Through this activity, students will gain an understanding of the diversity between different geographical locations. Select two geographical locations to examine, the desert and the tundra, for example. Provide your students with resources that they can use to research the different climates, topography and animal life associated with each of the geographic locations. After collecting their data, invite the whole class to contribute in creating a Venn diagram that illustrates the comparison between the two geographic locations. Draw two intersecting circles and label each of the circles with one of the names of the locations that are being studied. Have students offer the information they've retrieved and write in the differences between the locations in the individual circles, and then write in the commonalities in the intersecting portion of the two circles. Discuss the similarities and differences between the locations and perhaps discuss how animals and plant life have adapted to these locations.
Encourage your students to research a particular geographic location and prompt them to use their research to compose a creative writing piece. Assign students different geographical locations to research: either countries, continents or ecosystems. Select locations that are much different from where they live. After conducting research, encourage children to write a creative piece, pretending that they live in the areas they are assigned. After composing their pieces, invite students to share what they have written with the class and have an open discussion about their pieces of literature.
Each of earth's geographic regions, or biomes, is unique in its own way and this activity encourages students to discover the uniqueness of each of these regions. Divide your class up into small groups and assign each group a particular biome to learn about: grassland, tundra, marine, woodlands and freshwater. Students should work together to find interesting facts about the features of the biomes they are assigned. Once they have gathered their information, groups can present what they have found and teach their classmates about the uniqueness of the earth's biomes.
America is coined the "melting pot" because it is made up of so many diverse cultures. Through this geography activity, students can find out what life was like in the places from which their ancestors originated. Ask students to identify their ancestry and encourage them to research the predominant culture, or each of the cultures associated with the geographical location that their ancestors hailed from. Students can make visual displays, such as family trees or maps of countries of origin, to highlight the places to which they trace their roots. Ask students to share the information that they have learned about their heritage and ask them how the geographical location contributed to the lifestyle of their ancestors.