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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Rail traffic controller

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/11/g35/rail.html

A lesson plan for grade 6 Social Studies

Provider: National Geographic


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In this Xpeditions lesson, students use the Rail Traffic Controller online exhibit to explore countries of origin for items imported to specific countries in Europe. Activities in this lesson engage students in cooperative group work, online learning, and development of map-reading skills.

Students will:

  • read the Rail Traffic Controller exhibit and map the progress of imported items;
  • create symbols for imported items;
  • customize a map by creating unique lines to represent trade networks;
  • create a legend for a map created by another classmate; and
  • research economic information about another country and record the data.

Xpeditions provides detailed directions for completing the lesson, suggestions for assessment and extension activities, discussion questions, and links to helpful web resources.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

Social Studies (2003)

Grade 6

  • Goal 1: The learner will use the five themes of geography and geographic tools to answer geographic questions and analyze geographic concepts.
    • Objective 1.01: Create maps, charts, graphs, databases, and models as tools to illustrate information about different people, places and regions in South America and Europe.
    • Objective 1.02: Generate, interpret, and manipulate information from tools such as maps, globes,charts, graphs, databases, and models to pose and answer questions about space and place, environment and society, and spatial dynamics and connections.
    • Objective 1.03: Use tools such as maps, globes, graphs, charts, databases, models, and artifacts to compare data on different countries of South America and Europe and to identify patterns as well as similarities and differences among them.
  • Goal 4: The learner will identify significant patterns in the movement of people, goods and ideas over time and place in South America and Europe.
    • Objective 4.02: Identify the main commodities of trade over time in selected areas of South America and Europe, and evaluate their significance for the economic, political and social development of cultures and regions.
  • Goal 5: The learner will evaluate the ways people of South America and Europe make decisions about the allocation and use of economic resources.
    • Objective 5.04: Describe the relationship between specialization and interdependence, and analyze its influence on the development of regional and global trade patterns.