Name
Date
HISTORY AND
LOOKING
AT THE
GEOGRAPHY
EARTH
ACTIVITIES
Class
GEOGRAPHY AND THE WORLD
Guided Reading Activity 1
Thinking Like a Geographer
DIRECTIONS: Reading for Accuracy Reading the section and completing the
activity below will help you learn more about thinking like a geographer. Use your
textbook to decide if a statement is true or false. Write T or F, and if a statement is
false, rewrite it correctly.
1. Geography is only the study of the earth’s land, water, plants, and animals.
2. Landforms are individual features of the land like mountains and valleys.
3. People do not have much impact on the environment.
SECTION
4. Geographers only look at individual cities and landforms.
1
5. Geographers use maps, globes, and computers to study people and places.
6. To accurately label exact locations on a map, geographers go to that specific
location.
8. Geography is not used very much any more.
9. Businesses never use geographic information.
10. Written records, artifacts, and fossils are other tools used by historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists to study the past.
40
Copyright © by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
7. Geographic information systems (GIS) help geographers gather many different
kinds of information about the same place.
Name
Date
Class
HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY ACTIVITIES
GEOGRAPHY
LOOKING
AND
AT THE
THE WORLD
EARTH
Guided Reading Activity 2
The Earth in Space
DIRECTIONS: Filling in the Blanks Reading the section and completing
the sentences below will help you learn more about Earth. Refer to your textbook
to fill in the blanks.
Earth, eight other planets, thousands of smaller bodies, and the
(1)
form the (2)
. The planets travel in paths called (3)
around the (4)
(5)
. The Earthlike planets are Mercury,
, Mars, and Pluto. They are solid and
with few or no (7)
.
The layer of air around the earth supports (8)
the (9)
and is called
. About 99 percent of the atmosphere is made of
nitrogen and (10)
.
The earth rotates on its (11)
Copyright © by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
(12)
and takes
hours to complete one spin. In the Northern Hemisphere,
on or about June 21 is the summer (13)
(14)
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2
(6)
, the day with the
hours of sunlight. The day of the year with the fewest
hours of sunlight occurs on the (15)
.
Spring and autumn begin when day and night are of (16)
length, which is called the (17)
.
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Name
Date
Class
HISTORY AND
LOOKING
AT THE
GEOGRAPHY
EARTH
ACTIVITIES
GEOGRAPHY AND THE WORLD
Guided Reading Activity 3
Forces Shaping the Earth
DIRECTIONS: Outlining Reading the section and completing the outline below
will help you learn more about the earth’s structure. Refer to your textbook to fill in
the blanks.
I. The inside of the earth has
A. The
layers.
is the center of the earth.
1. The very center is
.
2. The
is so hot that the metal is liquid.
B. The
surrounds the core.
1. The part nearest the core is
.
2. Sometimes the outer section
.
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3. The melted rock is called
C. The
when it flows out of a volcano.
layer of the earth is the
1. It includes the
.
floors.
3
2. It also includes seven massive land areas known as
.
II. Plate
A. A theory about the earth’s structure is called plate
B. The crust consists of plates, or
III. Movements of plates have
.
, that move.
the surface of the
.
.
B. If a continental plate and an ocean plate collide, this may cause a
.
C. When
causes one plate to move suddenly, an
occurs.
D. When plates move alongside each other, they create
IV.
is the process of breaking surface rock into boulders, gravel,
sand, and soil.
V.
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.
is the process of moving weathered material.
Copyright © by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
A. If two continental plates collide, they produce
Name
Date
Class
HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY ACTIVITIES
GEOGRAPHY
LOOKING
AND
AT THE
THE WORLD
EARTH
Guided Reading Activity 4
Landforms and Waterways
DIRECTIONS: Answering Questions Reading the section and answering the
questions below will help you learn about landforms and waterways. Refer to your
textbook to answer the questions.
1. Name the earth’s seven continents.
2. What are the differences among mountains, hills, plains, and plateaus?
SECTION
4
3. Contrast a peninsula and an isthmus.
4. What are valleys under the ocean called?
Copyright © by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
5. What are some reasons why people decide to live in a particular area?
6. How much of the earth’s surface is water?
7. What is the difference between a strait and a channel?
8. What is a delta?
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