Dover Sherborn Middle School Curriculum Road Maps

Course Title: World Geography Grade: 7^th Grade

Unit: Northern Eurasia

Month Presented: May Unit Length: 2 weeks

Essential Question (s):

• What are some of the challenges facing the region since the collapse of the Soviet Union?
• What impact has its size had on Russia?
• What factors influence Northern Eurasia’s climate and vegetation?
• Since Russia is rich in natural resources, why aren’t many Russians rich?
• What were the political, economic, and social effects of communism?

Learning Objectives:

• Locate Northern Eurasia’s countries, major cities, and physical features.
• Describe and explain the pattern of population distribution in Northern Eurasia.
• Identify and locate the climate and vegetation regions of Eurasia.
• Explain how time zones were created and how they work.
• Explain the impact of Russia’s size and climate on its history.
• Describe the environmental problems involved in developing Russia’s resources.
• Identify the four regions of independent republics and describe the characteristics of each.
• Describe the economic and political system of communism.
• Compare and contrast the systems of communism and capitalism.
• Explain the difficulties/dangers of using nuclear energy and disposing of its waste.
• Detail the challenges facing the region since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Instructional Strategies and Activities:

• Creating graphic organizers to summarize the most important information about a country/region.
• Creating a history newspaper.
• Memorizing map location names.

Materials Utilized:

· Newspaper/magazine articles, internet, library resources