Nebraska

Students will develop and apply spatial perspective and geographic skills to make informed decisions regarding issues and current events at local, state, national and international levels.

• The World in Spatial Terms

  • SS 3.3.1 Students will explore where (spatial) and why people, places and environments are organized in the state.

    • SS 3.3.1.a Utilize map elements (i.e., title, scale, symbols, legend, and cardinal and intermediate directions)

      • Read a map: cardinal directions (3-A.3)

    • SS 3.3.1.b Apply map skills (e.g., identify location and distribution of physical and human features rivers/roads, identify relative and absolute locations, east/west, north/south, left/right, next to, identify cities and towns)

      • Read a map: cardinal directions (3-A.3)

    • SS 3.3.1.c Analyze why things are located where they are in the community (e.g., Why are stores located on main streets? Where is my house located compared to the school?)

    • SS 3.3.1.d Locate places on maps and globes (e.g., Missouri River, Platte, River, Rocky Mountains, Nebraska, the student's city)

      • Major U.S. cities (3-C.1)
      • Identify the 50 states (3-D.13)
      • Select the 50 states (3-D.14)
      • Name the 50 states (3-D.15)
      • Identify the 50 state capitals (3-E.9)
      • Name the 50 state capitals (3-E.10)

    • SS 3.3.1.e Identify the continents, oceans, and hemispheres

      • Identify oceans and continents (3-B.3)
      • Select oceans and continents (3-B.4)
      • Name oceans and continents (3-B.5)

• Places and Regions

  • SS 3.3.2 Students will compare the characteristics of places and regions.

    • SS 3.3.2.a Identify and differentiate between physical and human features of neighborhoods and communities (e.g., vegetation, housing, streets, business/ residential areas, hills, waterways)

    • SS 3.3.2.b Compare and contrast local places and regions with other places and regions (e.g., prairie and forest, local community with another community, products from Nebraska and another state, crops grown in Nebraska and another state)

      • Identify urban, suburban, and rural areas (3-C.2)
      • Compare urban, suburban, and rural areas (3-C.3)

    • SS 3.3.2.c Explain and give examples of how places and regions change over time

• Physical Systems

  • SS 3.3.3 Students will identify natural processes in their physical world.

    • SS 3.3.3.a Identify the Earth's physical processes in the local community (e.g., landforms, water, climate and weather, erosion and deposition)

    • SS 3.3.3.b Identify local ecosystems (e.g., forests, deserts, grasslands)

• Human Systems

  • SS 3.3.4 Students will compare and contrast the characteristics of culture locally.

    • SS 3.3.4.a Compare and contrast patterns of culture within your community (e.g., language, religion, food)

    • SS 3.3.4.b Compare and contrast the spread and diffusion of cultural traits (e.g., spread of ideas, languages, religions, people, goods, customs, traditions)

      • Christmas (3-J.1)
      • Día de los Muertos (3-J.2)
      • Easter (3-J.3)
      • Holi (3-J.4)
      • Hanukkah (3-J.5)
      • Kwanzaa (3-J.6)
      • Lunar New Year (3-J.7)
      • Ramadan (3-J.8)
      • Rosh Hashanah (3-J.9)

• Human/Environment Interaction

  • SS 3.3.5 Students will identify the relationship between humans and the physical environment.

    • SS 3.3.5.a Explain how physical environments influence human activities (e.g., availability of water, climate and fertility of soil)

    • SS 3.3.5.b Explain how human activities change Earth (e.g., agriculture, transportation, industry)

    • SS 3.3.5.c Explain the importance of Earth's natural resources (e.g., minerals, air, water, land)

    • SS 3.3.5.d Describe how humans develop communities in local settings (e.g., roads, landfills, sewage systems, land use patterns)

• Application of Geography to Issues and Events

  • SS 3.3.6 Students will use geographic skills to make connections to issues and events.

    • SS 3.3.6.a Identify and evaluate human adaptations to the environment from the local to international levels (e.g., How could the building of a highway bring more business to a community)

    • SS 3.3.6.b Identify how geography impacts spatial problem solving (e.g., a new school must be near large numbers of students, on available land with suitable soils, have access to roads and utilities, and not overlap schools in other neighborhoods; plan where things would be built in a city)