Countries,
Less Developed Countries
Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Norman
Bourlag, Von Thunen, Monsanto
Benchmarks
Where did services originate?
Department
Pinellas County Schools
2009
Grade Level 9-12
Course: World Geography
CURRICULUM MAP
2011-2012
Organizing Principle: Urban Patterns
Concept
Estimated Number of Weeks:
Semester Course: 3 weeks
Year Course 6 weeks
Essential Questions
Pacing:
People, Places, Events, Terms
Land Use, Urban
Sprrawl
Where have urban areas grown? Where are people distributed within urban areas?
Why do inner cities have distinctive problems?
Why do suburbs have distinctive problems?
How have cities grown and developed?
Transportation
Why are there differences in levels of urbanization throughout the world?
Intelligent Transportation Systems
What do patterns in urban land use look like, and how do they compare to rural land use patterns?
Megacities, Waste
Management
How do urban places differ across the world?
What are modern trends in urban development?
Benchmarks
Sanitation, urbanization, ecotourism,
megalopolis, primate city, sprawl,
Urban renewal
Walter Christaller, Ernest Burgess
Activities (Teaching Resources)
Assessment
Trash Inc.
Department
Pinellas County Schools
2009
Grade Level 9-12
Course: World Geography
CURRICULUM MAP
2011-2012
Organizing Principle: The Future of Geography
Concept
Estimated Number of Weeks:
Semester Course: 1.5 weeks
Year Course 3 weeks
Essential Questions
Pacing:
People, Places, Events, Terms
Pollution, Resources
Why are resources being depleted?
Why are resources being polluted?
Why are resources being reusable?
Why can resources be conserved?
Where are the world’s resources located?
Greenbelts, Pollution,
Global Warming
How does climate change affect the planet?
Climate Change
Green Technology
Who are the biggest users of the world’s resources?
How do we generate/maintain sustainable resources?
How will geography help us to ensure the earth’s evolution?
Green Technology, Sustainable
development
Activities (Teaching Resources)
Department
Benchmarks
Assessment
Pinellas County Schools
2009