There is no "place" like home

Social Studies Review, Spring 2003 by Sabato, George

There is no place like home-and Earth is our home in this magnificent and infinite universe. It is the concept of "home" I believe so important to emphasize when installing the love of geography in the hearts and minds of our youth. All geography is global, whether we are looking at the land that makes up our own back yards or if the homeland of people and wildlife on distant continents.

I begin my seventh grade world history and geography class with a unit that focuses on geography skills. The key to understanding the development of civilization across the planet is recognizing that no development would have taken place without the site having the means to support human life. This is true for the past, present and for the future. I like to start with a focus on the present since that is the most tangible geography to children. We take time to examine how people in the past took a wilderness and developed it into a state of civilization. We look at the support system in place today and contemplate the impact of our actions today on the generations of tomorrow.

Two highways cross our town of Placerville. Highway 50 brings people in from the east and west, and historic Highway 49 courses people north and south. There was an indigenous population in our area, the Miwok and Maidu people. They found the Sierra foothill climate favorable and the land gave them the game and plant life necessary to sustain their lives. When students examine our town's exact location, they discover two key elements that bring settlement to our site. It was the natural recourse, gold, that brought the first settlers in the Gold Rush era, followed by those who found the value in the agriculture and forests. They see how the settlers picked a location rich with that resource ever vital to life, the water found in Hangtown Creek. The residents had commodities they could use or trade with others to meet their survival needs.

The pinpoint location of our town is then fixed at a location where the two trade routes intersect. As we look closer at our town we find the population in our county primarily focuses within a reasonable commute to downtown trade centers where people can obtain the necessities of life in local stores. We see pockets of development everywhere our highway intersects with other main roads. Every freeway intersection boasts the inevitable grocery stores, drug stores, restaurants, car dealerships, department stores, and gas stations. This trade center becomes the focal point of local government. The pattern we see in our own community forms a model for viewing the development of civilization in other times and places. How we develop our communities today is but a mirror reflection of what man has done in the past. We can look at what we do today and learn from our success and the error of our ways.

The skills of reading maps are universal, from local maps to world maps. I like to start with sets of local maps to pique student interest while demonstrating the need for learning symbol interpretation, reading legend and scale and using indexes and grid patterns to locate places on the map. I move from the local map to maps of California. (I must thank Automobile Association of America (AAA) for donating a class set-which I laminated) We can quickly see that the pattern of development we noticed in our town is reiterated across the map of California. The maps reveal highway crossing with trade centers (towns) at their intersection. We see cities arise where there is a safe and ready source of water. We see highways connecting areas with diverse resources facilitating healthy trade as well as development at locations with suitable climate. We begin to make the connection with development across the country, and the world.

I like to use the on-line site, Microsoft Terra Server.com to give the class a unique view of their town and state. This site allows you to input a location and it will give you either aerial pictures or maps of the locality. The interactive maps allow you to zoom in and out. We can "hover over Placerville" (http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/place.aspx ) and move in close to our school site or students individual neighborhoods and homes. We can view the town center and "spy" the development along the highways. With the flip of a toggle, we have it converted to physical maps. The software application is a perfect blend of traditional mapping techniques and modern technology. Students connect that sense of local geography to the bigger picture provided by the satellites hovering over our earth.

At this point students are intrigued to ply into their textbooks and find the world atlas. They see their "home" in North America and reach out with their fingers to turn the pages and examine the regional maps. They see the dots representing the cities and know that those "home towns" have something in common with their hometown.

Then they flip into the interior of their textbooks and notice how the maps are supporting the presentation of the development of civilization in cultures of long ago across the planet. They are ready to take a closer look having a sense that there is a common heritage and a common bond.